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Beyond GM Technology

There is an interesting article I came across here by Jeremy Rifkin in the Washington Post.

In recent years a lot of attention has been paid to GM technologies. At the same time GM crops are becoming less popular, in part because of public opposition and in part because the insects and weeds that GM crops are intended to compete with have been developing natural resistance to these technologies. There is also an increasing body of scientific evidence suggesting health, environmental and safety problems with GM technologies.

So what comes next? What do we do when it’s time to move beyond GM technology?

One likely contender is called Marker Assisted Selection (MAS). You know all of these genome projects we have been hearing about, the mouse, the human, insects, even H5N1 bird flu? So far it hasn’t had much meaning to us, because there haven’t been any real world applications. It turns out this technology has been developing slowly, and scientists are starting to be able to identify marker genes that are connected to specific traits.

If I am looking for the perfect tomato, and it doesn’t exist yet, I need to select two different tomatoes to cross pollinate and hope I get something closer to what I want. If however, I have a catalog of gene maps of different varieties of tomatoes and I can use this information to better select candidates for cross pollination, the process can go much faster. Indeed if it’s possible to do computer simulations and modelling, I may be able to predict in advance exactly what will happen if any given two tomatoes are crossed. This is like doing what people have been doing for centuries with their own plants, and what occurs in nature anyway, but using a computer to help it go faster. This sort of information will be easier to share via computer networks, and stores of ‘open source’ genetic information can be made available to everyone.

It turns out one of the greatest risks to being able to use this technology is GM technology as it is used now. It may prove very difficult to remove GM contamination from crops, and this contamination may make MAS much less effective.  What is also critical for this kind of technology is biodiversity, something current seed laws and farming policies are putting under pressure.

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Dutch Politics Quickly Explained

Since today is election day in Holland, and there is not a lot growing in the garden, I thought I would write about something completely non-garden related — Dutch politics.

As I write this, the latest news is on the BBC website here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6170444.stm

Elections in many countries result in one winner, usually one person or one political party. In Holland, this is possible, but doesn’t usually happen. In Holland seats in parliament are won in the general election, with the most seats going to parties which get the most votes. 76 seats are needed to form a government, and unless one party gets this many seats outright different parties will have to come together to form a coalition government. Parties in the government nominate members for Prime Minister and other cabinet positions.

This election there are 24 different parties on the ballot. Here are a few of the more important ones:

Christian Democrats (CDA): Center right party, currently the largest party in the government coalition. This party is led by Jan Peter Balkenende, who is the current Dutch Prime Minister. This party is currently leading in the polls, and is expected to be the party that wins the majority of seats in the election. This party gets most of it’s votes from religious communities. PM Balkenende is himself a Calvinist-Protestant.

Liberals (VVD): This is liberal in the classic, European and economic sense, not in the North American sense. This party is center right to right, and could perhaps be compared with the US Republicans or UK Tories. It is a member of the current ruling government coalition. It’s most famous member is the current Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk also known as ‘Iron Rita’, because of her uncompromising stance on immigration issues. Minister Verdonk is behind the recent proposal to ban the wearing of a burka in Holland. A dispute between her and the D66 party (see below), triggered the collapse of the current government. This party gets most of it’s votes from the country’s wealthy. This party is not doing well in the polls, and rarely gets more than a few percent of the vote in any election anyway.

1966 Democrats (D66): Formed in 1966 from some of the most radical politicians of the time, this party has become very mainstream. It’s sometimes hard to tell if they are center left or center right, in fact it can often be hard to tell where they stand on anything. They promote themselves as being ‘honest’, and they triggered the collapse of the Dutch government a few months ago over it’s handling of the issues surrounding PM Ayaan Hirsi Ali. This affair led to her resigning from the Dutch government and moving to the US. Most votes for D66 come from people who are tired of all the other political parties, and want something different. They are not doing well now in the polls, and rarely get more than a few percent of the vote, but occasionally do very well. They are liked by many other parties, and frequently find their way into government coalitions.

Labor (PvdA): This is the largest and best known center left party. It is doing well in the polls, and is expected to get the second highest number of votes behind CDA. A few months ago it was doing so well in the polls, it seemed certain to be the clear winner in this election. In the last round of local elections, it was the clear winner in most places. It’s very possible it will score last minute gains in popularity, and come out as the largest party in the elections. Reportedly 40% of Dutch voters are still undecided. This party gets most of it’s votes from the working class. It has taken a lot of criticism in recent years for being too quick to forget its ideals and too willing to give up its stand on issues in the name of political expediency. For this reason they are losing a lot of votes to SP (below) because many voters think SP will stand firmer on their ideals.

Socialist Party (SP): This left party gets most of it’s votes from the unemployed or the lower classes. They also do better when the economy is not doing so well. As a party they can be unpredictable, so most other political parties don’t like working with them. They are rarely considered a serious political party, but sometimes get a lot of votes. The polls show them doing well this election, and it’s possible PvdA will try to form a government with them, possibly together with Groenlinks (see below).

Green Left (Groenlinks): This party was formed many years ago from a number of extreme left wing parties, but in recent years has become more center left. They get a lot of their votes from younger and/or more environmentally oriented people. They rarely do well in national elections, but sometimes do well in local elections. They are not doing particularly well in the polls, but may get a few seats. It’s possible they may emerge as a minority partner in a government coalition.

Okay, so these are the parties, what’s likely to happen in the election? Probably either CDA or PvdA will get the most seats. Whoever gets the most seats will try first to form a coalition, and if they fail the next largest will try. If no government can be formed, there will be another round of elections.

If CDA gets the most seats, it may have a hard time finding a coalition partner. PvdA was excluded from this last government because CDA didn’t want to work with them, so a coalition now between these two parties while perhaps the most logical thing, might not be so easy. It is certain the VVD will want to be a coalition partner, but it may not get very many votes. Since D66 triggered the collapse of the current government, they may not be a desirable coalition partner. It all comes down to exactly how many seats CDA actually gets.

If PvdA gets the most votes, it will probably prefer to form a coalition with CDA, which is why people are voting for SP instead of PvdA in order to try to prevent this coalition. PvdA may also be able to form a coalition between the various other left parties, because polls show most people will vote for a left or center left party, so there should be enough seats amongst these parties to form a government. PvdA will not want to form a government from a lot of splinter parties, because it may not be a stable government. Any sort of an all left coalition will almost certainly include SP, and PvdA does not like SP very much.

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An End to World Hunger

The US Department of Agriculture has figured out how to get rid of hunger. They gave it a new name. Instead of hunger we now have ‘food insecurity’!

According to a recent USDA report, 11% of US households are ‘food insecure’. One has to assume that since they chose to rate households these figures don’t include homeless or people otherwise not living in a home, and so at an obviously higher risk of not eating well. This is a really unacceptable statistic for a country like the United States.

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Direct from the Farmer

I’m sorry to post a link to a page that is in Dutch (and Fries), but below I am going to tell you what it is:

http://www.vaneigenerffryslan.nl

For more than a year now I have been visiting a farm near my garden in Fryslân, a Dutch province formerly called Friesland, and buying cheese and eggs from them. They have a small store front, run by the farmer and his wife and occasionally an older person who is probably one of their parents.

Sometimes I go there, the store is empty, and there is a little sign that says ‘I am out on the land or in the barn, please come looking for me.’ On quests to find the person to buy cheese from, I have personally met both the chickens and cows my food comes from. His farm is not small, more than 18 hectares, or about 40 acres.

I haven’t taken him up on the offer yet, but paid tours are available for those who are interested.

Not only are all of his products organic, and some of the best tasting cheese and eggs I have ever had, but the farmer takes a great deal of pride in what he feeds and how he treats his animals. His cows are ‘grass fed’ in the sense they don’t eat grain, but more than ordinary grass they eat 75 different varieties of grass and other plants, ‘herbs’ he calls them. To him the biodiversity that exists on his farm is key to the quality of his products and the health of his animals.

His animals are not ordinary. Some of his cows are what Americans call ‘oreo cookie’ cows, in that they are black front and back and have a white stripe in the middle.  Most of his other cows are old breeds, presumably Dutch or Fries varieties. He is very excited about all of his cows, and he will tell you all about the differences in them. They have different lifetimes, milk yield curves, and economic value to him. His chickens are equally interesting. Sometimes the eggs I get are white, sometimes brown and sometimes blue (from Mexican chickens he says).

He knows me by face, and frequently rushes into the back to get the best of whatever he has on offer at that moment. Sometimes what he has is something that has gone wrong, for example cheese that has too many holes (because it was too warm when he made it). I have learned really a lot about how his cheese is made, by tasting his ‘mistakes’, many of which have their own unique and delicious tastes.

By supermarket standards he is really cheap. Eggs are about the same price, 2 euros for 10. The price of his cheese varies, but is about 7 euros per Kg! I don’t think it’s possible to find any cheese that cheap in any supermarket.

So after all that I have said here, you know what the most surprising thing to me is? In all the times I have visited him, I have never seen another customer. I have to take a short walk through the woods to get to his shop, and there are a few spiders there. Sometimes I break spider webs along the way. Sometimes I show up at the end of the day and break spider webs, suggesting to me that I am his only customer that day! I have my own personal farmer, who exists only to serve me and who lives off of the 30 euros a month I give him, that’s what it seems like.

Anyway, so what is the URL above? He’s now online! Together with other farmers in the neighborhood, he is offering his products for delivery most places in Holland. In addition, many of the other farmers have store fronts on their farms, and it’s possible to go and meet them too. I hope I’m not the only one to order from them.

Following links off the page above, it’s possible to find other farmers all over Holland, including near or in all the major cities.

So the homework tonight for anyone reading this is to go surfing on the Internet and find the farmers near you. Go and visit them! Meet the farmers, and ask them to tell you about what they sell. Most of them are really excited about their products, and are eager to tell you about them. If you are interested in what they sell, ask them what kind of informal distribution systems they have for their products. Ask them about other farmers in the neighborhood. Ask them for a tour of their farm if you are interested.

Don’t start at a farmers market, the stands there are usually only run by larger farms, and you will miss out on small farmers this way. Whatever you do, go meet the farmer!

When you meet the farmer, don’t tell him his products don’t meet your expectations, save that for the minimum wage worker at the farmers market who is paid to take that. Don’t tell him there is chicken poop on his eggs, he doesn’t care. Don’t tell the farmer his products are too expensive, he is not trying to rip you off only earn a living wage. Nearly all farmers in this position are doing it because they love what they do and not because they are making any money what so ever. If he doesn’t offer to let you select what you buy, just take what he gives you. It’s not fair to expect to buy only the nicest few things he has, again save this for the minimum wage worker at the farmer’s market. If there is any reason you don’t like his products, you can go looking somewhere else.

Don’t just go to the supermarket and buy certified organic or free range foods, these certifications mean less and less all the time as standards are watered down. There is no certification more meaningful than the farmer telling you himself his products are organic and/or free range, don’t believe anything else. In addition, everything you buy at the supermarket goes through central distribution systems, which among other things means the farmer gets the smallest amount of money possible and you pay the most.

Go hand your money to the farmer himself, and make sure you pay the fairest price for the highest quality product and the farmer gets paid a fair price too!