Farms, their environmental harms, and environmental law

Farms are one of the last uncharted frontiers of environmental regulation i n the United States. Despite the substantial environmental harms they cause - habitat loss and degradation, soil erosion and sedimentation, water resou rces depletion, soil and water salinization, agrochemical releases, animal wastes, nonpoint source water pollution, and air pollution- environmental l aw has given them a virtual license to do so. When combined, the active and passive safe harbors farms enjoy in most environmental laws amount to an " anti-law" that finds no rational basis given the magnitude of harms farms c ause. This Article comprehensively documents the environmental harms farms cause and the safe harbors they enjoy in environmental law, then argues for a core federal statute that blends regulation, information, tax, incentive , and trading instruments to address several of the major sources of harm T his Article shows that conventional prescriptive regulation simply will not effectively fit the geographic, economic and political demographics of far ms, but that the proposed blend of instruments could achieve significant ga ins in fanning's environmental performance without excessive administrative or compliance complexities and costs.