This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Catherine Kling, who, among her many titles, is a Tisch University professor at Cornell University and a member of RFF's Board of Directors. They talk about a recent op-ed that Kling published in the New York Times, called “Polluting Farmers Should Pay,” which focuses on nutrient runoff from agricultural land and how the runoff contributes to harmful algae blooms across the United States. They also talk about potential options for federal and state policies to address this problem, as well as Kling's early work on developing a social cost of water pollution.

References and recommendations:

“Polluting Farmers Should Pay” by Catherine Kling; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/opinion/water-quality-agriculture.html

"Lake Michigan has become much clearer in 20 years, but at great cost"; https://phys.org/news/2018-01-lake-michigan-clearer-years-great.html

"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver; https://onbeing.org/blog/mary-oliver-reads-wild-geese/

"Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter" by Ben Goldfarb; https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/eager-paperback/