John Mashey had some great comments on my post last week on GM foods. Since it seems unlikely that very many readers dig through old blog comments here, I thought it worth pulling them out and posting here in full. The setup is an argument between David King and Robert Watson over whether starvation in …
David Foster argues that free water for the poor in India comes with a significant cost: Although water supply in virtually all Indian cities is heavily subsidized, very few BPL (Below Poverty Line) families have household connections. While upper income families benefit from those subsidies, the BPL families are often forced to buy water from …
In which my colleague Dan McKay rides the bus: I visited some West Side bus stops this morning to talk with commuters, and, man, are the buses packed. In at least one instance, the bus couldn’t take anybody new at a stop because it was so full. It’s pretty amazing the growth we’ve seen in …
It’s not only the price of black gooey fossil oil that’s crashing. Palm oil is tanking as well: Palm oil prices have nearly halved after hitting a peak in March, when surging crude oil prices boosted interest in the biofuels derived from palm oil. Analysts blame the rapid plunge on a supply glut and a …
Michael Campana has the remarkable story of Ron Rivera, who died earlier this month: Rivera, a former Peace Corps volunteer (Panama) born in the Bronx of Puerto Rican parents, spent the last 25 years traveling to Asia, Latin America, and Africa, teaching locals how to throw ceramic pots that would transform dirty water into its potable …
Continue reading ‘Saving One Life at a Time with Clean Water’ »
On T. Boone Pickens: Pickens is a believer in the ability of free markets to solve our energy problems. Except when he’s not.
I’ll be on KNME this evening at 7 p.m. (public television here in Albuquerque) talking about T. Boone Pickens’ energy ideas. The show’s also webcast here (not posted yet, not sure when it will go up).
Ian Sample had an odd little bit of argument earlier this week in the Guardian about the role of GM crop politics in feeding the worlds’ hungry. First up to the lectern is Sir David King: Sir David King, who left the job at the end of last year, says anti-scientific attitudes towards modern agriculture …
Food prices have gotten a lot tamer of late. The Economist Food Price index out today is 3 percent down from last month, and after the astronomical prices earlier this year, just 22 percent above year-ago levels.
This piece by the AP’sMichael Casey poses a bit of a challenge for market believers like me: Over the past decade, Indonesia went from growing more than half its soy to relying on the U.S. for 70 percent of it. Now the poor among this country’s 220 million people are going hungry because of changes thousands …