My Beauty Best Teacher

Roger Thurow writes in the WSJ about the promise and growing interest in African Agriculture:

If agriculture has a final frontier, it is Africa. After agriculture transformations in Asia and Latin America since the 1960s, Africa remains the one place where the farming potential has barely been scratched. African agriculture has less irrigation, less fertilizer use, less soil and seed research, less mechanization, less rural financing, fewer paved farm-to-market roads than any other farming region in the world. Conflict in many parts of the continent has chased farmers out of their fields, and neglect by both local governments and international development experts have let Africa's agriculture infrastructure fall into dire disrepair.

Sithembile Ndema writing in the Guardian:

...After years of neglect, agriculture must again be recognised as a fundamental driver of economic growth. Some 60% of Africans rely on agriculture for their livelihood, four-fifths of whom are women. And throughout sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture is a key source of foreign exchange (for example, about 80% of Malawi's foreign exchange comes from agricultural exports)...African farmers must be able to access the knowledge and tools they need to unleash agriculture's full potential for the continent. Existing knowledge must reach more farmers, new research must focus on Africa-specific solutions and progressive policies must support infrastructure and education programmes to build capacity.

This is Africa reports on the drivers behind Brazilian-African agriculture cooperation:

“We have domesticated tropical agriculture. So we can now really partner with African countries… research and development is no panacea, but is very important for development, and Embrapa has a lot of knowledge on tropical agriculture. There are many similarities between Brazil and Africa in terms of ecosystems and challenges,” he adds(Pedro Arraes, the president of Embrapa).Embrapa is today considered to be a global leader in tropical agricultural research, and Brazil has developed technologies and machinery specifically suited to a tropical climate. All of this, Mr Arraes and Mr Tarragô argue, makes Brazil an ideal partner for Africa.

Image via WikipediaFood and Water Watch writes:

The risks to Africa of fully adopting industrial agriculture in general and GM seeds in particular include:

* transferring its food and farming decisions –– its food sovereignty –– to global corporations,
* losing ecological and agricultural diversity as genetically modified crop varieties spread through pollen contamination, and
* driving small- and medium-scale family farmers off their land because they cannot afford the expensive inputs, including genetically modified seeds, that industrial agriculture demands...[continue reading]

According to the AP, President Barack Obama's new chief of staff William Daley respond to the proposal from congressional Republicans to cut $55 billion from the federal budget by going on CBS' 'Face the Nation' and asking the "Where's the beef?" He then elaborated that he is very curious to see exactly where those cuts will come from, implying that Republicans are playing the same sort of game that Obama plays often where he makes vague statements with no details to back them up. Both President of the United States Barack Obama (Democrat) and him apparently can't find the details for these cuts and so think that this is some sort of trick.

This is really sad, because I opened up internet explorer, went to google, searched 'details of gop plan', and the very first site that was listed was "A Roadmap for America's Future: The Budget Committee Republicans," which links to the GOP's detailed plans to cut $55 billion from the federal budget. That I was able to find the details to the plan so easily and yet the President of the United States and his chief of staff were not able to speaks to one of two things- one, they're all incompetent idiots who lack basic computer and research skills because they are all stuck in the pre-internet past, or two, they are disingenuous liars who are knowingly trying to scam and fool the American people because they know they are not decent or honest or truthful people so they can't find any refuge there.

Daley is thus either an incompetent idiot or a disingenuous liar- either way, the fact that he was chosen to be the main advisor to our President speaks to the kind of people that our President has chosen to surround himself with.

