Focusing on the “how” of social change rather than the “who“
- Wei-Skillern et al, 2006
With governments having trouble feeding the increasing number of hungry people in developing nations, and food prices rising sharply, food scientists have proposed a novel solution for the global food crisis, which is harvesting more potatoes.
A news article in the New York Times presents how scientists, nutritionists and aid specialists are increasingly convinced that the potato should be playing a much larger role in ensuring a steady supply of food. They say that poor countries could grow more potatoes to supplement or even replace grains that are most often shipped in from far away and are subject to severe market fluctuations.
Long before the spike in prices for staple foods, China has been demonstrating potato growing and eating as a way to ensure food security and build rural income. Production in China rose 50 percent from 2005 to 2007 and the government has called potatoes “a way out of poverty”. These potatoes harvested are a good source of protein, starch, zinc and iron. As a crop, they require less energy and water to grow than wheat and they do not transport well on the world financial markets, making their price less vulnerable to market fluctuations. As well as not generally being used to produce biofuels, potatoes are the perfect candidate in solving the global food crisis. 
I think this novel solution brought to us from scientists and nutritionists is tackling the root cause of the global food crisis, which is the inaccessible food for those that earn less than a dollar a day in developing nations. This novel solution is motivated by a social value proposition, whereby it focuses on how much social value it contributes to the whole of society by utilizing natural resources that we already possess. Through this solution of harvesting potatoes, it will improve the lives of people in developing nations offering them access to food and agricultural tools to grow more potatoes. Thus, it has transformed farming and agriculture in nations such as China, Peru and India.
References:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/world/26spuds.html?ex=1382760000&en=9ffb0aff17b0ac3c&ei=5124
June 16, 2009 at 6:55 pm
The article on China is both realistic and idealistic. China has shown a remarkable ability to make a paradigm shift towards the greater production of potatoes to supplement their stable diet of rice. Such pragmatism is indeed beginning to become a role model for other nations to follow. I wonder how capable other nations are in adapting to growing more potatoes than the usual wheat, grain and corn?
June 16, 2009 at 10:54 pm
I understand that many of the developed countries will not be so happy in producing more potatoes instead of more grain, wheat and corn. I know that the US is the top producer in corn and switching to potatoes is probably out of the question. However, I believe that many developing nations should focus on potatoes to harvest because they can provide the necessary proteins and vitamins for the malnourished and they are cheaper to produce than corn. In this way, as more developing nations harvest potatoes it could be a way out of the global food crisis.