Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz on Democracy Now

Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz spoke with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now February 18, 2009. The spoke on Obama’s Stimulus Plan, Debt, Climate Change, and Stiglitz new book “Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy”

As President Obama defends the success of his one year-old $787 stimulus package, we speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who says the stimulus was both not big enough and too focused on tax cuts. Stiglitz is the author of the new book “Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy”, which analyzes the causes of the Great Recession of 2008 and calls for overcoming what he calls an “ersatz capitalism” that socializes losses but privatizes gains

John Ikerd on cheap food

I am doing research on the economic benefits of family farms. I have come across agriculture economist John Ikerd a bunch. He's my new favorite.

Pressing the reset button

One of my favorite Good Food Fighters and dear friend Andy Sarjahani has been making enormous steps for sustainability at Virginia Tech and nationwide. Andy knows the power of civil disobedience and the values, tradition, and principles of our agrarian past.

Andy's post "Pressing the 'reset' button" on the Farms and Fields Project at Virginia Tech is worth reposting here (he knows I have a secret crush on Ben & Tommy). Plus, the cartoon is priceless.

Pressing the "reset" button

Below this post are two quotes from two of our forefathers that speak volumes about the value we once placed on agriculture. Of course, this was a much different time in our nation and planet’s history but they do beg some critical thinking.

As a TIME magazine cover story recently suggested, perhaps it may be time for a “Reset” in American culture. Our economy relies on seemingly incessant expansion – or what Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson would refer to as an “extractive economy”. How do we restore our economy, ensure jobs, nourish eaters (this includes humans, plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, insects) all while attempting to avoid the excess and extraction that has landed us in our current predicament?

Following the lead of Woody Tasch and his concept of “Slow Money” , I would argue that we must shift our focus and begin investing as if “food, farms, and fertility mattered”. Of course, I am no economist and cannot provide specific examples but the goal of this post is to suggest that there may be a better way. Many minds that are much brighter, more experienced, and articulate than myself have been working tirelessly to pave the path for a new train of thought here in the 21st century. We must restore the dignity to agriculture and one way to begin this process is investment in a food system that is socially, economically, and ecologically sound.

How do you invest? The first step would be to ask questions about your food – where did it come from? How did it get here? How was it produced? As you ask these questions, think about what you are okay with and what you are not okay with. If you aren’t okay with it, ask yourself why and then start using your own two hands to make it better (of course only if you want to).



“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it’s liberty and interests by the most lasting bands”

- Thomas Jefferson

“Finally, there seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war as the Romans did in plundering their conquered neighbours. This is robbery. The second by commerce which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture the only honest way; wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle wrought by the hand of God in his favour, as a reward for his innocent life, and virtuous industry.”

- Benjamin Franklin, Positions to be Examined, April 4, 1769

Industry Thwarting Research

As the economy continues to slump, publicly funded research is also drying up. Are there risks associated with private industry funding research, and if so, how do we, as citizens, read research with a concerning eye? An article published in the New York Times yesterday by Andrew Pollack: Crop Scientist Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research addresses biased research in agriculture.

A statement made to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 26 scientists was posted to a non-rule making docket titled: Evaluation of the Resistance Risks from Using a Seed Mix Refuge with Pioneer's Optimum AcreMax 1 Corn Rootworm-Protected Corn. The statement says:

"Technology/stewardship agreements required for the purchase of genetically modified seed explicitly prohibit research. These agreements inhibit public scientists from pursuing their mandated role on behalf of the public good unless the research is approved by industry. As a result of restricted access, no truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions regarding the technology, its performance, its management implications, IRM, and its interactions with insect biology. Consequently, data flowing to an EPA Scientific Advisory Panel from the public sector is unduly limited."

In other words, some scientists feel as if industry has a chokehold not only on the research that is being conducted, but on what is actually being disseminated to the public. This research problem is largely under-reported and under-addressed to a science illiterate public. An article by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry called Who's Getting It Right and Who's Getting in Wrong in the Debate About Science Literacy, dives deeper into this equally important issue. You can add science based blogs to your RSS here.

