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10 The north Star Monthly March 2006$Follow the Money“a carrot (genetically engineeredor organic) is BetterThan a Stick”Farmers who wish to use geneticallyengineered (GE) seedsfeel that ownership of their landgives them the right to use it asthey see fit and to plant on it whatthey will. Those who feel that GEseeds are harmful, or may yet beproved harmful, feel that thatharm cannot be limited to usersand their lands, and thus useshould be curtailed. In otherwords, some think that protectingpassive bystanders from spillovereffects should trump the absoluterights of ownership, and some donot.In economics, the spillovereffect is called an externality, aconsequence of trade that affectsneither buyer nor seller, but someunrelated, third party. The trade isbetween the buyers (farmers) andsellers (seed manufacturers) ofseed. The buyer and seller bothbelieve that the benefits fromtrade are greater than its costs (orthere would be no trade). If the useof the seeds negatively affectsneighboring crops or farms, thoseShellie BeauparlantInvestment Representativeby Rachel Siegelbystanders receive no benefit butbear a cost. The externality isborne by the bystander.Externalities are a tough problemin a market-based economy,because the creation of externalitiestakes place beyond the contextof the usual market incentives.Externalities are costs that areimposed upon those who do notdecide on the trade and who donot benefit from it, and who, ofcourse, want it stopped. There isno market incentive to stop, however,because neither of the tradersis bearing that cost. In fact, bothtraders are benefiting from thetrade and therefore want it to continue.Externalities happenbeyond the reach of Adam Smith’sfamous “invisible hand,” themetaphor for market incentives.Historically, we have wrestledwith externalities – air pollution,water pollution, second-handsmoke, to name a few – in one oftwo ways: legally or economically.Typically, the slighted bearersof the externality seek legalrecourse to stop it (as well as tocollect damages), as there is seeminglyno market incentive to provideassistance. This has been(802) 748-5845576 Railroad StreetSuite 1St. Johnsbury VT 05819 Toll Free: (877) 748-5845MICHAEL K. WALSH & SON, BuildersNew Construction w Remodeling w RenovationsFinish Work w Decks wWallpapering w etc.w Call Now for Spring ProjectsSolid reputation of quality workmanship,reasonable rates and dependabilitydone many times before, but it hasnever been entirely successfulbecause legal remedies are usuallymuch less compelling than marketincentives (which is why we stillhave crimes like theft).If we want manufacturersto sellless and farmers toplant less geneticallyengineeredseed, we need tocreate marketincentives not justpunishments thatare bound to becostly and difficultto enforce.The threat of damages usuallydoes not discourage producers,and the costly process of pursuinga case discourages manyclaimants. Legal remedies areoften impractical and always costly,requiring enforcement andadjudication, which are, necessarilyperhaps, costly and flawedprocesses.More recently, we have triedto approach externalities by creatingeconomic incentives wherethey had not existed. This hasworked well with air pollution, forexample, in the curtailing of sulfurdioxide emissions (the smoke thatis created by coal fired electricgenerators that causes acid rain).Government enforcement of antipollutionlaws proved ineffective– and costly for both the governmentand the generators. So wecreated market incentives, in theform of tradable emissions contracts,that provided an incentive –profit from the trade of the contracts– to individual generators toproduce less pollution.Legal approaches to controllingthe creation of externalitiesrarely work as well as economicapproaches, because markets havea force of their own. If there issupply and demand and profit, amarket will exist within or withoutthe law. It may be costly to evadethe law, but if those costs are lessthan the gains from trade, therewill be a market. If farmers stillwant the seeds, chances are manufacturerswill somehow sell seedsto them.Using a legal remedy to add tothe cost – and so decrease theprofit – of supplying GE seed maynot shrink the market so much asdrive it underground (pun