Hectare. HECTARE. HECK-TARE. Gah. I am a grapefruit. (Mispronunciation background: Mispronouncing things is my thing, but the hectare example is particularly glaring, because I've been mispronouncing it--consistently--since I was in fourth grade. I just cannot get it out of my head that since it is a measurement of land area, it must be a kind of acre. I am sorry and embarrassed and mortified. Fortunately, it's not like BILL GATES IS GOING TO SEE THIS VIDEO OR ANYTHING.) -John
So I'm looking down at a plate of cheese sandwiches as the video plays, and I hear John say 'Hect-acre'. And I snap upward and I'm like, "what's that?" but then I see the annotation. No big deal, John. I used to make the mistake for a long long time, too. DFTBA!
I was just frantically Googling the difference between a hectare and hectacre when you posted this. I thought a hectacre must be some perverse imperial-metric hybrid.
Not 'basically' every processed food, *literally* every processed food. It could be worse - I could be allergic to, like, soy, wheat and nuts too.... OH WAIT, I AM!
In which John Green flies in a helicopter with Bill Gates in Ethiopia, investigates a new form of cursing, and discusses agricultural reform--specifically, how the UN's World Food Program is trying to improve maize yields in Ethiopia. If you can break the vicious cycle of low incomes leading to low harvests, agricultural productivity per hectacre can increase dramatically, as we've seen in China and Brazil. It seems boring, I know, but this is a big reason hundreds of millions of people have emerged from poverty in the past 30 years. So hopefully it will happen in Ethiopia! But, as usual, the truth resists simplicity. FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS ARE ALLOWED TO BE MORE THAN FOUR MINUTES LONG. The Gates Foundation: www.gatesfoundation.org/ The United Nations World Food Programme: www.wfp.org/ (Why all those extra letters in Programme, United Nations? AMERICA CAN SPELL PROGRAM IN JUST SEVEN LETTERS. WE'RE NUMBER ONE. WE'RE NUMBER ONE. No one reads to the end of the description so I can just ramble on down here and say whatever I want.)
I just want to say: Thank you so much for putting this out there. Especially the last lie of any simple plan to "fix poverty" being a LIE. Poverty is extremely complex. And I'm very encouraged by seeing videos such as these. Trying to actually learn about a problem and work with the local people to try and improve it.
Broiled ulcerative colitis, the world is complex! Ever individual facet of work webs out into more and more and ever little thing involves so many other little things and GAH. It is mindblowing how we manage to make it all work (kind of). Thanks for the info, John!
I adore how you can pack so much new information into my brain in just a few short minutes, from so far across the world, whilst also making me laugh. #TeamJohnGreen #CabbagePatchDolls #YES
I loved the video, John. I saw your conversation on tumblr and agree that it's important to dig deeper into complex issues rather than allowing them to become passing fads. (After your video about the Central African Republic I've tried to do just that.) Can't wait to hear more about Ethiopia, keep it up!
As a teenager in my high school Agricultural education program, a member of the FFA, and an aspiring agricultural policy worker, more specifically for the USDA, I can tell you that Agriculture is incredibly important for literally everything and it's important that people realize the need for agricultural engineers, teachers, mechanics, etc. thanks for the video John!
Thank you!! As someone that has made her life and love agriculture it's fun to see someone or anyone, to talk about what is faced with my science. It's complicated and marries biology, chemistry, climatic sciences, and economics; and is often ignored due to the complexity and the perceived boredom to it. Of which this is not a boring topic, just a hard one to understand right away.
As a Precision Farming Specialist (in Montana of all places) I appreciate how much work is being done to educate people about the complexity of farming in this day and age, and as well that food doesn't come from the store, with magic. We have gone from conventional plow to advanced soil management, nutrient and water management, have been and continue to use high precision ( +/- 2.5cm, usually less) GPS/inertial corrected autonomous guidance systems that have touchscreen interfaces. We can count corn seed population and tell the seed spacing down to tenths of the inch and map all of that data for use when we harvest, and we are taking it further with the use of more advanced systems capable of performing the math required to adjust the rate of an individual row for population, and for chemical application. All from your heated (if you like) leather seat, bluetooth enabled, quiet cab with charge points for your tablet and smartphone.
Not a big deal. I love that you are keeping people aware and that you don't just show the shiny stuff. My sister has been grilling me about how we need more investments in poor economies instead of pouring money into charities. This video will make her very happy.
amazing video on ethiopian agriculture! loved it. you real gave a good, in depth, explanation of the difficulties facing african ag depovoment. you were right that lifting the ban on exporting maze would help. i imagine it would help more than any other one thing the government, UN, or even the farmers could do, because it would open more markets driving competition for mazie and it would bring more cash into ethiopia, busting the overall economy and give the farmers more outside capital to invest in fertilizer, better seed, labor, and machinery. it is hard for me as a human being and a farmer to see so many hungry people and so much wonderful land. it breaks my heart that they face many challenges to feed themselves when we have the means feed so many people here.
Prior to the Sandinista government taking power in Nicaragua about 75% of their agriculture was for export (I've forgotten the exact figures). After Sandinista government the percentages flipped and about that amount agriculture went for domestic use. And a whole lot fewer Nicaraguans starved. Allowing grain exports from the 3rd world to the first just starves the 3rd world. Food exports from the 3rd world to the 1st are a big part of the food shortage issue in the 3rd world.
Thanks for this video John! I'm currently participating in a programme called 'U.N. Models for Schools' and I was assigned the task of being Ethiopia's ambassador and the topic is 'Familiar Agriculture's Year' and this video help a lot! So thanks again :)
I wonder what all the soil there supports. Because corn, corn, and more corn is not a healthy system, for the land, for the people on the land, or for the people eating the food. Isn't Ethiopia fairly large, geographically? It just sounds to me like it might be better to use a combined model, with some land devoted to grasses and various animals, like the model in "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Animals produce fertilizer, which can then be used for growing plants that humans can consume. Of course, it's another thing if the climate or soil there doesn't support grasses (I wouldn't know), but it definitely impressed me by how much better a model it is, than just corn corn corn corn corn soybeans corn corn...
(looks at Google Pictures). Huh. Mountains. And... reddish soil, which probably isn't good for much. Goats, maybe? I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud.
The people of Ethiopia use terrace farming. The soil is also extremely fertile, don't be fooled by a couple of pictures. 96 million people don't just live one the mountains accidentally, it must be able to support them
zolg56 Thanks for the info. :) That brings me back to my original point, though. If the soil there is extremely fertile, that's all the more reason NOT to use a corn/soybeans farming model, because it leeches the soil over time, instead of helping the soil, as a combined model using plants and animals does. But I'm guessing that the real problem once again comes down to water?
Katerine459 Yes water is an issue. The saddest part is that Ethiopia doesn't lack water because of where it is located because water for farming is abundant. But the issue lies in poor infrastructure and poor water management. Electricity is also another issue. There is a project Ethiopia is undergoing called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This Dam built on the nile river is supposed to be the answer to the 2 biggest issues. Once the reservoir is filled, it will provide adequate and stable supply of water to farmers and the dam iself will produce enough electricity to power every house in Ethiopia. I guess ethiopia will have to wait a while for extreme change as this dam wont be complete for another 2-3 years.
Katerine459 You are raising a very good point ! In this video, John Green presented agriculture the way western people practice it: in a unsustainable manner. Meaning it should be Intensive, monocultures should be commun practice, .. and causes deterioration of the quality of the soils, but also disappearance of the soils. I can't judge what the WFP is doing (I guess it is gradually transitionning between exclusively external help to locally produced food), I understand that this is a short video and it just aims at illustrating the complexity of those issues, but yet I strongly disagree with how things were presented. It sounds like the key point is that good seeds have to be bought.This is a projection of Western views and interests that does not leave much room for alternatives system. Research has shown that traditional practices with terrace farming (as zolg56 mentioned) and pluriculture of local plants led to sustainable and efficient results ! Oops my reply ended up being much longer than I expected ... I guess I am really disappointed in the content of the video :P
I just want to say that I am fairly new to nerdfightaria and have been binge watching the videos in this land for like...a month. And I love everything I see. But most importantly I really love that your videos are not just funny, but also truly important and informative. Also, thanks for being awesome and for reminding me to be awesome as well. 💖
John, I like your videos, and you seem like a very insightful guy. While I wholeheartedly agree that we need to change how we finance farming (in North America, as well as in Africa), I disagree with the "more fertilizer" approach. While it might provide short-term gains, it isn't sustainable. For one, it changes what they rely on Western nations for; instead of getting food shipments, they'd get fertilizer. How is that any different? Secondly, large-scale application of artificial fertilizers actually cause long-term problems that we've only realized in the last 20-30 years. For example, algae blooms occur where rivers pour in to large bodies of water, when there are large farms upstream. The problem is, a lot of the fertilizer doesn't get taken up by the plants, and because it's water soluble, it washes away rather than just sitting in the soil. Furthermore, and this will sound a bit counter-intuitive, artificial fertilizers actually reduce the overall soil fertility, which will lead to desertification in the long-term. See, what fertilizer that the plants take up is great for growing the plants big, and doing it quickly. The problem is, plants will continue to need food. If the fertilizer is all gone, they'll leech it from the land. Since they're bigger than they would've grown on their own, they suck up way more naturally-occuring nutrients than they would have otherwise. This means that, once the plant is dead, the soil is sucked dry of nutrients. In my view, we should be helping them avoid our mistakes: skip monocultures, since that's just putting all your eggs in one basket; build soil fertility, which is WAY more sustainable and less environmentally toxic; whenever possible, breed your own seed that is adapted to the local conditions, which imported seed can't be.
The Nile river carries a lot of natural minerals that makes the surrounding land extremely fertile. I am no expert on this, but is the silt in the Nile as good as artificial fertilizer?
I really would just like to thank you for bringing the attention of young people to agriculture, even if only for seven minutes. Agriculture really is one of the most fundamental building blocks of life on earth and it is not taught nearly enough in the education system. It is a huge part of the past and will continue to be a huge part of our society. Thank you. - The daughter, neighbor, and friend of several farmers.
I no little about agriculture in either Ethiopia or Indiana by I now about my home county in Bacau (Romania). Fields are abandoned. Mostly nobody cultivates nothing (except some apple trees, and prune trees). We just import food here. How's that for a solution? Of course we base our economy on the developing IT industry, so who needs food anyway?
Thank you, John Green, for making this video more old school-like and paced more slowly! You clearly took our comments from the previous video seriously and professionally. This was amazing video and it was super easy to follow through in single watching. Loved the jump cuts. :)
Excellent video! Thanks, John. If you want even more (infuriatingly) complicated things to think about in the complicated realm of Food Security: 1. Fertilizer and 'new' seeds are great inputs for increasing yield in the short-term, and especially when the goal is reducing malnutrition (probably the most important of all), but in the long term, these strategies decrease biodiversity and overall land fertility, so they're a good quick fix for the goal at hand, but aren't sustainable in the long run. 2. Are we increasing all yields and stores, or just for maize? If maize begins to displace other parts of the diet because of its reliability/affordability, it could possibly lead to pellagra, in extreme conditions. 3. We want these women to have more money because they have a tendency to 'reinvest' it back into their families, which increases life expectancy for kids. Men in the developing world, however, sometimes have the tendency to spend all that money on things like alcohol and prostitution. How the heck do we fix that, or do we just accept that it may happen? All things considered, I definitely believe food security will be one of the biggest challenges of this century. Thanks again for bringing it to your viewers' attention.
A subpoint to #2 - if we focus on growing maize (or any single crop, for that matter), we leave people open to serious starvation if/when a pest or disease strikes that crop (eg. The Irish Potato Famine).
for point #3 ethiopia is an religious country. There are only a handful of people i know that aren't religious. And this isn't the new christianity that has devoped to fit modern society, this is the kind that changed only slightly from the first form of eastern orthodoxy. Ethiopian people have a lot of values and prostitution and alcohol are virtually non existent in the city let alone the extremely religious country.
