On Tue, Jul 30, 2002 at 09:08:27PM -0700, alex lantsberg wrote:
> from what i understand cuba has an extensive organic farming program that
> has received raves from some of the food security folks in the bay area.
> i've also begun hearing about high productivity organic "biointensive"
> farming techniques that reportedly build rapidly soil health and have
> productivity as high or higher than industrialized programs. i don't know
> enough about ag to comment it, but it may be promising. the website is
> http://www.growbiointensive.org/
>
> another thing to consider in the embrace of heavily industrialized ag is the
> attendant displacement of rural labor which flocks to the city. i don't
> know much about india, but i imagine its urban centers are poorly equipped
> to handle massive in migration from the countryside either infrastructure
> wise or with respect to their economies. that, on top of the destruction of
> the informal economies and social networks that help people survive in the
> countryside would be a triple whammy on a developing state.
>
> in the "cities and the wealth of nations" (1984) jane jacobs has good
> discussion about the imported technology trap - whether in ag or industry.
> she's doesn't cite empirical data to prove or disprove her point, but my
> professors have never quibbled with her points. i'd quote something from
> here, but don't have a scanner and don't quite have the energy to retype a
> page. you can find the salient points in around page 89 in the hardcover.
>
> alex
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu