M. Nam–wherabouts do you live? It’s possible the local organic markets are just not well developed enough yet. Organic farming requires a lot of skill, labor, experience, and knowledge. It might just take time.

dhaavak, waiting! Wacky link to the Texan thing. Asvin, thanks for the documentary links. Thanks for the tip Theresa!

Vinod–I think everyone else has pretty much said what I was going to say. But basically, yes, I’m a big fan of Oxfam’s campaign against excessive subsidies, tarrifs, and quotas, and yes, that will make a big difference. I see this as a completely different kind of creature. Demand curves are not static–they can be shifted and even created. That’s what marketing is all about. This is a kind of marketting, albeit one that’s more contentful than most.

if in delhi, or other metros you could check out the clothing line “bindaas unlimited” they sell veg-dyed fabrics made in rajasthan, shirts, pants, etc. and it’s all self-supported by the villages themselves, the owners of the company bring the technology and invest in villages to create the cloth, then buy it themselves, create clothing and sell it. they also have helped the villages get their own contracts to make the fabric at excellent rates. and the products are cool, different and durable.

of course they have zero web-presence. but they are out there… as are many other homegrown companies that support indigenous goods at fair prices.

another great development, that is happening in the area i work (chitrakut, mp) as well, is the employment of the women’s self-help groups (e.g. micro-credit) to handle the marketing and distribution of the organic goods being created.

in uttaranchal a women’s self help group is helping local farmers market an indigenous crop to be the new prasad for the temples. the women take the crop (forgetting the name), create the sweets, sell them and split the profits. completely revamping a depressed area.

i know that the macro level is important but these micro-enterprises are doing wonders..

I understand the concerns expressed about setting up “perverse incentives”, Vinod, but what do good libertarians say about labels like “Rug-Mark” and “Fair-Trade” that ensure that no child-labor is used ? With a problem like this, it seems to me that you can’t escape either govt intervention (i.e. enforcement of child-labor laws) or “market-distorting” systems like Fair-Trade. Actually this documentary had a bunch of different working systems that might make a libertarian tear her hair out — for eg. the govt of Brazil gives out money to mothers if their children have perfect monthly attendance at school, and the govt of Kenya abolished school fees (that had existed as a result of structural-adjustment mandates by the WB/IMF) dramatically increasing school enrollment.

I’m no economist, but it seems to me that if child labor is a situation unacceptable enough to warrant govt interventions and market distorting programs, then the desperate plight of cotton/rice/coffee farmers might be one too.

I highly recommend the film: you’ll hear about children in India that are indentured for years for sums of money as small as $5, children chained to their looms for hours a day, and the amazing Kailash Satyarthi who works to free them.

The Rice Patent RiceTec Inc, was issued the Patent number 5663484 on Basmati rice lines and grains on September 2, 1997. In abstract, “the invention relates to novel rice lines and to plants and grains of these lines. The invention also relates to a novel means for determining the cooking and starch properties of rice grains and its use in identifying desirable rice lines. Specifically, one aspect of the invention relates to novel rice lines whose plants are semi-dwarf in stature, substantially photoperiod insensitive and high yielding, and produce rice grains having characteristics similar or superior to those of good quality Basmati rice. Another aspect of the invention relates to novel rice lines produced from novel rice lines. The invention provides a method for breeding these novel lines. A third aspect…relates to the finding that the starch index (SI) of a rice grain can predict the grain’s cooking and starch properties, to a method based thereon for identifying grains that can be cooked to the firmness of traditional Basmati rice preparations, and to the use of this method in selecting desirable segregants in rice breeding programs.” (2)

I agree with you that eliminating tariffs and quotas is a necessary but insufficient step. Unfortunately, something like this, while warm-hearted and friendly around the margins, doesn’t really solve the second problem. Economic development in poor countries will ultimately be the result of erducing the immense market inefficiencies that allow the middleman to prosper.

Hari

I think Oxfams campaigns tageting tariffs, quotas etc is good. But I don’t see it necessarily solving all the problems. The Fair trade movement takes a step further and ensures that a “fair share” of this $350B increase (if at all it happens) will reach the farmers who grow the products instead of the middlemen in the supply chain.

I see the two campaigns as working at different ends of the supply chain.

there’s no inherent contradiction between the fair trade approach and the oxfam-supported free trade approach. the latter is clearly something that deserves to be a global policy priority. the former is simply a form of market segmentation. it isn’t that simple for a farmer in a developing country to “go limp” and wait for the activists to show up. first, it would be a crapshoot because there aren’t enough activists to go round! and second, it’s not a windfall for the farmer — typically fair trade operations are quite demanding of the farmers they work with; the transition requires considerable investment and/or changes in farming, labor, etc practices.

i’m all with you on eradicating the subsidies and barriers by which the rich countries shelter their ag markets from developing country products — and which also result in dumping that undermines developing country production and self-sufficiency. i’ll raise a toast with you to this outcome… with a cup of Equal Exchange fair-trade coffee (tastes great, too, and cheaper than Starbucks!)

peace

In my interpretation of Libertarianism, any market-related activity that does not involve government control – is free-market economics. If it makes economic sense – it will catch on. If not, it will fail.

Other examples of this: Private Islamic banking(no interest), Socially Responsible Mutual funds (they don’t invest in Cigarette/Gambling stocks).

M. Nam