A Degradation

Today, the American government owns a growing 53% of the nation’s landmass, over 50% of the California coastline, and much of Santa Cruz County. Most of this land is wild. Its ecological condition is degrading while human conflict over its use is rising.

This degradation is occurring as the United Nations rapidly advances its biodiversity-based "Agenda 21" in the United States. Cloaked in terms of "sustainable development" and "smart growth," Agenda 21 seeks to change America and de-industrialize the world. It plans to reach these goals o­n several fronts: by ending commercial agriculture, creating broad wildlife corridors void of human activity, determining where and how people live, controlling human reproduction and human movement, constraining and controlling energy consumption and water use—in short, by eliminating private property.

All of us should be concerned about these developments. Just as the environment at Liberty Garden represents a complex interplay of plants and animals, soil and water, natural processes and human interventions, our liberty involves the complex interplay of our natural rights, both personal and economic, and our interactions with o­ne another and with our government. At the heart of our individual liberty lies the institution of private property. If the ideals of private property erode away, our personal liberty will wither and die as surely as Liberty Garden would die without wind, rain, and human tending. In what follows, I want to explain why private property is the precious basis of the freedoms we enjoy and why it is worth protecting.

Next. . .