Research should be a public good and government should be conducting research to protect the wellbeing of its citizens from corporate strongholds. Another example of the system failing by Tom Phillpot of the Grist is in the issue of Why is the FDA unwilling to study evidence of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup? I would argue much has to do with skill. The Crème de la Crop of scientists and research are easily enticed by high paying jobs in industry, not in regulatory positions at FDA. The FDA lacks man power and funding. On the flip side, those who are working in for the public interest (i.e. the scientists who just published their statement to the EPA) are being manipulated as well.

A professor at Tufts, Sheldon Krimsky, has done extensive work on the effects of industry on research. He argues that a series of laws, federal policies and court decisions have enabled private interest "stakeholder science" to gain influence over university research. His book "Science in the Private Interest"sparked a website that continues to address these issues.

The key to change, Krimsky says, is separating the financial interests from the science. A daunting task indeed.

Purchasing power for peace

I was elated this morning as I smeared Eggplant & Tomato Tapenade on my toast, that I was doing more than nourishing myself, I was helping to bring peace to a region of the world that has been at war for decades.

MEDITALIA™ Tapenades and Pestos are produced in Israel through cooperation between Israelis, Arabs and other neighbours. The olives are grown in Palestinian villages, the glass jars are made in Egypt, and the sun-dried tomatoes come from Turkey. PeaceWorks believes that personal contact between these groups will shatter cultural stereotypes and help people live together peacefully. Five percent of the profits from MEDITALIA™ Pestos and Tapenades go to support the PeaceWorks Foundation to foster peaceful co-existence in the world.

Meditalia is a brand under Peaceworks Holdings LLC pursues profits through our sales of healthful food products that are produced by neighbors on opposing sides of political or armed conflicts, whose cooperative business ventures we facilitate.

Mission And Impact

PeaceWorks is guided by the Theory of Economic Cooperation which states the following:

Mutually beneficial economic initiatives can create good relations between rivaling peoples in the same way that business partners anywhere profit from cooperation in today's marketplace. In this manner, cooperative business ventures that capitalize on the strength of each partner can enable the conditions necessary to achieve long-lasting cultural understanding and eventually even bring prosperity to regions of conflict around the world. PeaceWorks acts at the catalyst for profitable economic interdependence.

Our Cooperation Ecosystem, below, illustrates both levels at which the model works, and the resulting impacts:

• Commercial Cooperation

• Businesses profiting from joint ventures gain a vested interest in maintaining and cementing these valuable relationships.

• Peoples and countries prospering through these cooperative activities gain a stake in the system, furthering stability.

• Human Interaction

• People working together under conditions of equality learn to shatter cultural stereotypes and humanize their former enemy.

And this all results in...

• Job Creation and Export-led Growth

PeaceWorks connects local producers with manufacturers, and buys the food products they create for export. The increased demand thus created results in new jobs, which stimulates local economies and contributes to a rise in the standard of living for their region.

Employment & Technology

Increasing output through exports generates economies of scale and reduces costs, making ventures in regions of conflict more competitive. Export initiatives with overseas partners also benefit from enhanced professionalism, technology transfers and subsequent technical know-how. Peace Building As groups learn to work together, cultural stereotypes are shattered and the former enemy is demystified, and humanized.

Never before have their been so many decisions and impacts on what food you buy. But local to support your local economy, buy fair-trade to help farmers get a farm market price, buy organic to preserve traditional farming methods and biodiversity, buy free range for animal rights, buy grass-fed because it has more conjugated linoleic acid, buy whats on sale, buy Kosher for personal beliefs, buy what tastes good, we have a lot of choices to make significant changes in our world through the food we ate. Never before has a social movement been more entrenched in our everyday decisions as what to buy at market. Choose wisely.