Better the potato goes to Africa than Mr. Potato Head.
Posted on 11/21/2013 1:04:19 AM PST by Olog-hai
Partnering with the private sector, Germany wants more potatoes to take root in Sub-Saharan Africa in an effort to address chronic food shortages there, but development aid groups are skeptical about mixing business interests with public funding.
“The potato must go to Africa,” said Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz, state secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), a few months ago.
Beerfeltz was keeping a straight face as he marked the launch of the Potato Initiative Africa (PIA), which is supported by BMZ.
Under the leadership of German potato producer Europlant, a number of companies—including multinational corporations like Bayer, Syngenta and AGCO International—intend to make the potato competitive in Sub-Saharan Africa, starting with Kenya and Nigeria. …
(Excerpt) Read more at euractiv.com ...
Would you like fries with that?
Better the potato goes to Africa than Mr. Potato Head.
Why not send capitalism to Africa?
That would be the way to go. Have to get rid of all of the tyrants, first.
I’d be very nervous about introducing a non-native plant to Africa; the environmental consequences of non-native species establishing themselves in new areas can be devastating and costly. Consider the problem in the US with kudzu, zebra mussels, and nutria, to name a few invasive species. There are edible tuber species in Africa; why not develop ways to grow those large scale?
Also, I agree with the comment above: Africans need more freedom and capitalism. Those will do more to solve the food problems than introducing non-native species will.
Potato is not native to Europe...originally from the Americas...and did quite well.
Potatoes grow in poor soil and dry areas...and would be a good crop for the parts of Africa projected.
None of your examples were brought over here as food although kudzu is edible. Zebra mussels clean the water.
Potatoes are non native to North America and Europe. Where are they causing problems?
Almost every food grown in America is non native.
These species were brought to North America at a time when we were not so environmentally aware. My point is that non-native species, such as the three that I mentioned, often take over and drive out or eliminate native species. The cost of trying to control these non-native species can be astronomical; keeping water intakes clear of zebra mussels, for example, cost over a billion dollars per year in the early 1990s. Many of the weeds we see every day are non-native—thistles, tumbleweed, dandelions, oat grass, etc., all came from seeds dumped with ballast.
Another problem with non-native species introductions is disease. Many of our native frogs are being wiped out by a disease carried by African frogs that were brought here for research and farming; the African frogs barely even get sick, but our native frogs usually die. Bats are dying in droves in the northeast from a fungus which was probably introduced from somewhere else.
Given the costs associated with controlling non-native species, and the environmental damage they cause, I would be highly hesitant to introduce species to a continent where they do not currently exist. Africans have enough of a challenge developing economically without introducing environmental costs on top of everything else.
“Given the costs associated with controlling non-native species, and the environmental damage they cause, I would be highly hesitant to introduce species to a continent where they do not currently exist. Africans have enough of a challenge developing economically without introducing environmental costs on top of everything else.”
Yes, and given the “non-native” potato would allow more Africans to eat and get healthy and then destroy the environment, better to let them starve and die and avoid all that “environmental cost” that is so important to a healthy planet, right? Do I need to add a sarcasm tag?
Doesn’t the potato need cold weather to propagate? At which point, it is only of use in South Africa.
About the only way this is possible is through GM. Though the amount of modification needed to make a potato that could function there is pretty impressive.
1) Drought resistant.
2) Insect and disease resistant.
3) Produces its own nitrogen (some legumes do this.)
4) Relatively fast growing.
5) Produces rare and desired micro-nutrients.
6) Acts as nutritionally complementary to other food crops in the area.
Some of this might be achieved by planting it interspersed with another plant, that might directly help it, like fixing nitrogen, or fending off insects.
They might take a different tack, by instead of trying to put potatoes there, by improving yams, which are both widely used and popular in Africa.
The powers that be in Africa cannot spend potatoes, just send cash, and they will distribute it to the poor.../s
It seems most commentary shares the same primary concerns of environmental compatibility and cost of containment. Many excellent pro and con arguments are raised based on history and credible research.
However, one interesting factor seems to have been ignored, which is, acceptance. In other words, will the average African accept the taste of the potatoes in which ever form it is marketed. If the African palate rejects the potato, then all the other concerns are moot.
Gevalia may be a Swedish brand, but apparently they don't grow the coffee there.
So Africans should live on a handful of native crops, while the rest of the world has the nutrition and variety available from all of the world? The vast majority of food grown around the world isn't native. In fact most of it wouldn't even exist in nature. It's a product of genetic modification by way of human agriculture.
Those species you mentioned are exceptions. And you still haven't shown how potatoes have been harmful to the environment outside of South America.
“...at a time when we were not so environmentally aware”
You call yourself exDem, but you talk like a dem.
Give a starving man a potato and he will eat it.
They’re eating bugs and starving over there, plant taters as far as the eye can see as far as I’m concerned.
That you’re more worried about environmentalism than starving humanity throws the “ex” in your screen name into question.
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