Whale quotas: A market-based solution to the whaling controversy

I. INTRODUCTION

Assume that over the next fifty years, the population of the world becomes eighty-five percent Hindu, a religion that holds the cow sacred. In an effort to protect cows from slaughter and consumption, a new International Bovine Commission calls for a moratorium on the slaughter of cows, even though cows are not endangered species. Certain exceptions to the moratorium are made to numerous indigenous groups throughout the world for whom killing cows is an integral part of their culture. The United States, along with the few remaining beef-eating countries, vehemently protests this moratorium as unjustified cultural imperialism. The United States has three central claims: 1) cattle farming has been central to American culture; 2) beef has been central to the American diet for hundreds of years; and 3) the discontinuation of this practice would have severe detrimental effects. The Commission, however, continually refuses the United States' requests for an exception to the moratorium, deeming cattle farming not to be sufficiently integral to American culture. As a result of its failure to obey the moratorium, the United States is condemned by the Hindu countries of the world. Moreover, many of these countries threaten to institute trade sanctions in an attempt to force the United States to comply with the moratorium.