Locavores...
Oh yeah, 'locavore' is now a valid English word, thanks to the. Now that is besides the facts, let me get to my gist.
An for a post-consumerist economy: Locally produced goods and services focused on what surrounding communities need and can sustain. That is, sustainable growth while remaining environmentally responsible. The school ( I wonder if you can call them that) claim our present consumption patterns may be convenient but not smart
Is this viable? Are the driving forces (responsible greed), strong enough to drive a model like this? This is sort of like the idea of freely investing in without much prodding by the government. Ideas like these have become rather (audio). NGO's and pilot programs urging Africans to adopt models that ride on other sentiments besides selfish interests. Is there any merit to this? Can we afford this? Can we possibly skip the middle ages of economic development and simply join in at the trendy haute level?
Others like , think it is just hot air and the status quo will remain for a long time.
...people who think the key to human survival is to cut ourselves off from the world economy and buy and sell only in local markets. This approach has been
**Mentally scrolling***
tried before -- in Europe, after the fall of the Roman Empire. We call this
period the Dark Ages. ...Which is not to argue against buying local produce. I do it whenever I can -- it's tastier. It's also more expensive, but thanks to the wealth produced by ever-expanding technology and world trade, I can afford it. After two or three more decades of growth through trade, so (I hope) will millions more, in this country and throughout the world.
A discussion at the (comment section), and a video at , raise questions about Africa's informal economies. Is the above economic model relevant to informal markets in Africa. An economic model based on a local model rather than one with a global focus. Where the focus will be on wealth creation rather than an infusion of outside monies. Is this alternative worth considering. Many African economist are locked into Keynes, Smith and Ethier, thinking outside the box in developmental economics is a difficult task, because one is left with no framework to work with (dude you have to come up with the algerbra). A few questions then arise; Is the drive for FDI the only alternative to economic growth? If there are other alternatives, who will come up with a new theory of growth?
I am not very familiar with developmental economic as a matter of fact I resented it in school. Isn't silly that this post follows one singing the praise of outsourcing.
15Comment(s):
Locavores? Dude whatchu smoking?
errr..
Local production/consumption was central to the theories and experiments of Depency school of (marxian) devellopment economics ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_theory ).
but see, the main reason people buy imports is because they're cheap(er). Making imports more expensive would be the easy way to reverse the situation. But while many europeans could afford to pay more for (local) food if they cared, most africans are already on tight budgets limited to absolute necessities (food, transport, health, education).
The solution could be to definetly make local products cheaper.. France, Japan and the US subsidize local production because they can and because there isnt anything else they could do (except a politically explosive reduction of labour costs). One should look into what makes costs so high in Africa. it's not labour which is already as low as it could get. It's probably a lack of technology/productivity/industrialization but changing that is a long, costly process. What's left, IMO is the transport costs. They have fallen on long distances but they remain high within Africa or even within countries and changing that is less politically explosive than giving land to zimbabwean farmers...
@RandomAfrican so I take it that you see the possibilities. You aren't cormfortable with the challenges. Right?
i'm not sure what you mean by "uncomfortable with the challenges"..
I mean yesterday i was writing a post for my blog and started wondering if i wasnt too much of negativist or something..
i don't know.
i guess i tend to look at past solutions and the problems they have generated and feel like we wont get it right until we discuss the problems each solution generates.
so i dont know. the challenge is HUGE and i'm comfortable with that. what i'm uncomfortable with is the sometimes common underestimation of the challenges.
Random African, like you said, local production and self-dependence was central in dependency theory... I have to think more on this but I am wondering whether it is in any way sustainable, especially for African countries.
Let's look at the proposition about making local goods cheaper.... Remember, one of the basic principles of neo-liberalism - which most,if not all, African countries subscribe to - is throwing away protectionism... add to this the fact that most African countries are too poor to subsidise anything... then add to this mix the fact that IMF, WB and WTO will severely discipline countries that go against the canon... and there goes the idea of subsidies.
Another place to look at would be regional integration. But then, trade between ECOWAS countries, for instance, are largely in goods that originate from outside Africa...
I think that technology would certainly help, and I also think that FDI would also not be a bad idea...
Hmm...I really have to think further about this.
Locavore...I think I heard this word on NPR driving home last night and momentarily fantasized about the concept working in Nigeria... "Too idealistic", was my assessment after chewing on the idea for a few minutes.
@Imnakoya we definitely listened to the same program that is where the idea came from. I actually emailed Frum afterwards.
Okay, how about a hybrid, where only goods that will realtively disadvantageous will be produced outside the locale. Also loacl in Africa does not have to defined the same way it is done in San Fransisco. In a model like this local will mean the smallest concentric cirle that will remain sustainable. One would only expect that the radius of this sicrle in Africa will be larger than that in the U. S. , but the model essentally holds. Personally the model does not seem strong enough, yet it makes for a lively discussion and causing my stongly theoretical econ. folks throw a pissy fit.
Lomnie,
i think the situation is more complicated than that..
1. more the past 50 years, you have to remember that it was actually imports that were subsidized in many african countries, be it by food aid, direct subsidies, preferential exchange rates or even the american/european subsidies.
