Our Neighbors Care

Shankar Vedantam is back in the Post, reporting on an ingenious experiment based on the little-known fact that voting records are public (i.e., whether or not you voted is public). Academic researchers found people who knew whether their neighbors voted last time and who were warned their behavior in a current election would be publicized, increased their participation by 27 percent.

Some questions are unanswered: the base participation rate was about 30 percent voting (municipal type election, not national), so the increase was presumably to 40 percent. What would be interesting, in the light of the "Bowling Alone" thesis (Americans no longer join organizations, etc.) would be to identify differences among neighborhoods, perhaps as a measure of social cohesion.

McKibben Versus GMU Economist

As a lead-in to a debate between Bill McKibben, a guru of local food, and a George Mason U economist (who seem to range between moderate conservative and very much so), Russell Roberts (actually I like Marginal Revolution), is interviewed by a Vermont paper.

Race and USDA, an example of Mismanagement

From the GAO report which I noted earlier includes this:

In 2004, to overcome these conditions [customers identified by observation], ASCR published a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on its plan to collect additional data on race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, and age. While ASCR
received some public comments, it did not follow through and obtain
OMB’s approval to collect the data. In a January 2008 briefing document,
an ASCR work group stated that ASCR does not have the staff or financial
resources to proceed with this project. ASCR officials said, after meeting
with GAO in May 2008, they convened an interagency work group to
develop a revised notice to be published in the Federal Register. As of
August 2008, the draft notice is under review within USDA, according to
ASCR officials.

This seems inexcusable mismanagement--4 years go by without someone pushing the issue? In an office of over 100 people you don't have one or two to devote to it? No action by the head of the office, nor by the Secretary?

In partial defense of the bureaucracy, (to change my viewpoint quickly), USDA is a collection of independent agencies with tight ties to people in Congress, interest groups, and local communities, so imposing a system from the South Building, which is what GAO is asking for, would be a daunting job for the best of bureaucrats.

The NY Times 27 Years Ago, and Agriculture Now

Here's an agriculture story from 1981, hat tip to Info Farm, the National Agricultural Library's blog, for alerting me to the NYTimes categorization of stories from its archive since 1981. It's a downbeat article, seeing the end of the green revolution:

"agricultural economists who specialize in world food production,[say] there will be no dramatic leaps in food yields. Meanwhile, the rate at which more food is produced actually has been declining - while the world's population is increasing by 70 million people each year. Worldwide, the margin between these two factors is discouragingly narrow. In Africa it has already disappeared and the increase in the amount of food grown each year, despite the gains from the green revolution, is less than the annual population increase."

It's because I remember such stories (and even worse ones from the 1950's) that I appreciate the accomplishments of industrial agriculture, which was able, over the next quarter century, to improve the average diets of the world's populace even though the population increased by 2 billion.

Counting Chickens

I shouldn't be superstitious, but I am, so I approach this Politico article with a poor attitude, as it looks forward to an Obama administration and doubts the feasibility of promises of open government. The article reflects the youth of the writer, in that there's no mention of Jimmy Carter and his pledges, some of which he carried out, few of which did much to improve government. For example, a law (the "Sunshine Act", maybe) required meetings of federal bodies, like the board of the Commodity Credit Corporation, be publicized in advance. That might have had a small impact on the decline of the CCC board process. (The CCC used to be a big part of the USDA mechanism, but it's now degenerated--I don't see any Federal Register notice of CCC meetings.)

(Whoops--I blamed Jimmy Carter for it, but the Sunshine Act was actually passed in 1976, probably part of the good government reaction to Nixon's abuses.)

Potatoes

Elizabeth Rosenthal has an article on the potato as an answer to the question of how to feed the world. Because it's hard to store and transport, it's more or less a locavore food. No, I haven't done the figures, but potatoes are likely more distributed in growth than any grain and probably more than any vegetable.

Of course, as the Irish discovered 160 years ago, local isn't always better.

The Explanation for This Post Is...

Sex. According to columnist Kathleen Parker (don't know her) in the Post, men like McCain (and I?) don't have good judgment when faced with an attractive woman like Sarah Palin.

So, when I claim that I always felt Palin was important, my claim should be dismissed. :-(

However, Lois Romano's article on Palin as a new kind of feminist, also in the Post, deserves reading. I'd summarize it as saying Palin stretches the envelope for female politicians, showing one can attract support by combining feminism without pro-choice positions. I think she'll turn out to be a more important candidate than Ferraro was in '84, and hopefully have more effect on her party than Ferraro did on the Dems.

(I hasten to add, as a confirmed Dem, I'm glad she's making political history, but apparently without helping the Reps to win the White House.)

Contra Michael Pollan--Farmers Comment

I'd like to note some comments on Michael Pollan's recent NY Times mag piece, mostly from self-identified farmers or farm-raised people

Marcie

Shana

Rp, a farmer from Canada

Allen Hurlburt, CA

Fred Schumacher, MN and here

Overtaken by Events

From an April 17, 2008 Treehugger:

"Oil is setting record high prices. People are rioting over the price of food in Haiti, Egypt, parts of West Africa and the Philippines. Since March 2007 the price of soybeans is up 87%, and the price of wheat has risen 130%. Global grain stores are at the lowest levels on record. Amid this turmoil the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) released its report this week on the state of agriculture.

From farmpolicy today:

“The Midwest faces plunging crop prices [December corn futures, November soybean futures, December wheat futures] and stubbornly high production costs. Corn prices have dropped from $7.54 a bushel around July Fourth in central Iowa to just $3.81 a bushel on Tuesday. But growers are hearing from suppliers that fertilizer and seed costs could rise by more than 40% each for next spring’s plantings.”

Civil Rights in USDA

GAO has a report out criticizing USDA. See here for Post story and here for House Ag.