“Market forces. Too much supply, not enough demand. Same risk and reward as any other business. Rationalisation will follow.”

Rationalisation, in this context, is a politic way of saying “putting small farmers out of work, creating unemployment, making people dependent on agribusiness for food or starving to death if they can’t find a job”. This is a solution?

The Economist this week has some interesting comments on Mali - pointing to decentralised government, irrigation and roads as the key tools to deal with hunger. GE isn’t even on the radar.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9440765

maybe GE can do something really useful and and design a plant that taps into the african watertable and pumps the water up , that or we could provide wells and pumps

Of course there should be, but that question is far greater than GE, which is the topic of this thread. The “What do we do about Africa?” thread would stretch off into infinity.

>>Theres probably as much chance of that happening in Europe and America as there is in Africa.

I think you could do it in pockets.

Entrepreneurial-driven initiatives have made good progress in India. It could start with a restructure of property law - i.e. make it easier to get land title, so you can leverage against that capital for business development. Restructure business procedure - take it out of the hands of corrupt government - so it doesn’t take two years and one hundred forms to start a bakery.

“Welfare won’t solve Africa’s problems.”

Of course it won’t. There is no quick fix solution, but throwing billions of dollars of “money” at those corrupt governments and expecting the citizens to pay it back with interest through selling commodities to countries with high tariffs leading to a global commodity glut certainly won’t. At least if they had no other option, but to starve they would be able to buy from local producers rather than having to accept “charity” from Western farmers who are able to provide surplus food as aid that they’re able to grow thanks to the subsidies that their governents provide.

“Getting rid of corrupt governments and anti-business practice would go a long way to providing the structural reforms necessary.”

Theres probably as much chance of that happening in Europe and America as there is in Africa.

“There’s no safety net now.”

I know. There should be. See in my previous post.

“I wonder what would happen if an official from Third World government dared propose to the IMF etc a policy of providing an unemployment benefit in their citizens.”

For us there is and most of our unemployed shouldn’t need it either.

Indarestin…..

Welfare won’t solve Africa’s problems.

Getting rid of corrupt governments and anti-business practice would go a long way to providing the structural reforms necessary.

>>theres no safety net to catch the “unfortunates�

There’s no safety net now.

Market forces. Too much supply, not enough demand. Same risk and reward as any other business. Rationalisation will follow.

Typical banal “free market” apologist speak. When rationalisation” happens in the Third World theres no safety net to catch the “unfortunates”. I wonder what would happen if an official in Third World government dared propose to the IMF etc a policy of providing an unemployment benefit in their countries? Typical example of the West’s do as I say not as I do attitude. They provide almost as much if not more “welfare” for their big business as they do for their poor.

“Corporate welfare is a huge drain on the federal treasury. Every year $75 billion of taxpayer money is spent on programs that subsidize businesses. Meanwhile, politicians proclaim that we can’t afford a tax cut.”

http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb105-9.html

Meh. It depends. I’ve seen a few blind taste tests, by well known organic-promoting chefs in the UK, and they failed to tell the difference.

I think the marketing is seductive. I think that stories can alter perception.
I think it really depends on the type of food, time to market, and impact of handling and travel, as opposed to farming method.

I am not going to comment on GE as I could not care one way or the other but as a self confessed “foodie” I have to admit that organic food tastes a hell of a lot better than anything else on the market.

Last summer I grew some of my own tomatoes, the taste difference was amazing.