Hello All -
Let me apologize to those of you who were looking for a hearty lecture on Chapter 6 today. We didn't really get anywhere in class, but I think it was an interesting discussion.
Check out this satirical piece by George Saunders on gay marriage that was published in the New Yorker.
For the record, I stand for liberty, regardless of race, color, sex, creed, religion or sexual orientation, regardless of whether or not we disagree on a topic.
I'm just too afraid of the state (or judges, etc.) to not be.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Dr Norman Borlaug: Defeater of Malthus!
Here is an excerpt from Perloff's Micro text (fourth edition) with a link to a Webcast. The topic is Thomas Malthus and his prediction (1978) that unchecked population would grow more rapidly than food production because the quantity of land was fixed. He believed that the fixed amount of land would lead to diminishing marginal product of labor, so output would rise less than in proportion to the increase in farm workers. Malthus concluded (grimly so) that mass starvation would result.*
According to some estimates, Norman Borlaug and his fellow scientists prevented a billion deaths with their green revolution that resulted in a spectacular increase in wheat, rice, and maize production in the developing world.
Starting in Mexico, they developed new seeds and new approaches involving fertilizer, tractors, irrigation, soil treatments, and anything else that would increase production. Anything.
Hear his story in his own words.
In the late 1960s, Dr. Borlaug and his colleagues brought the techniques he developed in Mexico to India and Pakistan because of the risk of mass starvation there. The results were stunning. Pakistan's wheat crop in 1968 soared to 146% of the 1965 pre-green revolution crop. By 1970, it was 183% of the 1965 crop. The comparable outputs for India were 134% and 163%.
In 2002, Dr. Borlaug explained why Malthus was wrong:
"Biotechnology helps farmers produce higher yields on less land. This is a very environmentally favorable benefit. For example, the world's grain output in 1950 was 692 million tons. Forty years or so later, the world's farmers used about the same amount of acreage but they harvested 1.9 billion tons--a 170% increase! We would have needed an additional 1.8 billion hectars of land, instead of the 600 million used, had the global cereal harvest of 1950 prevailed in 1999 using the same conventional farming methods."
However, as Dr. Borlaug noted in his 1970 Nobel Prize speech, superior science is not the complete answer to preventing starvation. A sound economic system is needed too. It is the lack of a sound economic system that has doomed many Africans. Per capita food production has fallen in parts of Africa over the past two decades. Worse, in several recent years, mass starvation has plagued some African countries. Although droughts have contributed, these tragedies appear to be primarily due to political problem such as wars and a breakdown of economic production and distribution systems. If these economic and political problems cannot be solved, Malthus may prove to be right for the wrong reason.
*One paper by Brander and Taylor (1998) argues that such a disaster may have occurred on Easter Island around 500 years ago.
According to some estimates, Norman Borlaug and his fellow scientists prevented a billion deaths with their green revolution that resulted in a spectacular increase in wheat, rice, and maize production in the developing world.
Starting in Mexico, they developed new seeds and new approaches involving fertilizer, tractors, irrigation, soil treatments, and anything else that would increase production. Anything.
Hear his story in his own words.
In the late 1960s, Dr. Borlaug and his colleagues brought the techniques he developed in Mexico to India and Pakistan because of the risk of mass starvation there. The results were stunning. Pakistan's wheat crop in 1968 soared to 146% of the 1965 pre-green revolution crop. By 1970, it was 183% of the 1965 crop. The comparable outputs for India were 134% and 163%.
In 2002, Dr. Borlaug explained why Malthus was wrong:
"Biotechnology helps farmers produce higher yields on less land. This is a very environmentally favorable benefit. For example, the world's grain output in 1950 was 692 million tons. Forty years or so later, the world's farmers used about the same amount of acreage but they harvested 1.9 billion tons--a 170% increase! We would have needed an additional 1.8 billion hectars of land, instead of the 600 million used, had the global cereal harvest of 1950 prevailed in 1999 using the same conventional farming methods."
However, as Dr. Borlaug noted in his 1970 Nobel Prize speech, superior science is not the complete answer to preventing starvation. A sound economic system is needed too. It is the lack of a sound economic system that has doomed many Africans. Per capita food production has fallen in parts of Africa over the past two decades. Worse, in several recent years, mass starvation has plagued some African countries. Although droughts have contributed, these tragedies appear to be primarily due to political problem such as wars and a breakdown of economic production and distribution systems. If these economic and political problems cannot be solved, Malthus may prove to be right for the wrong reason.
*One paper by Brander and Taylor (1998) argues that such a disaster may have occurred on Easter Island around 500 years ago.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Interview with Joseph Stiglitz
James Surowiecki spoke with Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, about the mishandling of the financial crisis, the relationship between government and markets, and the future of capitalism around the world.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
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