Comments for Open The Echo Chamber

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 4: The future is already being fed by Ed

Ed — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:52:23 +0000

I have seen the climate analogues stuff – I work with CCAFS on some climate services stuff. I think it is a very interesting approach for thinking about future conditions, vulnerabilities, and needs. Way better than the usual exposure-driven “it will be drier/wetter/hotter/whatever, so you all are screwed!” approach…

The local indicators idea is exactly the same as one I am pushing now – I would like to map as many indicators as possible, and then engage appropriate experts to identify their biological thresholds to see if we can’t get a sense of when they will cease to function as they do today. This could help us understand when we will actually need detailed climate and weather information to replace existing sources of information…

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 4: The future is already being fed by Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:57:57 +0000

Very interesting perpective. You may know of the Seeds fo Needs projects of the CCAFS CGIAR Research Program. that uses climate analogues to preselect crop varieties from places that are experiencing today climate regimes predicted for other places in future.

I wonder wether there may also be scope for crowdsourcing local indicators that could be adapted to different places to cope with their future climate.

Comment on About by There is no global crisis of food production | Science on the Land

There is no global crisis of food production | Science on the Land — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:52:52 +0000

[...] Carr at Open the Echo Chamber says, ‘There is no global crisis of food production.’ He tells us to stop thinking [...]

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 3: Create exit points by Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 4: The future is already being fed « Open The Echo Chamber

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:18:58 +0000

[...] stave off catastrophe. But given the absence of safety nets in most places in the Global South (see Theme 3, points 2 and 3), and the limited access so many farmers have to inputs and irrigation, avoiding catastrophe is an [...]

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 3: Create exit points by Market failure

Market failure — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:01:12 +0000

[...] Carr’s continuing series on Doing Food Security Differently comes to a real fork in the road. Over and over again, one hears economists say that we have to [...]

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 3: Create exit points by Marci

Marci — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 06:50:43 +0000

So again I’m working from the context of India, which seems to be very different from Africa, and the interesting thing here is that the state provides minimum price supports for wheat and rice. So farmers usually grown high yielding wheat and rice crops that they sell to the state, and some food crops for themselves. In some ways, the effects of this policy are worse than the effects of globalization. The state doesn’t have any incentives to improve market access to farmers, who in more rural areas, end up selling their crops to traders for less than the MSP. It also encourages farmers to grow one crop, regardless of quality/nutrition aspects. I’m trying to wrap my head around all of this, it’s pretty intense! I think it will be very, very interesting when Walmart comes to India (due to recent allowances of foreign investment, this might happen soon).

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 1: Get over production by Marci

Marci — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 06:37:14 +0000

Yes I’ve heard of his work before, I’ll check it out. Your comment about extension is interesting too; something I’ll keep in mind.

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 3: Create exit points by Jeremy

Jeremy — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:12:29 +0000

There’s another element besides not being able to afford replacement food when things turn against the crops you’re growing: nutrition. Quite often farmers who have gone over to growing for the market can buy the calories, but not the overall nutrition. I’ve seen evidence of this among Indians growing cassava for processing and among Bolivians growing quinoa for export, and I am sure it happens elsewhere too.

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 1: Get over production by Ed

Ed — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:07:49 +0000

Hi Marci:

Hope the fieldwork is going well! Your comment is interesting, especially as I think the issues vary by context. Extension is nearly nonexistent in some places I have worked, and remarkably good in others…but that does not seem to be determinate of food outcomes in either. As you note parenthetically, there are always other factors at play. SO a monomaniacal drive to more production doesn’t make much sense-but then, any monomaniacal solution won’t make sense.

Incidentally, are you familiar with Trevor Birkenholtz’s (Rutgers Geography) work on irrigation and agriculture in India? He has some very interesting social context for technology uptake stuff in there…

Comment on Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 2: Embrace complexity by Doing Food Security Differently – Theme 3: Create exit points « Open The Echo Chamber

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:00:00 +0000

[...] development there is a tendency to see market integration as a panacea for problems of hunger (see Theme 2, point 4). There is ample evidence that market integration creates opportunities for farmers by connecting [...]