Group-led versus revolutionary change.

This post is terribly overdue. Following up on my series of articles about change and how to interact it, I’m here highlighting a theoretical conflict that goes back to the cold war (which, unfortunately, defined a LOT of how people who are older than 35 see the world). I point out that the conflict doesn’t really need to exist any more, and rather everyone doing their own part is okay.

Related posts:

Visions of a New Moral

The inspiration for this post is as a response to the general feeling of social malaise that a lot of people see in America right now. Not the recession per se, but it’s the changing of a larger cultural pattern. I’m arguing that there’s been a new moral, social and intellectual code forming that governs America, and that the solution is filled by new sustainability. Living things, resurgent connection, the environmental and financial sustainability movement. Feel me? I’ve been writing about this theory for a while, let’s see if it comes out coherent. The story is that influences of the age of tyranny and mass murder, are changing how people feel, which is accelerated and driven by the forces of technology.

Yes we CAN! Summer Intern Thoughts

Eddie is so happy to be back within internet range (*internet grasp?) to be able to share about wonderful experiences and thoughts. In particular, it was 2.5 months in CoopaBuena, Costa Rica, which lies about 30 kilometers from Panama on the South side. See background post: /~/a-different-perspective-participatory-action-research/. After the fact, I’ve not only grown in a lot of personal ways (next post, a good dual purpose of this blog) but have some sound advice for organizations, researchers, and extension agents who are looking to expand to this area.

Julio

Check out the crazy new format! Inspired by twitter (follow me: http://twitter.com/eddiemill/), let me know what you think of it. Do you have time to read long posts?

Today’s post is about Julio, the man with the most beautiful farm in the world, my good friend and co-founder of a model farm that will change the world.

“Anda tranquilo”: Nicaragua and World Growth

Hello all,
Just finished a week of traveling and studying the case of the brilliant but under-represented Nicaragua, just North of Costa Rica. During my time there I read Nicaragua: What Difference Could a Revolution Make? by the good people at FoodFirst Institute for Food and Development Policy, and The Open Veins of Latin America, a very incendiary telling of Latin America’s abusive colonial history. This, with my experiences on the field, lead to the main content and recommendations of this post.

Nicaragua has taken its toll in the eyes of this woman.

How to develop a country?

Ecological Economics

All production requires the circulation of materials and the utilization of energy.
So it is the most limiting factor, the first fence that we come to that stops us, that prevents sustainable equilibrium

A new science is emerging that blends a “biophysical” economic perspective with throughput of energy, and a better accounting of our real impact on this planet. Reading the text solidified a lot of the issues I was having with the discipline.

For example, what are the implications of not giving an intrinsic value to a limited resource? (oil)

Cultivate a Worldview

How does one find a world perspective with as little bias as possible? That is, the most in touch facts on what is actually going on, in a way that is personally useful and universally communicable. Having a “big picture” is our responsibility as informed citizens.

Picture for a moment the world- as you know it: we are a part. In scope and color and senses it’s far beyond anything the mind can hope to take in its full form. So we pare things down: into words, for example. You get enough of a vocabulary together, and it becomes a more coherent picture: culture, economics, relationships, responsibility… a worldview.

I have been keeping my eyes open for this multidisciplinary perspective for some time, until I think I have a pretty good idea of how things work. I don’t have any unique sources on these categories [unless my post makes me a source?], but if you want my opinion here are some of the better choices you have… the “isms” you might identify with:

International Trade doesn’t work for poor people

My mind was blown today with a critical fact of Economics.

Returns to scale are a market imperfection in competitive markets.

The entire theory of competition, markets, and trade is based on the assumption of constant or decreasing returns to scale. This concept defines all trade theory, and largely defines the policy that affects entire countries and allocation of the great bounty of the world’s resources.
But returns to scale are a fundamental aspect of international business. Returns to scale, the idea that cost is cheaper as a firm produces more, is what leads to giant consolidated multinationals, concentrated market power (and lobbying clout), and factory agriculture. These are the industries that dominate in foreign countries, the ones that can take advantage of returns to scale. In fact, when we tell developing countries to open themselves to foreign investment, it’s these types of industries that are built.

Governments acting for free trade is acting for industry.

Then we have returns to capital. The people who own more, are more likely to grow. What if allocation of resources is originally uneven? And information is uneven? That might lead to initial conditions being exaggerated in the form of country inequality: rather than poor countries being able to catch up they are already behind on the big scalable high-wage jobs.