1) As the agricultural sector moves further forward it will continue to produce food on the same land, we have been adding micro-nutrients back into the fertilizer we put in the soil, live plant tissue sampling, soil sampling before and after season, leaving the material other than grain in the field to break down and help form more new, better, healthy soil is now the normal farming practice. Those who aren't and haven't adopted this practice are failing at farming, and they can only do it for a few years before the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs breaks them and their land gets sold to more progressive farmers who are using the tools at our disposal to become better stewards of the land. 2) No, our yields have increase across most foods due to selective breeding and advancements in scientific understanding of the growth requirements. 30 People will be people, and trying to control that is a fruitless endeavor, instead we all need to accept that at current growth and life expectancy rates there will be more people than needed to produce the food we need, and as agriculture is the backbone of all modern society, allowing cities to exist, art and entertainment, and further education we face the biggest change to our race ever. What to do with the surplus of labor and the obvious change of supply/demand infrastructure we have grown accustomed to.
I'm from South Africa and live on a farm and I really believe that this is a very important issue. I feel that people don't realise how important an issue this is. We went through a really bad drought about three years ago and we are still feeling the effects of it. I wish more people would talk about this issue and understand that agriculture is both extremely difficult and extremely important. So thanks, John for making this video.
epicnessofmine No, I'm pretty confident that's wrong. He was literally in fourth grade. While it was literally fourth grade, that's not the stress of the sentence.
Glad you're now okay, John. This is a very, very interesting topic since agriculture is also becoming a huge problem in the Philippines, which, as you know, is a developing country as well and relies so much on this industry. With climate change (stronger storms or no rains at all for months) unfair wages and land distribution issues for framers, the agriculture industry here is in quite a pickle. All I'm saying is, this was very relatable for a Filipino who pays attention to both local and international issues. So, thank you.
Yes! I can always know if it's time for a vlogbrothers video and I'm so glad you touched on this subject. I really enjoyed today's video. Also John! My world history showed crash course today and he said that he regularly uses it as a teaching tool! You guys, have really been doing a good job decreasing world suck and adding world awesome. Thanks, DFTBA.
To add another layer of complexity to this issue...we need to think not only about raising yields, but how we raise yields. Increasing synthetic inputs and moving toward a mechanized system may not be the best idea -- when fossil fuels start to run out, synthetic fertilizer won't be cheap anymore. Climate change is a big problem, as I'm sure we all realize, and in America (by some calculations) emissions that can be traced back to the industrial agricultural complex can account for roughly a quarter of total emissions. That's NOT a system we want to replicate. We should also be comparing output per hectare of corn not only to other hectares of monocropped corn but also to polyculture systems. Overall productivity increases when we capitalize on ecosystem services -- which is difficult to do when you monocrop.
If you were my teacher ,I'd go to school *and* after school classes to learn even more . So awesome ,and the way you speak so fluently without fault is so great to listen to and to gather information . I love these educating and interesting facts that are great to have in ones mind.
Rice Yields quadrupled because of a neat thing. Genetic Modification. Seriously. The thing that hipsters like to clamor against? Is the reason that China is not all starvation by majority in the way it used to be.
Yep. GM foods also had a neat effect of, you know, preventing about 500,000 deaths per year among infants and children from Vitamin A deficiency. Naturalists tend to throw fits about GM foods because "Naaaatural" is somehow a good thing. So, apparently, is dysentery.
1) I absolutely adore your videos whether they are 1 min of silence or 15 of rambling 2) I read the end of your dobly do 3) you make me want to join something 4) thanks, John Green
The theory goes that if you ban exports the corn will be used to feed your own people instead of being turned into money. You see this a lot in countries with a centralized economy. What it doesn't take into account is that if farmers are allowed to export crops, they can invest those profits in modernization of their farm, such as the aforementioned good fertilizer and good seed, thus increasing yields, etc etc. Generally I'm not one to put a huge amount of stock in trickle-down economics, but when applied to food production, there's a good amount of evidence saying it works.
One of the problems is that because Ethiopia is a landlocked nation, it loses a good portion of its potential exports on not being able to ship things.
***** No the landlocked issue is more the fact that Ethiopia has historically strained relationships with Eritrea and Somalia (and Somalia's coast poses a security risk). Ethiopia depends on Djibouti for maritime exports, as Djibouti is the only option to the sea. The Addis-Ababa-Djibouti Railroad provides access to the Djibouti Port.
It's very interesting seeing how other country's do agriculture and their economy compared to how the US does agriculture and our economy. I like your new way of cursing, I also like the dead authors instead of cursing. I hope you had a good birthday john!!
Hate to be another lame commenter but I've never been under the 301 view when watching any video so im very happy right now :D love the video though John, glad to see you recovering from your meningitis. Happy belated birthday from an irish nerdfighter :D
ya i know me to haha. BUT JOHN YOU SCARED ME I HAVE BEEN WAITING ALL DAY I THOUGHT YOUR MENINGITIS RELAPSED OR SOMETHING YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK
John, I'm an agricultural economist and I wanted you to know that, as typical, you really nailed the issues in this video. All mispronunciations notwithstanding. The access to capital is a huge issue in the developing world, as you pointed out. A slightly more subtle issue in Ethiopia is the lack of private property rights. A farmer in Ethiopia cannot own his or her land and therefore cannot use it as collateral for a loan. Or at least that was the case when I worked there in 2001. When I was 21 I did not fully appreciate how important property rights and a functioning legal system are for development. Now that I’m twice that age I realize the huge importance of the simple right to own things and have a court compel someone to give that stuff back if they take it. It’s easy in the Western world to take that for granted.
This is such a beautiful thing to share about these communities and how global communities might work together. Thank you for talking about it, thank you for showing videos about it, thank you for making my outlook on the world today more optimistic.
Hydroponics / aquaponics might have an impact on improving agricultural production. Both home and commercial farms could benefit from appropriately scaled systems. Great video!
