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by Troy Massey

"Trust is the key to any relationship. It must be earned first through respect then through shared experience. Lacking either of these leads to half hearted interest." Begin forwarded message: From: GDAE: Global Development And Environment Institute <GDAE(a)tufts.edu> Date: February 25, 2014 at 10:17:17 AM PST To: <EcoEconomist11(a)Gmail.com> Subject: Malawi's paradox: Filled with both corn and hunger Reply-To: <us5-3a5d64db48-5788ee9a7c(a)conversation01.mailchimpapp.com> Read Wise's latest GlobalPost commentary View this email in your browser Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University The Global Post on Feb. 25 published the following article by GDAE’s Timothy A. Wise on Malawi's efforts to grow more of its own food. Read more about Timothy A. Wise’s research project, “A Rights-Based Approach to the Global Food Crisis." Malawi's paradox: Filled with both corn and hunger Timothy A. Wise Global Post February 25, 2014 LILONGWE, Malawi — Visit this small, landlocked country in late January and you will have a hard time believing its people often go hungry. It is mid-rainy season, and in and around the capital city the landscape is lush and green. Look more closely and you’ll notice that nearly every inch of unpaved space seems planted with maize (corn); the green stalks rise up to five feet above moist, rich soil. Outside of the city, along the road leading south toward the former colonial capital of Zomba, the hills roll with maize, not in vast tracts reminiscent of Iowa but in small, neatly bordered plots. It certainly doesn’t seem like a land that cannot feed itself. But until recently, that is what Malawi has been. Droughts often threaten the country’s one rainy season, and with per capita incomes at around $900 per year, hunger, and even starvation, stalk the countryside. The World Food Program has permanent offices here, and for good reason. Even this season, when the rains have come strong but late, more than 10 percent of the country’s 16 million people face severe food insecurity. According to news reports, some have starved. It is paradoxical only to outsiders that this greenest of seasons is also the hungriest. By planting time late in the year, many peasant farmers have consumed the last of their saved grain, even following a decent harvest like they had last year. Until the new crop comes in late March or April they have to rely on meager cash income to feed themselves and their families. “We don’t have a food shortage,” said Billy Mayaya of the Malawi Right to Food Network. “We just have a maize shortage.” The right to food movement has grown in tandem with Malawi’s fixation on maize. Both were sparked by the same deadly event, a famine in 2002-2003. Between 1998 and 2001, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund recommended that the Malawi government cut spending. The government eliminated a small but effective program of seed and fertilizer distribution, and maize production fell 40 percent by 2002. The World Bank and IMF then persuaded the government to sell off its food reserves. Sure enough, no sooner had emergency stocks been sold off in an unsurprising wave of corruption, than the rains failed. As many as 1,000 people died in the ensuing famine. This humanitarian crisis prompted the government to resume its food reserves, critical in a landlocked country where emergency food aid can take 3 to 5 months to reach the hungry. And it ignored World Bank and IMF advice by establishing a broad input subsidy program intended to put good seeds and fertilizer into the hands of poor farmers. The cash-strapped government had to launch the program with its own funds when international donors refused to support an initiative seen as inimical to free market principles. This was true, for the simple reason that in this largely subsistence economy, the market was rife with failures. No investor was about to step in to improve small-scale farmers’ productivity. And there was no one else to produce food. The program was a success, and within a few years Malawi had grown enough maize to export some to neighboring countries. Even most donors conceded that the program had worked. The 2002 famine, as much a product of governance failure as it was crop failure, also sparked the Malawi Right to Food Network. A 2006 international fact-finding mission pinpointed the causes of the crisis, and activists set to work crafting Malawi’s Right to Food Bill. The bill enshrines in legislation every Malawian’s right to “the progressive realization of the right to food,” committing the government to advance such rights. The right to food has gained traction in recent years as part of the broader recognition within the international community of economic, social, and cultural rights. Under the leadership of UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, the concept has translated into national legislation and constitutional guarantees. In India, the Supreme Court found in favor of plaintiffs claiming their right to food had been violated by the elimination of key government programs. For a country as vulnerable as Malawi, Mayaya says the movement made perfect sense. “Which comes first, the right to food or the right to vote?” Mayaya asks. “It’s not a right to a handout, it is the right to ‘the progressive realization of the right to food.’” The Right to Food Bill awaits legislative approval, something Mayaya hopes will happen after May 2014 elections. De Schutter brought an official UN mission to Malawi last year, issuing a comprehensive report that praised the government for its efforts but faulted it for the overreliance on maize and chemical fertilizer, which he warned could be masking rather than replenishing depleted soils. The sentiment seems widely accepted both in and out of government, though the subsidies are so entrenched in the political structure that they would be hard to eliminate. But they can be shifted. Current government efforts to distribute legumes seeds – for beans, pigeon peas, groundnuts, soybeans – along with maize are a start. They diversify diets, offer crops that ripen at different times of the year, and replenish the soil with nitrogen and organic matter. Ultimately, such programs can reduce Malawi’s heavy dependence on fertilizer imports, which consume an unsustainable share of scarce foreign exchange. South of the capital, I saw plenty of legumes intercropped with maize. Farmers were enthusiastic, one telling me that thus far he had not needed chemical fertilizer on his one acre of maize, which stood tall above him. I asked if the high-yield hybrid maize favored by donors and the government didn’t need those fertilizers. After all, modern hybrid seeds like those distributed in Malawi by Monsanto and other seed companies perform well only with the application of high levels of fertilizer. The farmer smiled. This was a local variety, he told me, which he didn’t need to purchase every year. Specialists explained to me later that its yield isn’t as high as hybrid seeds under optimal conditions, but under the variable conditions farmers face, it does almost as well, even if fertilizer is scarce. It also tolerates erratic rainfall better and stores more reliably. The farmer pointed to his healthy maize plants and told me proudly that he was growing “orange maize.” He said it’s high in Vitamin A, which I knew was chronically in deficit in developing countries. In fact, it’s the reason behind the long-promised, never-delivered “golden rice,” genetically modified to add Vitamin A. This farmer may not have known it, but he was rejecting the kind of high-tech agriculture heavily promoted by international donors. He was rebuilding the fertility of his depleted soils by intercropping nutritious legumes while growing a vitamin-rich, resilient variety of maize. At the same time, he had reduced his costs — he saved seeds, and didn’t need to buy fertilizer — and reduced Malawi’s need to import fertilizer. Maybe this is what the progressive realization of the right to food will look like in Malawi. © 2014 GlobalPost – International News More from GlobalPost: Why it's dangerous to trust corporations to lead the fight against world hunger Timothy A. Wise is the Policy Research Director at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE). He is currently on an Open Society Institute Fellowship researching agriculture, climate change and the right to food through a project called "A Rights-based Approach to the Global Food Crisis." Read more on GDAE's Globalization and Sustainable Development Program. Global Development And Environment Institute Tufts University 44 Teele Ave. Somerville, MA 02144 GDAE Website | gdae(a)tufts.edu Subscribe You can manage your subscription preferences or unsubscribe from all GDAE emails

