In Pursuit of the Commons: Toward a Farmland Protection Strategy for the Midwest

Abstract

"I come to this topic as an economist, but as one in search of conceptual tools from elsewhere in the social sciences that may have utility in understanding the issues at hand. My approach will be to sketch out some of the facts of farmland use in the United States and selected Midwestern states including Illinois, review the role of markets in allocating rights to land and the place of policy in those markets, develop the notion of 'the commons' in farmland use and a possible role for the public trust doctrine, and conclude with brief recommendations for the states of the Midwest."