Thanks for commenting on this, I've never seen this channel before but I'm a Sub now! I agree with you 100% and that's a HUGE part of my drive to test cheap and simple aquaponic gardens that anyone could do. I don't know how the cost of an IBC compares to ... say ... a Llama but it's worth looking into. It's probably easier to ship the IBC's too!
Hydroponics is a great way to intensify production, but the upfront costs are really high so in a place where people can't get a loan to buy fertilizer, it's probably not the best option. Plus, food grown hydroponically is typically more expensive so it can offset the higher production costs.
That's why I'm exploring the cheapest ways to go about AQUAponic gardening. Fish are cheaper than chemicals and can be eaten when they get to a large enough size! Grow media can be found almost anywhere if you use a little creativity so the biggest issue is getting waterproof equipment to the people that need it. Probably still cheaper than llama transport ...
Many fish will eat their larva. There's not much, if any stagnant water anyway. I doubt that mosquitoes would reproduce (effectively) in a properly maintained hydro/aquaponics system.
It makes me so happy that there are people out there who believe that young adults are both capable of and should learn about complex issues like this. Thank you for not talking down to me, John!
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1:25 This graph is in HECTARES not hectacres, and the figures seem to be correct for hectares too. Yet, John is using hectacre in speech for some reason. This gives very wrong values throughout the video. So each time Johns verbally gives you a hectacre value, either assume it is hectare or divide it by 40
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Oh I have just seen the channel comment. It was apparently a mispronunciation. Sorry I didn't look for it first.
VideoNozoki Thank you. I was just worried about myself - I know hectare and acre but then never heard of hectacre. I guess hectaacre could be a word but why even use it.
Pedro Chaves Note that hectacre redirected you to hectare. 1 Hectare = 100 ares = (100 m)*(100 m) is a metric system derived unit. One Acre on the other hand is about 0.404686 Hectares and is an imperial unit which is essentially never used in the green lands of not-America.
This video very much reminded me of the book I had to read over the summer for college, Scarcity: Why having too little means too much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir . In the middle of the book they talked of farmers and some points you made rather correlated with it. :)
A question: When you say 'good seed and good fertilizer', what does that mean? If I remember my history correctly, there was a huge increase in agricultural output in the West in the 20th century due to mechanization and the advent of artificial fertilizer. Now, most artificial fertilizer is made using lots of fossil fuels, releasing green house gasses into our dear atmosphere. Basically, I'm wondering if 'good fertilizer' is the kind that contributes directly to global warming, or something else. I think using artificial fertilizer could make sense in the short run to bring up production, but seeing as we all, globally, should have stopped using fossil fuels a couple of decades ago, having even more people being even more dependent upon them makes me sad.
Good fertilizer can also be horse... excrement... which people actually buy and sell. There are other alternatives as well but yeah unfortunetly you're right.
We kind of can't stop using artificial fertilizer in much of the world. There just isn't a better way to generate the enormous amount of food the world needs to keep everyone alive. Horse poo and other organic substitutes are wonderful in small scale farms, but we need to feed billions every day. There isn't enough horse poo to go around.
But nitrogenous fertilisers are typically made using the Haber process converting atmospheric hydrogen and nitrogen to ammonia- so it doesn't use fossil fuels and with proper management strategies the negative effects of using nitrogenous fertilisers (eg. eutrophication of waterways from runoff etc. plus an increase in plant growth will decrease runoff anyway) can be minimised and in my opinion, the environmental effects which can be effectively managed are over shadowed by the positive impact that it can have on the production of food for a growing world population
Veronica Helen The Haber process needs an H source. Typically, this comes from methane. Nearly all industrially produced ammoniacal N requires fossil fuels. This needn't be the case though. People are trying to find carbon friendly sources of H that can compete with methane.
My degree is in agricultural economics. Thanks for explaining why agricultural development in Africa is so important! This is a really great overview of a complicated and important problem
Not always, but more importantly if the water of life had Monsanto on it would you avoid drinking it for your fear of a company that you know little about?
I am a biochemist specializing in molecular genetics. I am also a medical professional. I regularly self educate as well by reading peer-reviewed scientific journals including the PNAS. Do you take my inquiry on the origin of the seed seriously now?
THis was easily one of the best videos I've seen lately. Thank you so much. Since it's educational, I hope I don't see a bunch of dumb comments about punishments.
Damn. I see the "It's over 4 minutes!" Crap started way before I watched. You would think a group like Nerdfighters would think a bit better for themselves...Oh well.
Thanks for talking about the problems facing world agriculture! I am an agricultural Economics masters student and we are faced with these global challenges as we ready agriculture to feed 9 billion people. Using technology and sound practices will alleviate some of these constraints, but public support is something that is strangely not coming as easily as it should. Ag wants to feed people. Malnutrition is not a necessary thing if we can empower people to support themselves and their communities. Support all sectors of Agriculture! Without it your life would be less fulfilling and you'd be left naked and hungry.
nadiact1000 We used to... until HP came out of the blue and has 2.5 times the amount of lenders we have. But yes Daniel Kvoras, Kiva is excellent. There are many many loans on Kiva for seed and fertilizer.
Yeah I know about Kiva (I'm not new here :P). But I was thinking of help on a larger scale. I knew that this is micro-financing is probably one of the best ways to help, but I was thinking more of a volunteer work, idk If through the gates foundation or the UN or somethn.
You specifically said nothing is simple, but at the end you said that if Ethiopia could produce as much as China, no one would starve. But there are people starving in China? Not expecting you to solve poverty in China, or anywhere, but why do you think that despite ostensible increases overall, the actual wealth increase has largely not occurred in rural areas? Basically, how do we get food to the people who need it? ps happy birthday.
