Duke University and the University of North Carolina have jointly decided upon Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals as summer reading for their respective incoming classes this year:
Published February 23, 2011
Category: Food
Published February 23, 2011
Thoughts on PepsiCo in Mexico
A few days ago, The New York Times had an article discussing the gains to trade created by contract farming arrangements between PepsiCo and smallholders in Jalisco, Mexico. What the article describes is typical in the academic literature on agricultural value chains:
Published February 22, 2011
Meanwhile in Morocco
In case you have been wondering what has been happening in Morocco in response to political unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, the New York Times had a good article on the topic a few days ago.
As it turns out, food prices have apparently been playing a role in Morocco as well:
On Sunday, in response to a ‘February 20 Movement for Change’ that began on Facebook, more than 10,000 people turned out in cities across the country to call for democratic change, lower food prices, freedom for Islamist prisoners, rights for Berbers and a variety of causes, including pan-Arab nationalism. (…)
[T]he adviser, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that the king was listening, having recently promised to invest $1.9 billion in subsidies to ease high prices for food and basic commodities.
On a personal note, my wife and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary in Marrakesh in October 2009. Here is a picture we took on our first night of the food stalls on Djemaa el Fna Square.
