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From the well-digger’s mouth

I like hearing the views of people who know what it is like on the ground, even if — especially if? — they have a strong point of view. I probably don’t come across enough of them.

Wells for Zoë is a small Irish humanitarian organization that helps people in Malawi to dig wells and manage water. After listening to a news item about a conference in Malawi one of the well-diggers felt compelled to set the record straight with a list of recommendations. I don’t agree with all of them, but this is clearly someone who knows the scene there.

What is needed are community-based systems of cooperative family farms, organized to market for local and regional distribution and re-integrating livestock wherever feasible term rehabilitative approach. Malawi needs a systemic approach to both restore its ecosystems and to produce enough food sustainably for its people.

There are lots of specific suggestions too. More of this and less globe-trotting punditry would go a long way towards helping Malawi feed itself.

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Coffee in Rwanda

A recent paper from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University of looks at the specialty coffee industry in Rwanda. Among its conclusions:

  • the specialty coffee industry in Rwanda aids in local poverty alleviation and job creation;
  • the specialty coffee industry provides opportunities for developing business and management skills;
  • the actions of specific coffee entrepreneurs have affected the lives of ordinary Rwandans; and
  • entrepreneurial activities within the Rwandan specialty coffee industry provide Rwandans with opportunities to interact in ways that may promote post-conflict reconciliation.

It is a long read, but with a good cup of Joe by your side the time will fly by.

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Biofuels backlash

Despite the lack of recent posts on the topic, I haven’t lost interest in biofuels and the food vs fuel dimension of that tussle. But there has been so much blather out there that it has been hard to make any sense of it. Focus is needed, and that’s something we find it hard to do as we flit from topic to diverse topic. Fortunately, others are less easily distracted.

The Low-input High Diversity Biofuels blog — which seems to be based at Oklahoma State University in the US, is one such. As the name suggests, it is not exactly enamoured of the alternative High Input Low Diversity approach. Several recent postings give more details. There’s one pointing out that HILD may yet gain traction: “Despite the documented social and environmental costs of biofuels, the vested agricultural interests are politically too strong. The momentum for biofuels is far too great.” Others address the recent OECD report on biofuels, making biodiversity preservation part of biofuels policy and so on. One to watch.

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Gardening by stealth

Here’s an intriguing idea: guerrilla gardening, “gardening in public urban spaces with or without permission.” It includes

fly-by-night plantings in urban wastelands, lobbing “seed grenades” into fenced-off empty lots, planting trees in the middle of nowhere, covering traffic circles with native ground cover, sowing edible plants in school-yards, draping lamp posts with decorative creepers, developing community gardens and empowering disaffected youth by reintroducing them to the joys of dirtying one’s hands in the soil.

It’s all described in the book Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, by David Tracey, which has been getting some good reviews. We’ve blogged before about the many benefits of school food gardens. They’re great ways of teaching kids about agrobiodiversity, as well as providing healthy, nutritious food for their snacks. We just recently passed the point where 50% of the world’s population lives in cities. I imagine we’ll become increasingly familiar with — and thankful for — the activities of urban guerrilla gardeners.