In case Obama or Daley ever do figure out how to use the internet and read by blog, I'll help them out by putting the apparently hard to find information on where 'the beef' is below:

• LEGISLATIVE BRANCH...............................$1,283,000,000. (23%)
• Notes: The Government Printing Office is abolished.
• JUDICIAL BRANCH......................................$2,434,000,000. (32%)
• AGRICULTURE............................................$42,542,000,000. (30%)
• The Agriculture Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Resources Conservation Service, and Foreign Agricultural Service are abolished. The Forest Service gets a $1.2 billion haircut.
• COMMERCE...................................................$5,322,000,000. (54%)
• National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is cut by $857,000,000.
• DEFENSE.......................................................$47,500,000,000. (6.5%)
• EDUCATION..................................................$78,000,000,000 (83%)
• Only the Pell grant program survives.
• ENERGY............................................................$44,200,000,000 (100%)
• The Defense Department takes over all of Energy's remaining functions (nuclear waste, for example) and about $18 billion of its budget.
• HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES..............$26,510,000,000. (26%)
• Notes: FDA is cut by $230,000,000; Indian Health Service is cut by $650 million; CDC is cut by $1.17 billion; NIH by $5.8 billion.
• HOMELAND SECURITY.................................$23,765,000,000. (43%)
• Notes: Coast Guard is shifted to Defense. TSA's funds are cut by $900 million.
• HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT....$53,100,000,000. (100%)
• Notes: Completely eliminated. Veterans' housing programs are transferred to the VA
• INTERIOR........................................................$10,934,000,000. (78%)
• Bureau of Reclamation and Bureau of Indian Affairs are abolished.
• JUSTICE.............................................................$9,057,000,000. (28%)
• Note: Office of Justice Programs is abolished.
• LABOR....................................................$2,803,000,000. (2%)
• OSHA, MSHA, and the The Employment and Training Administration are spared all cuts (no cuts to unemployment benefits)
• STATE...................................................................$20,321,000,000. (71%)
• Note: Massive foreign aid cuts. All international commissions and organizations are defunded.
• TRANSPORTATION............................................$42,810,000,000. (49%)
• Notes: Amtrak is completely de-funded.
• VETERANS’ AFFAIRS..........................................No cuts
• CORPS OF ENGINEERS......................................$1,854,000,000. (27%)
• EPA..............................................................$3,238,000,000. (29%)
• GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION.....$1,936,000,000. (85%)
• INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS...$24,300,000,000 (100%)
• NASA.........................................................................$4,500,000,000 (25%)
• NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION...............$4,723,000,000. (62%)
• OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT.......$9,070,000,000.
• SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION.........No cuts
• FCC...........................................................$2,150,000,000. (22%)
• ABOLISH...............................................................$2,050,000,000. (100%)
• (1) Affordable Housing Program.
• (2) Commission on Fine Arts.
• (3) Consumer Product Safety Commission.
• (4) Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• (5) National Endowment for the Arts.
• (6) National Endowment for the Humanities.
• (7) State Justice Institute.
• MISC
• Collect delinquent taxes from Federal Employees........$3,000,000,000.
• Freeze Federal Government employee pay...................$2,000,000,000.
• Reduce Federal Government travel..............................$7,500,000,000.
• Repeal Davis-Bacon..................................................... $6,000,000,000.
• Prohibit union project labor agreements......................$2,000,000,000.
• TARP repeal.................................................................$4,481,000,000.
• Sell Federal Buildings..................................................$19,000,000,000.
• Reduce Federal vehicle budget..........................................$600,000,000.

Note the one cut close to the end: "Collect delinquent taxes from Federal Employees." $3 BILLION??? Good grief. How are they still federal employees at all?

From Lindiwe Majele Sibanda in the Guardian:

Farming First calls on world leaders to take action by developing a locally sustainable value chain for global agriculture. It emphasizes the need for knowledge networks and policies centred on helping subsistence farmers to become small-scale entrepreneurs, and it proposes six interlinked imperatives for sustainable agriculture: safeguarding natural resources, sharing knowledge, building local access, protecting harvests, enabling access to markets and prioritising research imperatives...[continue reading]Watch related videos here

Dan Gardner reviews and discusses the issues raised in Robert Paarlberg's book 'Starved for Science': How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa:

Why is African agriculture so unproductive? It's not the fault of African farmers, who "handle their tools, cropping systems, and animals with experienced judgment and considerable skill," writes Robert Paarlberg, an expert on agriculture at Wellesley College and Harvard University. The problem is that the technologies used by those farmers are the same they've used for centuries, if not millennia. "No matter how long or hard they work with these unimproved technologies," Paarlberg writes, "their productivity will remain constrained and their incomes will scarcely rise."