I think he was just implying that if Ethiopia could produce as much as china, they would have the potential to feed everyone in the country. Of course, there are many problems that would still get in the way of that, even with the increased production, like you said.
that's the problem with capitalism, these crops aren't being grown with the goal of feeding the people that need feeding, they are grown to make people money
***** Yes, why won't people realize that with other systems the problems of capitalism go away and no new, arguably worse problems ever rise to take their place?
you're right, lets stick to the system where you can only eat, wear decent clothes, have access to decent medical care or have somewhere to live unless you go out and do a set of (probably meaningless) tasks to earn enough tokens to exchange for those things, what could possibly be wrong with that
Actually many of the farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have very small pieces of land and they only produce food for their family. They try to produce food for selling but the production is so low that they can barely feed their own family from the produce of their fields. I'd say increasing production has nothing to do with capitalism here, it first of all has to do with feeding the farmers themselves.
John, you mentioned that you could see farmers tilling the land from your vantage in the helicopter... but tilling how? by hand? with what level of machinery? As a rural Hoosier whose entire extended family has relied on farming for income at some point in their lives, I also recognize the importance of good seed and fertilizer. However, I also know the incredible importance of machinery (and, in the absence of machinery, physical human strength). I think your video hints at another factor or two that complicate the poverty circle here: (1) the capital needed to buy good machinery which raises yield and/or (2) the capital needed to ensure that your physical strength can be used to raise yield.
The seed they use is far lower quality than the seed with have in North America. John goes through the example from 1:36 to like 2:43. They save the seed they have, but they started with bad seed, so they continue with bad seed. They simply can't afford better seed. Plus, the most productive seed is usually GMO which companies always require you to sign contracts stating that you will not save seed (at least here in Canada).
Most high-yield commercial crops are grown from hybrid seeds. Seed that is saved from a hybrid won't go true to type. This isn't a problem with ignorance of seed saving, this is a problem of technology. There are relatively few true breeding high yield crops.
Seed saving is not a long term solution. Corn is a hybrid of many different strains (gmo or not) and has to be cultivated carefully. If one were to keep planting the same seeds, hybrid vigor would decrease and production declines. That's why they buy seed. There's many factors in production that can't be solved by short suggestions. Making it to where these people can afford to produce (and making sure the money goes to the right person as John hit on) will do far more to increase the welfare of these people and communities.
Nolan Thiessen It's not that you aren't allowed to save seed, it's that your seasonal contract comes with seed when you sign. So not only is it guaranteed to be the genetic profile that is advertised (which isn't going to be the same in the progeny generations), but the collected seed from last harvest can be sold for profit.
this is something that is sadly not mentioned at all by John. because if this better crop that is used in Indiana is patented hybrid by monsanto or Pionear that could also lead to problems. rising prices and dependencies. infertile and infinite other crops a.s.o.
Billy Giuliano I am not exactly certain, as you are right, it is ambiguous as to what is and isn't an educational vlogbrothers video, but I'm guessing that it's because this is a super super important issue and its extensive coverage has the potential to help solve some of the world's most pressing issues.
Billy Giuliano Seems to me like you just want to punish John,most of their vids are 4 minutes long or less,and even if they do make a lot of educational videos (mostly on other channels which are exempt from the rule), would that not be a good thing?
I focused on economics of the developing world for my bachelors and presented a paper on Ethiopia at a conference, with not so good predictions. The growth has been pretty impressive, these programs have worked. Watching these videos has been a joy.
What did Hank do for his punishment? Oh, was it "Pain and Science" video? Ah, I guess that counts, but somehow I feel cheated. (I like way back when Hank was shy, first performance in a bar / humping things around town / trying to give away peeps. Now he'd probably have no problem with any of those.) I have no desire to see them in pain, I just like the awkward squirm of social mores. Ex: have to introduce himself to 20 people as, "Hello. I'm John Green, I'm VERY famous on the internet. What is your name?" just knowing how it makes him squirm to refer to himself as famous.
VideoNozoki Hank always seemed to do the embarrassing punishments, and John always seemed to do the disguising or painful ones. I guess this was a rare exception. (I wonder what this trend says about their relationship towards each other.)
True. Before Hank played in a bar of strangers & John waxed his chin... Now Hank is getting whipped (by Dr.Doe isn't a punishment (wink))and eating that pepper. I guess this means John needs to do the non-painful/socially embarrassing type this time. Ohhh how they have grown. (>sniff
***** "I now say that the world has the technology - either available or well advanced in the research pipeline - to feed on a sustainable basis a population of 10 billion people. The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers will be permitted to use this new technology? While the affluent nations can certainly afford to adopt ultra low-risk positions, and pay more for food produced by the so-called “organic” methods, the one billion chronically undernourished people of the low income, food-deficit nations cannot." Norman Borlaug
Watch the documentary. It's about how Monsanto is taking advantage of poor farmers around the world, causing them to have LESS harvest and profit. The actual eating of it is beside the point.
Norn wen I do agree that there are some ethical issues with the way big companies are run at the moment, but do not conflate that with the technology they use. Listen to John Green; any simple narrative is likely very far off the mark. Including that documentary.
Aaaaand there go simple explanations again. Do you really think starving Ethiopians are starving because they fed all their food to their animals? Do you think they ever see large amounts of meat at all? Do you think the predominantly European lactose tolerance evolved because of an overabundance of food? Do you think the special care vegans need to take to avoid food deficiencies is practical in countries where people are lucky to get enough food at all? Do you think a drop in demand for agricultural products induced by radically more vegans in industrialized nations will magically transfer food to countries like Ethiopia? Do we need to drastically reduce our demand for meat? Definitely. Is veganism really the one-word answer to all our malnutrition woes? Definitely not, and if you had taken the video seriously you'd already know that.
Penny Lane I don't think "veganism" was really an answer for Ethiopia. It's an answer at large for the misplaced resources that go into animal agriculture around the world. And it's not that simple, but it would be an excellent step in the right direction for those whose living situations allow that kind of dietary change.
Lisa Wood I'm not even all that sure about that. I mean it surely is in an "in an ideal world" kind of way but in this world, small steps by huge amounts of people are going to have a much larger effect than drastic steps by a small minority. If you feel that veganism could be your thing then by all means, go for it. But trying to convert other people to it who aren't into it at all is likely to do more harm than good. Eating less meat is something everybody living a conventional Western lifestyle can do with minimal effort. I do think every movements needs their kinda extremist pioneers and veganism isn't quite driving solar cars or doing the full-on degrowth thing but either way it's important not to expect everyone to get there any time soon or even ever. It's more of a "if they are growing their own food then maybe I can get my ass to the farmer's market more often" or "if they can get by without connection to the electric grid then maybe I can manage to switch to a renewable energy provider" kind of thing.