12 years, 1 month

Re: [sudo-discuss] Taxes

by patrikd

If we set a minimum membership fee, I think that would provide a good argument to be able to classify everything above that as a donation. Mind you, I'm just going by logic here, which may not be what the IRS uses. ;-) Patrik Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G TouchDanny Spitzberg <stationaery(a)gmail.com> wrote:You can usually deduct a donation minus the "fair market value" of what rewards (t-shirts, etc) you get in return ... I'd be curious to see what gray area works in out favor here with membership dues - if they can be construed as donations On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 11:06 PM, Patrik D'haeseleer <patrikd(a)gmail.com> wrote: Also, membership fees are typically not deductable. If you get something in return, it's not really a donation. Patrik On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 8:16 PM, Craig Rouskey <craigrouskey(a)gmail.com> wrote: Hey All, Are we able to deduct Sudo Room as charitable donations this year? Craig _______________________________________________ sudo-discuss mailing list sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss

12 years, 1 month

RFQ: Organizational Management Consultant for Oakland Makers

by Marina Kukso

Hi everyone, City of Oakland is hiring an Organizational Management Consultant for the group Oakland Makers <http://oaklandwiki.org/Oakland_Makers>. Check out the attached request for qualifications. - Marina

12 years, 1 month

NNEB #16 Livestream @8pm

by J.C.

Nerd Nite East Bay #16: Movie Explosions, Coffee Roasting, and Hypervelocity Travel Now streaming live on the interwebs... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mFLIvDCgnk Feed is live now, audio/talks will kick in at 8p, updates and such on twitters https://twitter.com/NerdNiteEB We plan to experiment with our first live stream this month. The live event is at: The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland (less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART) EXPLOSIONS, BACKDRAFTS, AND SPRINKLERS: HOW HOLLYWOOD GETS FIRE SCIENCE WRONG by Joel Sipe Fires and explosions are key elements in most Hollywood blockbusters, yet they are often absurdly misrepresented, much to the chagrin of fire scientists (yes, fire scientists are a real thing). The movie Backdraft is notoriously inaccurate, but finding films with correct portrayals of fires, explosions, or fire protection systems is surprisingly difficult. Spoiler alert: car gas tanks don't really explode when you shoot them with a handgun. Come learn about the real fire science behind some common Hollywood goofs. Joel Sipe, Ph.D, is a Senior Engineer at Exponent Failure Analysis Inc. where he investigates fires, explosions, and thermal issues related to consumer product fire safety and skin burns. From an early age, Joel had an obsession with all things having to do with fire. His friends think it's more than a little suspicious that he always knows where the fire started... HOME COFFEE ROASTING: ON THE CHEAP WITH TOOLS YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE by Byron Dote Learn about where coffee comes from and the stages it goes through before it ends as a hot beverage. We will show you how simple the roasting process can be and discuss the different methods used for home roasting. Get up close and personal with a live demonstration of roasting coffee with an electric popcorn popper. Sweet Maria's Coffee is an online information and retail source for home coffee roasting. We are based out of West Oakland, and enjoy sharing our passion with Bay Area coffee lovers. Byron Dote is the marketing guy and merchandise buyer at Sweet Maria's Coffee. He's been with the company for 3 years. Before that, he worked in the photo marketing and film production industries. Byron loves living in Oakland, hanging out with his dogs, listening to good music, eating ice cream, yelping Mexican restaurants and drinking excellent coffee. HYPERVELOCITY LAUNCHERS: HOW TO LAUNCH A PROJECTILE AT 10 MILES/SECOND? (THAT'S RIGHT, PER SECOND) by Vincent Tanguay >From bows and arrows to rail guns, man has been perfecting tools to launch projectiles at ever greater speeds for tens of thousands of years. Launching projectiles at hypervelocity is routine today and these launchers are very useful for science. While they have enabled major breakthroughs (think access to space), scientists always need more speed! We'll discuss what hypervelocity is, its applications, and the various technologies that make it possible. Of course, we'll talk about their limitations and how to push the frontier of possibilities. Somehow, we'll manage to include some explosions in there -- hopefully we get it right! Vincent Tanguay, Ph.D., has a background in explosives and detonations and formerly worked as a scientist for a Canadian National Lab. When not busy blowing stuff up, he was developing an explosive-driven hypervelocity launcher. -- ThanX, ;+) nburl.net/fort <https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Fort>