• Death to the Digital Dropbox: Rethinking Student Privacy and Public Performance (EDUCAUSE Quarterly) | EDUCAUSE

  Excellent article about public feedback that flies in the face of what many are doing. Challenge your thinking.

  tags: Education collaboration privacy pedagogy

• Using DropBox & DropItTo.me : Teacher Challenge

  Article sharing how to use dropbox with students when your school will not give them access!

  tags: Education paperless dropbox

• 40 Google Plus Tips for Newbies - MarketingProfessor.com

  Excellent article on google+! one of the best I have found!

  tags: Education google

• Evernote Acquires Image Editor Skitch, Makes It Free, Adds Android Version

  Evernote has bought Skitch and made it free. Android app also.

  tags: Education

• Flat Classroom Certified Teacher Course - Information and Announcement

  Here is detailed information and dates for the Flat Classroom certified teacher progra.

  tags: Education global collaboration flatclassroom

• Krysta Harden - Chief of staff, Agriculture Department - WhoRunsGov.com/TheWashingtonPost

  Excited that Westwood alumnus, Krysta Harden - Chief of Staff US Department of Agriculture, is coming to speak to our school on September 23rd. Yes, I'm proud of my tiny little school. We have a lot of cool alumns.

  tags: education

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Barney Jopson writes in the FT:

The global crisis precipitated by soaring food prices has cast a spotlight on the low productivity of agriculture across Africa - especially when compared with Asia - and the reasons for it.
Country-by-country, the problems come in a variety of constellations. But the essential elements tend to be the same: farmers' difficulty in obtaining fertiliser; patchy access to credit; limited outreach programmes offering technical training; the absence of high-yielding seeds and modern equipment; poor or non-existent irrigation systems; bad transport links; and a lack of information on fair prices.
Yet Nigeria, as in so many other ways, is different. Not because it is not burdened by some or all of these problems. It is. But because they will fade into irrelevance if the country simply runs out of people who are willing to put up with them...[continue reading]

Gregg Zachary writing about African agriculture states that (PDF):

Rather than a big bang, advances are occurring on the margins...the key breakthrough in African agriculture is not a new seed or a vast increase in the use of fertilizers or new machines. Indeed, fertilizer use remains shockingly low in Africa, and in many countries, tractors are as rare as rhinos. What has generated fresh optimism is the aforementioned elimination of state marketing monopolies and a new emphasis on efficiently linking farmers to markets

Gregory Clark questions Jeffery Sach's Millenium Project:

The long history of living standards suggests that the Sachs plan is more likely to further impoverish Africa than enrich it. The promised health improvements and one-time gains in crop yields cannot create sustained improvement of living conditions.
Industrializing Africa is the only way to solve its poverty. The industrialization of coastal China — accompanied by declining public health provision, a neglect of agriculture, and environmental degradation — ultimately transformed the lives of the Chinese

Mviwata's aim is "...to strengthen farmers’ groups and networks, facilitate communication and learning through exchanges among farmers for the purpose of defending the interests of small scale farmers in Tanzania..." A member speaking to the large scale land acquisitions in Tanzania, stated in Farm Land Grab that:

(Photo: REDD.net)

In my view, the solution to this problem is not money; rather, the government should obligate large-scale investors to give a part of their shares to us in exchange for our land,” -Ahmed Simba, a Kigoma-based farmer

He said the investors should give villagers time to relocate to new places close to such investments. He added that the land lease agreement should cover a few years but be subject to renewal under certain conditions.“We can benefit from large-scale investment in agriculture if we stop leaders from imposing their ideas on farmers, believing that what is in their interests (leaders) is in the interest of the nation,”

Ashoka Fellows Vincent Bagiire and Adrian Mukhebi, changing the field of agriculture:

Yara Prize winner Florence Wambugu discusses impediments to African agriculture.In an answer to a question about her focus on Bananas she stated:

Bananas are an orphan crop, like cassava, sorghum or sweet potato. It hasn't received the same attention as the crops used for export. But it is very important for food security, very important for women and children. When I was growing up, for example, banana was a baby food.
I realised when I looked around that the technology existed to double the yield and help poor farmers come out of poverty. So I brought together people from all along the value chain — businesses, farming communities, scientists — in what I call a participatory bottom-up approach. It is this holistic approach in linking farmers to the market that has brought success...[continue reading]

Reason.tv has some interesting videos on its site. The one that I found the most fascinating is called "Food Fight." In this video, which is hosted by Drew Carey, we a battle between private businesses and government officials. In what is only to become more common with the passage of legislation giving more government power over controlling the health care and energy industries, the video shows how public officials paid for by citizen taxpayer dollars spend their time going around Los Angeles seizing bacon-wrapped hot dogs.

Yes, amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Los Angeles, there exists an underground world of illicit trade in bacon-wrapped hot dogs. The Department of Health has made it illegal to sell a hot dog wrapped in bacon, and if they catch any street vendors doing so, they will use their police powers to hassle these private businesses, shut them down, seize their goods, or even destroy their businesses. It is all seen on the video- there is actually camera footage of government thugs confiscating a food cart and dumping the bacon-wrapped hot dogs into the trash.

"Bacon is a potentially hazardous food,” says the LA County Health Department. Personally, I think a government that can throw a food vendor in the in the slammer for 45 days for selling bacon dogs is a bigger threat to our lives, liberty, and property. Which do you want- a dangerously powerful government or a street vendor who pays taxes and sells consumers products they want?

A government bureaucrat, supported by no data at all, feels personally that bacon-wrapped hot dogs are not safe, and put in a rule that makes it illegal to sell them. Apparently he feels he is the business of stopping people from doing what they want because he doesn't agree with it- sounds like more government officials in the business of tyranny.

Be prepared for more of this- is your home or business going to be up to the new Green Codes or the new Health Codes that government officials come up with every day? With Democrats in office, you really need to ask yourself- are you really living in a free country any more?

If you thought I was joking, you should have been paying more attention to the news- Government tightens food standards is only the beginning. Obama and the Democrats have just decreed that the bureucratic agencies that rule us now have more power over private businesses and can decide what temperature eggs must be kept at and who you are allowed to buy chickens from.

This new system for 'monitoring eggs' was coupled with 'other steps' gives federal monitors more authority and more force with which to respond when you break their rules. These new powers are designed to combat salmonella in eggs, but are only the first step- the Department of Agriculture is soon to be created similar powers to those who raise cows for meat and milk, and the FDA is developing ways to control those who grow tomatoes, melons and leafy greens.

Democrats, liberals, and Obama are only about one thing- controlling your life. Now they are even trying to control what you eat! Will the attacks on property, liberty, and life never end?

Moeletsi Mbeki writes(pdf) "...When the colonies in Africa and Asia became independent, their political leaders were faced with two main challenges: achieving domestic political stability and transforming their economies from the production of raw materials to industrial production...At the root of Africa’s problems is ruling political elites that have misused the economic surplus generated by the African continent over the last 40 years. African political elites have exploited their position in order to
■ bolster their standard of living to Western levels,
■ undertake loss-making industrialisation projects that were not supported by the necessary technical,managerial, and educational development, and
■ transfer vast amounts of money from agriculture and mineral extraction to overseas private bank accounts, while borrowing vast amounts from developed countries.What were the results of those predatory policies? According to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which have become Africa’s fairy godparents, Africans are poor and getting poorer..."
Via Global Growth Org

The Ft reports:

Historically, there have been tenuous links between farmers and food producers, with many companies having scant knowledge of how and where their ingredients are grown.
But as the prices of raw materials soar – from the barley used to make beer or the cocoa used to make chocolate – leading brewers and food manufacturers from Cadbury Schweppes to Diageo are increasingly recognising their businesses will benefit from investment in agriculture.