I am and have been for several years, and I know that a "fire and brimstone" approach to spreading my ideology isn't going to work. =) Still, being politely vocal, while unpleasant to some, is not harmful and let's people interested in the lifestyle know that there are people around to ask questions of. I may not convince the world of anything, but a small minority making big steps in no way hinders a majority making small steps. Like you said, if a few can do a lot, a lot can do a little. Everything helps.
I kind of love the fact that this video was so good at explaining something so complicated, but I was still left giggling because of the repeated mispronunciation and the end of the video's description. No you can't say whatever you want, John, and the chanting was hilarious.
Excellent video, John, thanks! At the risk of making you into some sort of Dear Leader, I'm pretty sure you could tell us what to do to help the situation in Ethiopia and we'd all rise to the challenge in a mighty, Nerdfightastic roar, so...what can we do? Anything?
You are a good man, Mr. Green. The Yeti is very lucky to have you. I'm REALLY glad you took that helicopter ride and weren't all fear of heights freaked out over it. Keep up the good work on that end. I'm REALLY grooving on the new exclamations. encephalitis over easy, I do.
One very big reason why the U.S. has high corn yields is because of GMO crops, and a very big one is corn, which is heavily subsidized. Also, Bill Gates owns 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock, a worth of $23 million. I'm not trying to shoot down your efforts, as I applaud them in seeing they are genuine, but I would like to see some vlogbrothers videos on GMOs, Monsato, and their influence and affect on the world. Sincere thanks for all you do John.
As a member of the FFA (Future Farmers of America) I have to say that this topic is very relevant! And that the perception of agriculture is far from the reality. So thank you for making a video on it, even though it is about Ethiopian Ag, it still has to do with ag in general.
AAAAA SUPER COOL! I just started my thesis and it's also about agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa! It's really nice to see an overview like this, especially since I've been reading articles for a month and I won't have time to actually visit the countries I'm doing my research about (it's only a bsc thesis). Anyway, raising production per hectare is totally one of the coolest things to do, though looking at the soil and how it impacts the growth of the crop.... It makes things super complicated. Kiva loans may already help the farmers get that money they need to fertilize their land to get a higher production but there are many parts of degraded lands where a decade of fertilisation is needed before production starts to go up again. I really wonder how we can fix that, money wise, since as you made clear these people simply don't have the means to invest in something that will only return on them 10 years later... PS: the project I'm in, N2Africa, is also funded by Bill Gates. We're totally colleagues! :P
Thanks for always enlightening me. Thank you for educating people on issues and teaching us in a way where we can learn and raise awareness. You do a lot and its great!
Hey John, so I'm pretty sure you're going to save the world. People need you, and you're inspiring others (woah like me!) to be more involved as well. I don't know if you're ever going to see this, but thank you for everything you do to empower, support, and defend humanity. DFTBA
I am studying agriculture, and there has been a lot of focus brought to how we can improve production in developing countries. Most of the time there is poor extension work to help the farmers improve their practices in a sustainable way, let alone the resources to do so. This aspect is even more fundamental than providing the funding or grain or fertiliser.
I am not sure if you get this. John Green, it's 2 am my time so in Indianapolis it's 4 or 5 I am not sure where the time change is. But, when I started watching your videos. I was caught by the way you presented information. It's what I love most about your Books as well. I aspire to be a know writer. Cause let's face it, when your born to write. You write, right? I finished The Fault in our Stars movie. Yes, I read the book first. I cried. I cried for the book, but it made me want to say something to you. On whim or whatever the reason. I guess I am not expecting a response. I just wanted to say I loved it. Writers are an envious bunch. I quote a movie I like stuck in love. I envy your ability to finish a story. Thanks for the books, Sincerely Stephen
A very interesting video, especially on the systems the WFP is putting into place. Thank you for the little slice of insight. (And, for what it's worth: I didn't even realize I've been saying/thinking hectare incorrectly as "hectacre" until this video.)
Thanks so much for this video, John. I love seeing videos like this explaining tough and complex subjects - they really help me understand topics I wouldn't normally think about.
How much are these programs investing in infrastructure? All the grain in the world does squat if you can't get it to market to sell. But these programs are awesome. Helping people help them selves!
My corn was about the size of the ones you said were in Ethepia and I am working out exactly what combination of nutrients I need to improve it. Northern Michigan has a short growing season and poor soils, but I intend to discover what I need to do to improve it next year. I was practicing the native american tactic of growing corn, beans, and squash together and last year I had huge squash plants and mediocre corn with poor kernel development and I more or less ran out of good weather to flush out the ears, so I only had like 10 good ears and the rest was like baby corn. I have chickens now that can eat the baby corn that ended up rotting on me. Last year's beans were bush beans instead of vine beans (due to lack of knowledge at the time of purchase) and instead of climbing the corn, they bushed out and the squash crowded them out, but they did make beans. This year I got runner beans, but they are taking too long to mature and the vines insist upon making flowers that don't make beans. The squash/pumpkins were a flop this year while the corn is a bit better this year and had a two week head start.
Given that I am actually trying to re-watch a whole bunch of Doctor Who before Series 8, hearing you use Tom Baker-era Doctor Who as an example of expenses made my day. Thanks for that John!
Awesome video John. I've been loving your Ethiopia videos. I definitely wanna do something this year to like benefit people in the developing world. I think I'm gonna try and raise some money some way and donate during the Project for Awesome this year. I may also get an account on Kiva since it seems really cool and also, I'm a small business owner so helping other would be awesome!
Hectare. HECTARE. HECK-TARE. Gah. I am a grapefruit.