12 years, 1 month

Seed Swap Saturday

by refugia

https://www.facebook.com/events/213919932142576/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcom… Saturday, March 1, 2014 7:00pm until 9:00pm Chance of Rain 61°F / 48°F Potluck supper, hoe down music, home-grown garden seeds, and the company of fantastic local gardeners! Come learn about seed saving classes and the Library. BASIL is a project of the Ecology Center. Time: 7pm - 9pm Location: Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way, Berkeley. Cost: food and seeds to share or $10 donation. Info: 510-548-2220 x233, basil(a)ecologycenter.org, http://www.ecologycenter.org/basil/. Wheelchair accessible.

12 years, 1 month

Tiny houses made for homeless in West Oak by artist!

by Vicky Knox

People. 8| Do any of you know more about this person? http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_24869274/oakland-artist-turns-t…

12 years, 1 month

by David Keenan

Hi Everyone! Another awesome night at Sudo Room.. co-presented with Bay Area Public School & AK Press: plz come on down! fb: https://www.facebook.com/events/695609710491680 sudo: https://sudoroom.org/ai1ec_event/struggling-to-win-anarchists-building-popu… :), David

12 years, 1 month

First Fri. 3/7: Draw Oakland @ Sudo Room - we'll add our drawings to Oakland Wiki entries!

by Marina Kukso

Hey everyone, Drop by Sudo Room <http://oaklandwiki.org/sudo_room> on First Friday<http://oaklandwiki.org/First_Fridays_in_Oakland> *March 7, 2014* to *Draw Oakland* <http://oaklandwiki.org/Draw_Oakland>! Draw your impressions of your neighborhood or whatever else you want! We'll have paper, drawing stuff, and scanners, and in the end we'll add your drawings of Oakland to the Oakland Wiki! You can make drawings to illustrate different entries (Dog Park<http://oaklandwiki.org/Astro_Dog_Park_Controversy>anyone? :)) - Marina

12 years, 1 month

Cryptoparty article live on Oakland Wiki!

by Vicky Knox

I dunno why we didn't already have it! Please add/link to it! ;] http://oaklandwiki.org/Cryptoparty

12 years, 1 month

Startup Weekend Oakland Edu

by Matthew Senate

In case you're interested, this event starts tomorrow evening (Friday Feb 21) to Sunday Feb 23. http://oaklandedu.startupweekend.org/ If you're available to host a table for Sudo Room, or other related projects, please let me know ASAP. Otherwise, you can use promotional code: *sudoroom* to register at $15 or register for free if you ask me I guess? Or just show up and socially engineer the situation? Startup Weekend Education is coming to Oakland<http://oaklandedu.startupweekend.org/>. Have an idea for improving education? This is the place to meet a team that will help validate your idea and bring it to prototype over the course of 54 hours. Great opportunity to meet passionate folks from around Oakland and you'll feel better on Mondaymorning knowing that you didn't binge watch a TV series. Video: What is Startup Weekend Education? <http://youtu.be/jjgg63cGRLY> *Sudo Room Developers/Designers Attend For $15 With Promo Code: sudoroom* *Register Before It's Sold Out <http://oaklandedu.startupweekend.org/>!* Great reasons to attend: - SXSWedu <http://sxswedu.com/> badges for the winning team - Special challenge from Oakland Teachers <http://youtu.be/kdXDCBp7cF8> - Meet outstanding education and edtech leaders in the Bay Area (see website<http://oaklandedu.startupweekend.org/> for listing) - Free courses by Dev Bootcamp <http://devbootcamp.com/> and General Assembly

12 years, 1 month

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