2. there is a logic to the anti-protectionism policies. pure protectionism (via tarrifs and limited quantities) actually raise the price of import so that local production becomes attractive and hopes that the protection would allow local production to blossom. but meanwhile, it DOES make food more expensive. And in our countries much of the population can barely afford enough food to survive and most can barely afford necessities like health and education. if other conditions necessary to boost/improve local agriculture don't exist, it's the poor who will suffer.
3. in reality, african countries did both. imports were subsidized AND there was protectionism. How come ? think import licenses. Mr A is allowed to import product X at a favorable exchange rate but mr A has the exclusivity, so he can charge whatever. And meanwhile in the countryside, the cost of transport (and the lack of technology) makes product X too expensive to compete with Mr A's product X even after he took his major cut.
I mean, regional integration won't really change that. In fact national integration doesn't. And while the WB and the IMF tend to be heavy handed, they would agree that spending amount X on roads would be better spent that on direct subsidies (which always bear the risk to go to Mr A and his politically connected friends).
It's really about being careful, yo
Hmm... RA, you are right. I simply have to remember that there is no quick-fix remedy for these situations. Things are so tied together that one cannot easily decide on a first point of intervention. Your scenario actually reminds me of the case of informal transborder trade - my research area - and the ways in which even the policies you described are undermined by the policies of neighbouring countries. Say country A protects the rice industry by imposing a high import tarrif, country B encourages the importation of rice through its ports, from where it is further exported into country A. This, for country B, is simply business, especially when country B does not have much more than its ports....
I am not directly linking this to the original topic of this post, but I am using it to highlight the complexity of the situation, even when one considers regional integration only.obpqxd
basically the dependency school gave us success stories like Korea and horror stories like the Democratic Kampuchea..
which kind of protectionism makes people starve and which kind makes people rich ?
how about a hybrid, where only goods that will realtively disadvantageous will be produced outside the locale
well that's already the case, isnt it ?
futhermore, while there is something to be said about the cost of production and what it involves in terms of technology, scale savings, mechanization, irrigation etc (hello, Zimbabwe), it would be interesting to concentrate on sale costs. what does a pound of rice cost where it's consumed and why.
studies like these http://spore.cta.int/spore111/spore111_feature.asp#3 suggest that in many cases, the sale cost of local products would be competitive if the transport costs were reduced.
and nobody dies of hunger because of roads.
@Loomie this are indeed convoluted issues, however it is almost as if we as African have become impatient to the point that any experiences a time out in our minds before any result positive or negative is seen.
I hope our restlessness and impatience does not become counter productive in the long run. Personally I think we ought to be more pre-occupied with pointing Africa in the right direction than trying to make Africa a growth miractle. If the latter happens, good.
I appreciate you guys sharing your thoughts with me.
@Random Africa, isn't that what they are already doing. Oh yes, by doing it more and been more focused. Essentially making it a primary policy objective...lol..thanks man.
@Lomnie,
Are you talking about Nigeria and the Republic of Benin ? because that's the case that jumped to my mind when i read your description.
it's interesting to me that in that particular case it really goes both ways.. cocoa (or other exports) producers in Nigeria would actually smuggle their production through Benin to avoid the marketing board/exchange rate taxation of exports in Nigeria.
(now that I think about it, Ghana and Togo had similar dynamic)
Furthermore, the situation in Ecowas is actually good. The roads do exist, the official tarrifs are low to non-existent. Some parts aren't lucky.
To Omodudu,
Yes efforts are made in that direction but we could do even better:
- many of the infrastructure projects are still city-centric. As the spore article suggested the biggest cost remains the first few miles to even get to the major beat-down road. may be it's baby steps and it's important to build the backbone of the network before the branches, may be there's a political lack of will that favors visible investments in plaves voters are.
- i know you read Delong so i bet you saw this before: http://gallery.mac.com/jbdelong/100005/wafrica/web.jpg
man, the 4 hours of the 12 hour road trip from lagos to calabar are spent in traffic generated by checkpoints. Including a full hour for the 10 miles before Benin City.that's a cost.
when i travelled from Lagos to Cotonou is spent 40 minutes on the road on the nigerian side and 20 on the beninois side. but most importantly i spent 1 hour at the nigerian side of the border (and i was getting OUT of the country) and 5 minutes at the beninois side (and i was getting INTO Benin).
why the fuck do the quarantine service even have a desk on the outgoing side of the nigerian border ?
that's the kind of corruption costs that Greg Clarck didnt see.
man, thanks for sharing YOUR ideas. that's what we all need, more discussions, more points of view, more debate and better arguments, ALL of us.
so thanks.
I'm interning at a partnership that talks abt issues like this right now.
Even if part of all this NGO business is for selfishness reasons sometimes, it's still a win-win situation at the end of the day...there's still somn to gain in the improvement of the country.
Hey @Jaycee it is nice to here from someone in the middle of these things. In the not too distant past, that was the thinking, ie. that since we are working for 'what appears to be good' it is a win win situation. It has been found not to be the case.
A few questions have surfaced;
Is Aid and support indeed harmless?
Does aid and support weaken goverments?
So the win-win arguement should be handled with care.
In this case, lets say the government decides to pursue a policy that open up the market the NGO's will actually be counterproductive. A possibility ain't it. Thanks for coming by, that is so impressive.