WSJ: UN Expert Says No New Green Revolution

WSJ (4.00 / 1)

I notice the reporter's use of the 70% increase number. Yay!

Experts agree that finding ways to boost the output of Africa's 80 million smallholder farmers will be crucial.

versus

Many argue that genetically modified crops and more powerful technology...is the way forward.

Those two statements are incompatible. The methods of the last century require replacing the 80 million smallholders, thereby impoverishing them, with 80,000 largeholders who then proceed to feed the affluent. Isn't that at long last obvious?

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by: count @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 02:05:50 AM UTC

organic apples (4.00 / 1)

FAO isn't actually reading from organic scripture, is it? Don't they just aspire to reduced chemical use?

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by: count @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 02:13:12 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Seems to me that the FAO and the Special Rapporteur (4.00 / 2)

aren't exactly on the same page.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 02:58:01 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I misspoke. (4.00 / 1)

I erred badly. Of course FAO isn't in the organic bucket, but is de Shutter? I don't think so.

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by: count @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 03:01:33 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I think De Schutter simply wants (4.00 / 2)

whatever will help feed people, period. He doesn't have an agenda other than that.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 06:05:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Actually (4.00 / 1)

I think that the 80,000 large holders to feed the affluent is a bit off the mark. That would  be more like 5,000-10,000 large holders to feed everyone after they've moved to the cities and staffed all the industry that's a sign of 'progress'. Seems a country isn't really in the first world unless 80%-90% of it's population is crammed into cities working in hospitality, IT or manufactureing. That's a big reason why the developed countries push industrialisation in agriculture so much. If everyone is working on smallholder farms who's going to staff the factories that make the cheap sneakers and IPhones that we all enjoy?

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 16:42:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

That was true (4.00 / 1)

once upon a time in some places, beginning in England in about 1750, and it has been national policy in the U.S. It still is true to some extent, but farmers also are displaced for other reasons including corporate greed, and the slums in Caracas, Nairobi, Calcutta, Mexico City..., tell us that many displaced people end up scratching through landfills to make a living instead of taking jobs in factories or offices.

The numbers, I don't know. 80,000 was arbitrary (0.1%).

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by: count @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 19:07:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

remarks revised and extended (4.00 / 1)

Migration is another aspect of sacrificing small farmers on the altar of corporate greed. The underlying premise of globalization is the unrestricted flow of money and goods. I don't see how responsible(?) people (politicians) can advocate for the free migration of money and goods without understanding that the migration of people is an integral consequence, but they act as if they don't understand.

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by: count @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 19:27:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I think that one of the drivers of this (4.00 / 1)

is the attitude of many that it would be so much better for people to 'get off the farm' and into a 'better paying job'. Which of course supports everything you mention in your two comments.

A lot of this, at least in my opinion, has to do with other people trying to decide what's 'best' for people they know little or nothing about.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 20:19:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I see what you did there... (4.00 / 2)

How do you like them organic apples, Bill Gates?

;)

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 04:31:01 AM UTC

Jill failed. (4.00 / 2)

Actually, Jill did not fail. I thought she did for a while, though - I got nearly to the end of 200 comments in Jill's DKos diary before mem chimed in.

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by: count @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 06:23:27 AM UTC

Heh heh... (4.00 / 2)

You know how, in comic books, when Batman or somebody hits the bad guy it's like "Ka-POW!  Blooey!"?  That's what I heard when Jill responded.

I've been wondering whether she was unbelievably ignorant of, or (more likely) just hoping nobody would call her out on, the fact that "choice" doesn't quite apply in this case to the extent that rural subsistence farmers in Bolivia don't exactly begin with the same structural and societal advantages enjoyed by, say, suburbanites in the Boston area. ;)

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 06:38:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

you know for once (4.00 / 2)

Mem was kind of civil. she asked for De Schutter's EXACT and UNEDITED quote on GMOs, which I gave her. So then she asked about fertilizer. I just gave her that too. And noted that I've softened my view somewhat about fertilizer. A little. But it's not a replacement for a larger agroecological strategy. You guys might like reading De Schutter's full responses. His response on the free trade issue was just outstanding but it was very long and detailed and I was never able to fully use it.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 07:19:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

How? (4.00 / 1)

You guys might like reading De Schutter's full responses.

Will we be able to do that?

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by: count @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 08:09:37 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Alternet (4.00 / 1)

Jill's AlterNet article is up.

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by: count @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 08:42:55 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

asterisk (4.00 / 2)

civil after being entirely rude at first.  

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 07:19:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]