Focusing on satisfying local markets rather than foreign demand may be the best way to start the virtuous circle that farmers need in order to expand, but similar tools are needed for both.
Sounds like pretty good advice.
Amazing potato factoid: they’re high protein
People complain that potatoes are “only” 2% protein. But …
[P]otatoes are so prolific that you still end up with 500-1000kg of protein per year per hectare of potatoes, versus 164-500kg of protein from soybeans, 98-300kg of protein from wheat, and only 33kg protein from milk produced by cows.
Which is why, where the climate is right, potatoes should be a key component of urban agriculture and home gardens. You do have to eat a lot of them, just be sure not to peel them. From Tom Wagner’s blog.
I want to be alone
The Corriere della Sera has looked at our friend Andrew Nelson’s accessibility map 1 and identified the world’s most isolated place. It’s in the Tibetan plateau and it looks bleak. Not much biodiversity around there, alas, agro- or otherwise.
“Food prices: What goes up must come down”
Oh yeah? I’ve taken our headline directly from Mariann Fischer Boel in full rhetorical flight.
When the price on wheat went up last year, I wondered quite publicly why bread prices skyrocketed when the share of wheat in the cost of producing bread was relatively low. Back then, I was told by industry that the share of agricultural raw material was in fact much higher and that rising energy prices also had an impact. Now with wheat and energy prices having dropped dramatically during the last year, I think it is legitimate to wonder again and ask: why aren’t bread prices following suit?
Good question? Or naive political drivel? You be the judge.
First cow
What with all the brouhaha over not merely the First Organic Garden but also the First Dog, our chums over at InfoFarm have turned their far-sighted historical eyes on other, more productive, animals that have graced the White House lawns. I have just one piece of advice for Michelle; sheep once destroyed a couple of years worth of pea-breeding for me, and even a small herd of beeves is hard to fence out of a garden.