Word: ruralism
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...Celebration last fall also featured a session on “Sustainable Food,” timely in 2008 because a sudden increase in international food prices had pushed 100 million more people around the world into hunger, on top of the 850 million others–mostly in rural South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa–who were already suffering from chronic malnutrition before prices went up. Yet none of the invited speakers at Harvard’s session on food had much interest in this larger problem, or any academic standing to address...
...take these ideas seriously for the moment, what might a fully organic, local, and slow food system actually look like? The closest approximation we have is not New York City or Berkeley, California, but rural Africa, where 60 percent of all citizens are small farmers growing food without chemicals, for local consumption, and still preparing meals in a traditional fashion. The downside? Average income in rural Africa is only $1 a day and one third of these people are malnourished...
...Virtually all food in rural Africa today is de facto organic, because small farmers there cannot afford to purchase any nitrogen fertilizer. Fertilizer use per hectare in Africa is only 1/10 as high as in Europe or North America, causing crop yields per hectare to be only 1/5 as high as their Northern counterparts. Total production level has been declining on a per capita basis for the past three decades...
...good news is that Indian voters are starting to raise their expectations. In rural West Bengal last fall, I met a man whose biggest complaint was that his village had no electricity. His children had no light to study under in the evenings, and he had to buy expensive diesel for a generator to charge his mobile phone. He wasn't simply deprived; he was angry because he knew exactly what he was missing. Cell phones and cable television have brought not just political advertising to poor and rural areas but also new aspirations and a more acute awareness...
...support for renewable energy: "I think we need a new 'Apollo project' - this time to fundamentally change our energy policy and end our reliance on foreign oil." But Franken will also be representing Minnesota: his website lists much longer and more detailed positions on agriculture. In the House, the rural caucus - big supporters of ethanol - was among the measure's biggest hurdles, and Franken is a big ethanol devotee. Though he has not made his position known on the climate-change bill, he is perceived as being a likely vote in favor. "Franken would help provide strong support...