Agricultural Economics—Without Apology
Now that I have figured out how to embed videos in this version of WordPress, the Friday Afternoon Musical Interlude is back. Given YouTube’s constraint on video length and the length of this song, this week’s interlude is in two parts.
“Joy,” by Shakti with John McLaughlin:
An article in the New York Times last Sunday:
“Nationwide, the number of farmers’ markets has jumped to 7,175 as of August 5; of those, 1,043 were established this year, according to the federal Agriculture Department. In 2005, there were 4,093 markets across the country.
Here in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, where hand-painted signs for fresh vegetables dot winding roads and eating local has long been a way of life, some farmers and market managers are uttering something once unfathomable: there are too many farmers’ markets.”
Oh no! Heaven forbid that consumers — who, last I checked, still vastly outnumbered farmers — would actually have too much choice and pay too little for healthful foods, right?
Brooks Goes Kristof
A column by David Brooks in Monday’s New York Times, which seems to have gone unnoticed by the development chatterati:
“As you talk to people involved in the foreign aid business — on the giving and the receiving ends — you are struck by how much disillusionment there is.