intended),creating the worst outcomefor the opponents of GE seed use:a black market in GE seeds. Thecost of proving legal liability forharm caused by the sale and use ofa product that buyers and sellersdeny would be prohibitive forplaintiffs or for the state and thereforeessentially unenforceable.If we want manufacturers tosell less GE seed, and farmers toplant less GE seed, (which isanother debate for another day)we need to create market incentivesfor them to do so, not justpunishments that are bound to becostly and difficult to enforce.Otherwise, we may simply pushthem beyond the reach of both theinvisible hand of the markets andthe long arm of the law.rachel S. Siegel, CFA, consultson investment portfolio performanceand strategy, and onaccounting and tax dilemmas. Shehas an MBA from Yale; she is aprofessor in the business administrationdepartment at LyndonState College.Peter Miles Exhibits Work at Artisan’s GuildPeter Miles’ exhibition ofpaintings and sculpture, entitled“Crossing Jack Brook,” is on displayat the Northeast KingdomArtisans’ Guild BackroomGallery in St. Johnsbury.Miles’ home and studio are inBurke Hollow. When askedabout his art education, Milescredits his late uncle, TomBostelle, a West Chester, PAartist, describing him as a mentor,friend and confidante. Bothartists’ use of shadow andabstraction point to a shared aesthetic.Jokingly, Miles explainshow his paintings “morph” as hecontinues to work on them, referringto the process of each piecegoing through many stages as heremoves unnecessary elements.He knows it’s finished, he says,“when it meets all of the prioritiesof a painting- a pure symphonyof thought, feeling andidea.”While Bostelle’s works wereinfluenced by war experiences,Miles’ paintings are inspired byfriends. Crossing Jack Brook, alarge canvas, was inspired bywatching his long-time friendand fellow artist, Elin Paulson, asshe crossed a brook on her propertyin East Haven. For Miles itevokes the feeling of “transience.”A Night at the dixie Hotel, atall abstract work of diaphanouspink figures was inspired bymemories of a Wyoming brothelwhen he was 18. Another,deborah’s rock, is so-named foran Indian maiden diving from arock, the notion of a lover’s leap.A small girl jumping in theleaves, Leaf Hopper, is“Bostellian” in style, paint onplywood board, the figures: simple,one-dimensional and powerful.The show will run throughMarch 31. Gallery hours are10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Tuesdaythrough Saturday and 11:00 a.m.to 4:00 p.m. on Monday.Over 25 years of experience (802) 684-3977 Danville, VT198 Eastern Avenue v St. Johnsbury, vT 05819(802) 748-4852 / (800) 838-4327Hours: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 9-4
Up on the Farm EarlyLorna QuimbyOn stormy days in winter orduring rainy spells in summer,when Deedee and I tired ofworking in our scrapbooks orplaying paper dolls, we’d look atphotograph albums. There beforeour eyes passed the history of ourfamily.In their wedding picture, Dadand Maw looked soberly at thecamera. How young they lookedand how strangely dressed. Theystood each side of Great-Grandma Helen, who was wearinga long black dress. The picturewas black and white, butsomehow we knew the dress wasblack. There, in a train station,was Dad and another woman,turning to look at the photographer.There was our house withoutany porch swing. There wasa picture of Grampa Field, halfof him showing on one side of aporch pillar and his bearded profileon the other. “You neverknew him,” Maw said. “He diedthe year you came to town.”There were the Big Girls,amazingly little girls, in matchingdresses, matching bloomers,playing with huge pumpkins, and— fie on them — crouched barenaked on the shore of Martin’sPond. These pictures interestedus more than the older albumswe looked at when we were atGar’s.Gar’s albums had brasshooks that locked the coverstogether. People dressed in oldfashioned clothes stared solemnlyat us. One woman had a longcurl thrown over one shoulder.There was a picture of Great-Grandma Helen with her armaround Gar, then a little girl.There were portraits of theSherburnes, who lived “way outwest.”How pretty Aunt Jenny wasas a young woman. No wonderCharlie Williams wanted marryher, though she was only 16. ButThe PhotographAlbums -There before oureyes passed thehistory of