(Mispronunciation background: Mispronouncing things is my thing, but the hectare example is particularly glaring, because I've been mispronouncing it--consistently--since I was in fourth grade. I just cannot get it out of my head that since it is a measurement of land area, it must be a kind of acre. I am sorry and embarrassed and mortified. Fortunately, it's not like BILL GATES IS GOING TO SEE THIS VIDEO OR ANYTHING.) -John
You're not a grapefruit.
So I'm looking down at a plate of cheese sandwiches as the video plays, and I hear John say 'Hect-acre'.
And I snap upward and I'm like, "what's that?" but then I see the annotation.
No big deal, John. I used to make the mistake for a long long time, too. DFTBA!
I was just frantically Googling the difference between a hectare and hectacre when you posted this. I thought a hectacre must be some perverse imperial-metric hybrid.
Don't worry, John. I thought the word relegated what 'renegated' until I was about 16. I feel your pain.
It's okay ,John, everyone has that one word they can't say, no matter how many times someone tells you the real pronunciation.
As someone with a corn allergy, let me assure you: EVERYTHING HAS CORN SYRUP IN IT.
If you live in America: Leave quickly, you will die if you stay here
Oh gosh... that's gotta suck.
Oh man, same! Corn allergy buddies!
How on earth do you live? That eliminates basically every processed food.
Not 'basically' every processed food, *literally* every processed food.
It could be worse - I could be allergic to, like, soy, wheat and nuts too.... OH WAIT, I AM!
Friendly reminder that educational videos are ALLOWED TO BE OVER 4 MINUTES. NO PUNISHMENT. kthxbai. -John
This was interesting to hear. Pakistan is also an agricultural country so I understood how things worked.
Hi
friendly reminder that you STILL OWE US A PUNISHMENT!
lol
That's great to know because I thought that but I wasn't sure and love the cursing alternative
Vlogbrothers videos are the gateway drug for getting people involved in things that matter in our world.
In which John Green flies in a helicopter with Bill Gates in Ethiopia, investigates a new form of cursing, and discusses agricultural reform--specifically, how the UN's World Food Program is trying to improve maize yields in Ethiopia. If you can break the vicious cycle of low incomes leading to low harvests, agricultural productivity per hectacre can increase dramatically, as we've seen in China and Brazil. It seems boring, I know, but this is a big reason hundreds of millions of people have emerged from poverty in the past 30 years. So hopefully it will happen in Ethiopia! But, as usual, the truth resists simplicity.
FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS ARE ALLOWED TO BE MORE THAN FOUR MINUTES LONG.
The Gates Foundation: www.gatesfoundation.org/
The United Nations World Food Programme: www.wfp.org/
(Why all those extra letters in Programme, United Nations? AMERICA CAN SPELL PROGRAM IN JUST SEVEN LETTERS. WE'RE NUMBER ONE. WE'RE NUMBER ONE. No one reads to the end of the description so I can just ramble on down here and say whatever I want.)
*pretends it says hectare instead of hectacre*
I read to the end of the description, sue me :P (not really)
:P
No you can't. We are Nerds. We love to read. Frankly, I would read your shopping list.
I'm sure there's a logical explanation for the difference in spelling, but I think the extra letters just make the word seem fancier than it is.
John is replacing his swears!? Man, he's a real heck-taker.
this is a beautiful pun ily
AmaranthAngel I deeply appreciate your sincere and sudden whirlwind of affection. =)
Rockerchavnerdemo
I deeply appreciate your affinity for puns
+
Poached pneumonia!
Gotta love the hecktacre video
I just want to say: Thank you so much for putting this out there. Especially the last lie of any simple plan to "fix poverty" being a LIE. Poverty is extremely complex. And I'm very encouraged by seeing videos such as these. Trying to actually learn about a problem and work with the local people to try and improve it.
Broiled ulcerative colitis, the world is complex! Ever individual facet of work webs out into more and more and ever little thing involves so many other little things and GAH. It is mindblowing how we manage to make it all work (kind of). Thanks for the info, John!
*every
I adore how you can pack so much new information into my brain in just a few short minutes, from so far across the world, whilst also making me laugh. #TeamJohnGreen #CabbagePatchDolls #YES
I loved the video, John. I saw your conversation on tumblr and agree that it's important to dig deeper into complex issues rather than allowing them to become passing fads. (After your video about the Central African Republic I've tried to do just that.) Can't wait to hear more about Ethiopia, keep it up!
I think we should all start calling it hect acre in tribute. It could be an inside joke.
Ali Jardz FTL I love need fighter inside jokes also I feel like we need to bring back the fried meningitis stuff back
Hell! I was worried I hadn't heard that term after studying 4 years of agriculture
The heck-taker joke lives on.
As a teenager in my high school Agricultural education program, a member of the FFA, and an aspiring agricultural policy worker, more specifically for the USDA, I can tell you that Agriculture is incredibly important for literally everything and it's important that people realize the need for agricultural engineers, teachers, mechanics, etc. thanks for the video John!
I did read to the bottom of the description, John.
Thanks, Peyton! -John
dangit, now i have to.
***** you spelled hectare in the description exactly how you mispronounced it in the whole video, John
I always do.
Thank you!!
As someone that has made her life and love agriculture it's fun to see someone or anyone, to talk about what is faced with my science. It's complicated and marries biology, chemistry, climatic sciences, and economics; and is often ignored due to the complexity and the perceived boredom to it. Of which this is not a boring topic, just a hard one to understand right away.
I've been waiting all day for this and now it's hear and I am shitting my pants with excitement
I hope that I can live up to these high expectations. -John
You have both surpassed my expectations and made my day with this reply (given I haven't had a very exciting day but still)
Daniel Geloso Slow roasted diarrhoeaa!
mlemleh yup words of the day right there
As a Precision Farming Specialist (in Montana of all places) I appreciate how much work is being done to educate people about the complexity of farming in this day and age, and as well that food doesn't come from the store, with magic. We have gone from conventional plow to advanced soil management, nutrient and water management, have been and continue to use high precision ( +/- 2.5cm, usually less) GPS/inertial corrected autonomous guidance systems that have touchscreen interfaces. We can count corn seed population and tell the seed spacing down to tenths of the inch and map all of that data for use when we harvest, and we are taking it further with the use of more advanced systems capable of performing the math required to adjust the rate of an individual row for population, and for chemical application. All from your heated (if you like) leather seat, bluetooth enabled, quiet cab with charge points for your tablet and smartphone.
