The Economic Way of Thinking 13th Edition by David Prychitko, Peter Boettke, Paul Heyne

Exercise 9

Grain farmers have many options when it comes to preparing the soil. They can plow and then thoroughly harrow a field before planting, they can practice minimum tillage, or they can go so far as to plant without preparing the ground at all. Heavy tilling buries and thus kills weeds and insects. No-till farming requires careful and extensive use of herbicides and pesticides and also produces slightly lower yields. Explain how each of the following will affect the relative efficiency of maximum tillage and no-till farming:
(a) Higher prices for diesel fuel.
(b) Improved herbicides and pesticides.
(c) Tougher government controls on stream and lake pollution caused by chemicals used in agriculture. ( Note : Untilled ground is more likely to retain the chemicals put into it.)
(d) Farmers adopt the same attitude toward their fields that some suburban homeowners have toward their lawns: They find satisfaction in looking at a broad, well-tended expanse of land.
(e) Higher prices for land.