Emerging Rural Farm - Nonfarm Conflicts : Whose Preferences Count ?

Luanne Lohr and Lynn R. Harvey Michigan State University Conflict over property rights is certainly not a new topic. Conflicts arise because individuals or groups expressing different preferences claim rights to the same good, whether that good be an acre of land or a cubic foot of air. The agricultural sector, once the basis for the dominant lifestyle in the United States, has more recently clashed with suburban interests over issues of appropriate rural resource use. When the policy process fails to address the underlying sources of conflict, the question of whose preferences count may be answered in a nonparticipatory setting that fails to resolve the issue.