ourfamily.these people were too far back intime for us to feel much connection.The photographs in Maw’salbums were about the family weknew: Aunt Bertha and UncleCharlie, Aunt Flora and UncleFred, Aunt Gladys and UncleArthur, Great-aunt Jenny and hersecond husband, Alvin Demmon,at their Florida “cottage,” andGreat-aunt Etta, whose letterscame from California.Maw and Dad’s wedding picture,the photos of Dad andKatherine Hooker, and GreatauntsJenny and Etta were takenby someone else, but many of thephotographs Maw took with herBrownie camera. How, I wondered,could it be a “Brownie”when the case was black? Wegirls mustn’t touch Maw’s camera.She stored it in her room,underneath a pile of mending orbehind the bottles of lotion, perfumeor what-have-you on herbureau. She knew just where toput her hands on her camera.She tried to keep her room freefrom our meddling fingers.For her Brownie cameras,Maw bought a roll of film. Shewould buy only one, Kodak, ofcourse. She would then load thefilm. Maw was “all thumbs”when she dealt with thingsmechanical. Most of the timeshe left any such work to one ofus girls. But she knew how tomanage her camera. Sheunlatched two clips on the bodyof the camera, then took out theinner section. She placed thefilm in its holder, threaded it overthe inner section and through aslot in a reel on the side oppositethe film. She slid the inner sectionback into the outer case,latched the clips, advanced thefilm, and was ready to shoot.There were no f stops, noshutter speed and no flash attachment.When Maw took a pictureof one of her babies, the infant inquestion had to be outside in thesunlight. So there are many photos,taken in winter, of Dad holdinga blanket-wrapped infant,hardly discernable under all thewrappings. After Maw had takenthe proper number of shots, sheturned a little crank and finishedrolling the film.In a dark place (under a blanketor in a closet—“And don’tyou dare interrupt!”) she openedthe case and removed the film.She sent away the film in a thickbuff envelope, check enclosedfor a print of each exposure. In ashort time when you consider wewere on the RFD and the filmhad to be developed and printed,back came the photographs, withthe negatives, ready to be mountedin an album.Maw’s albums, approximatelyseven by ten and three-quarterinches, had imitation leather coversand black pages. Maw putmounting corners on the photographsand licked the adhesivebacking. Then she stuck thephotos on the page. Maw filledshoe or stationery boxes with thebuff envelopes, in which shesaved the negatives. Unmountedphotographs, waiting for Maw to“get around to” them, filled otherboxes.Whether Maw had herBrownie when she married Dador bought it shortly thereafter, noone knows. With her camera, sherecorded house and barn, thegrowth of their herd, the adventand growth of their daughters,houses in the neighborhood thatare gone. The photographs werenot always centered, sometimesthe peak of roof lines were cutThe north Star Monthly March 2006 11off or everything tilted at anangle. But what a story they tell!After Dad’s death, Mawmoved photographs from onealbum to another. Instead of cornerstickers, she glued the pictureon the page. Some pictures shelabeled, but others she did not.And the picture of Dad andKatherine Hooker is missing.ice fishingGet your auger, grab your gear.The time for ice fishing now is here.Out on the ice not far from shoreWith many holes yet to bore,You start in shallow and out to the deepHoping to find some fish to keep.Out on the ice are lots of tracksLeading to many fishing shacks.There’s jig sticks, tip ups and many moreDotting the ice from shore to shore.When there’s a flag and you pull it outOn the end of the line there may be a trout.Others have jig sticks in their hand,Hoping to put fresh fish in the pan.When ’tis over, it’s always a treatTo have a meal of fresh fish to eat.R. M. QuimbyPeacham libraryMonday, Wednesday,friday and Saturday10:00 a.m. - noonTuesday and Thursday1:00 - 7:00 p.m.Dr. Mark A. LeipertDr. Richard LevenDr. Stephen FeltusDr. Rebecca HoganPeter Boyle, OpticianThinkSpringSPECIAL25% off all non-prescriptionsunglasses in-stock (excluding Oakley)WE HAVE IT ALL
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March - The North Star Monthly

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