What about comparative advantage? Poor people have no comparative advantage. There is no perfect awareness among non-Americans, as Winters et. al write “there is evidence that poorer households are less able to protect themselves or take advantage of positive opportunities by trade reform” (emphasis mine). Who produces these comparative-advantage goods? Savvy foreign entrepreneurs who CAN take advantage of opportunity. For them, they see cheap labor. And bring in technology that raises total country output/head. The poor not only lose what they were doing to import competition, but get unskilled, low wage jobs, the benefits of which go to capital owners and middle men who understand international systems, and their resources are used more intensively, not for them. Inequality is exaggerated (returns to scale, again) and most of the profit is siphoned into foreigners hands or reinvested in growth (capitalists are rarely satisfied to just make a profit). For what end does this growth aim? “Those that do benefit directly increase their input consumption, production, and consumption of goods and services.” The winners get to consume more. But CEOs and developed countries consistently score the saddest on international surveys! By making money, the poor remain a given (their wage will increase once everyone in the world’s does…) and externalize the things that do matter in the name of increased world consumption.

Jobs do not equal growth. Poor are not creators in capitalism. Those who earn more do not know happiness.

All free trade is based on fundamental assumptions. Decreasing returns to scale is one of them. In International Economics, everyone has perfect awareness of opportunities, and access to international demand if your idea is good enough. Unfortunately they’re stuck behind learning curves, and we tell them not to subsidize their domestic industry. This dynamic inequality impacts thousands of millions of people; the international flow of all goods and capital is based on a lie.

How can this fundamental feature be overlooked at phase 1 of Economic theory? How can the concepts of increasing returns to scale and market power be an oversight before any microeconomics graph is drawn? This changes everything.

I don’t know whether to cry or be angry at the institutions we’ve created. Thousands of people are starving, while their countries make exports for rich people. Poor people are told they can’t farm, because rich farmers and plantation owners are better at cutting costs. Poor people are not creators. And helping them isn’t profitable for business. Then we’d have to pay them more for our jobs.

-Eddie Miller
Boston University
A Global Organic Mindset: eddiemill.wordpress.com/

Enough of what’s wrong.

We all know the problems. The only way out now is to implement constructive solutions. That’s why today I’m making the pledge to only write positive on this blog: that’s right you will not find complaints, issues, or negativity here.

I hope that my ideas and experiences can be a light for those who haven’t awakened to the power of thought yet, and be utilized as you see fit. As always, if something makes you think be sure to leave a comment. Disputes are welcome (ex: the world really is a sad place) same format or facebook.

-Eddie Miller
eddiemill.wordpress.com

The “Next Big Thing”: Bioregional Organic for international community and development

As you may know, food has been the main focus of my life now for some time. Improving the inefficiencies that exist has been a priority since my journey to Costa Rica one year ago. Tonight I had a moment unlike many others, a vision of what’s next and my role in it: a transitional role to a new market optimal.

First a brief overview, then the idea.
How conventional food systems work (I’ll use coffee for the example) is that farmers produce the crop, sell to a local intermediary who then arranges for it to be picked up, processed, and sold through various [anonymous] supply chains. Essentially, before the coffee is brought to a supermarket it is combined into some “least-common-denominator-quality” brown grind and then set into cans that can compete on lowest price (think big Maxwell House tin). The farmer gets almost nothing for his crop (while in exchange not much is expected of him) and is subject to the price variability of the free market, not to mention the mercy of nature on his plot. Unorganized producers selling to intermediaries is the worst, and has resulted in many small farmers going out of business to larger plantations. It’s simply too inefficient.

Fair Trade can be seen as a direct response to that. Its goals are to a) ensure a more constant price for farmers b) raise awareness through consumers about the product they buy, and c) encourage cooperative selling and investment among small farmers. On these scales it performs very well in providing a more just cup of coffee. Unfortunately it requires that farmers already be organized, which excludes most smallholders.

Organic production is another step up. It is certified for its a) gains to farm and crop biodiversity, b) soil health and sustainability, and c) minimized reliance on external inputs which are energy-intensive, unessential, and harm the environment. If a farmer is fair trade and organic, he gets a better price. In the US, an organic farmer is likely a happier one that sells locally. It’s also a beloved industry that has been growing 12-20% per year for its [perceived] benefits to food quality, freshness, health, and safety. Take a minute to look at these goals, until you see a farm system that is advantageous to the abomination of factory farming.

…if it’s feasible..