Yay. I was starting to get worried. Needed my John fix. Loves!
It took longer than expected to finish the video. Sorry! :) -John
Not a big deal. I love that you are keeping people aware and that you don't just show the shiny stuff. My sister has been grilling me about how we need more investments in poor economies instead of pouring money into charities. This video will make her very happy.
amazing video on ethiopian agriculture! loved it. you real gave a good, in depth, explanation of the difficulties facing african ag depovoment. you were right that lifting the ban on exporting maze would help. i imagine it would help more than any other one thing the government, UN, or even the farmers could do, because it would open more markets driving competition for mazie and it would bring more cash into ethiopia, busting the overall economy and give the farmers more outside capital to invest in fertilizer, better seed, labor, and machinery. it is hard for me as a human being and a farmer to see so many hungry people and so much wonderful land. it breaks my heart that they face many challenges to feed themselves when we have the means feed so many people here.
Prior to the Sandinista government taking power in Nicaragua about 75% of their agriculture was for export (I've forgotten the exact figures). After Sandinista government the percentages flipped and about that amount agriculture went for domestic use. And a whole lot fewer Nicaraguans starved. Allowing grain exports from the 3rd world to the first just starves the 3rd world. Food exports from the 3rd world to the 1st are a big part of the food shortage issue in the 3rd world.
It's...it"s called a hectare, not a hectacre...she said nervously to the professional novelist.
Don't forget, mispronouncing words is his things :)
Ah! How silly of me to forget!
Thanks for this video John! I'm currently participating in a programme called 'U.N. Models for Schools' and I was assigned the task of being Ethiopia's ambassador and the topic is 'Familiar Agriculture's Year' and this video help a lot! So thanks again :)
I wonder what all the soil there supports. Because corn, corn, and more corn is not a healthy system, for the land, for the people on the land, or for the people eating the food. Isn't Ethiopia fairly large, geographically? It just sounds to me like it might be better to use a combined model, with some land devoted to grasses and various animals, like the model in "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Animals produce fertilizer, which can then be used for growing plants that humans can consume.
Of course, it's another thing if the climate or soil there doesn't support grasses (I wouldn't know), but it definitely impressed me by how much better a model it is, than just corn corn corn corn corn soybeans corn corn...
(looks at Google Pictures). Huh. Mountains. And... reddish soil, which probably isn't good for much. Goats, maybe? I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud.
The people of Ethiopia use terrace farming. The soil is also extremely fertile, don't be fooled by a couple of pictures. 96 million people don't just live one the mountains accidentally, it must be able to support them
zolg56 Thanks for the info. :)
That brings me back to my original point, though. If the soil there is extremely fertile, that's all the more reason NOT to use a corn/soybeans farming model, because it leeches the soil over time, instead of helping the soil, as a combined model using plants and animals does.
But I'm guessing that the real problem once again comes down to water?
Katerine459 Yes water is an issue. The saddest part is that Ethiopia doesn't lack water because of where it is located because water for farming is abundant. But the issue lies in poor infrastructure and poor water management. Electricity is also another issue. There is a project Ethiopia is undergoing called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This Dam built on the nile river is supposed to be the answer to the 2 biggest issues. Once the reservoir is filled, it will provide adequate and stable supply of water to farmers and the dam iself will produce enough electricity to power every house in Ethiopia. I guess ethiopia will have to wait a while for extreme change as this dam wont be complete for another 2-3 years.
Katerine459
You are raising a very good point ! In this video, John Green presented agriculture the way western people practice it: in a unsustainable manner. Meaning it should be Intensive, monocultures should be commun practice, .. and causes deterioration of the quality of the soils, but also disappearance of the soils. I can't judge what the WFP is doing (I guess it is gradually transitionning between exclusively external help to locally produced food), I understand that this is a short video and it just aims at illustrating the complexity of those issues, but yet I strongly disagree with how things were presented. It sounds like the key point is that good seeds have to be bought.This is a projection of Western views and interests that does not leave much room for alternatives system. Research has shown that traditional practices with terrace farming (as zolg56 mentioned) and pluriculture of local plants led to sustainable and efficient results !
Oops my reply ended up being much longer than I expected ... I guess I am really disappointed in the content of the video :P
I just want to say that I am fairly new to nerdfightaria and have been binge watching the videos in this land for like...a month. And I love everything I see. But most importantly I really love that your videos are not just funny, but also truly important and informative. Also, thanks for being awesome and for reminding me to be awesome as well. 💖
John, I like your videos, and you seem like a very insightful guy. While I wholeheartedly agree that we need to change how we finance farming (in North America, as well as in Africa), I disagree with the "more fertilizer" approach.
While it might provide short-term gains, it isn't sustainable. For one, it changes what they rely on Western nations for; instead of getting food shipments, they'd get fertilizer. How is that any different? Secondly, large-scale application of artificial fertilizers actually cause long-term problems that we've only realized in the last 20-30 years. For example, algae blooms occur where rivers pour in to large bodies of water, when there are large farms upstream. The problem is, a lot of the fertilizer doesn't get taken up by the plants, and because it's water soluble, it washes away rather than just sitting in the soil. Furthermore, and this will sound a bit counter-intuitive, artificial fertilizers actually reduce the overall soil fertility, which will lead to desertification in the long-term. See, what fertilizer that the plants take up is great for growing the plants big, and doing it quickly. The problem is, plants will continue to need food. If the fertilizer is all gone, they'll leech it from the land. Since they're bigger than they would've grown on their own, they suck up way more naturally-occuring nutrients than they would have otherwise. This means that, once the plant is dead, the soil is sucked dry of nutrients.
In my view, we should be helping them avoid our mistakes: skip monocultures, since that's just putting all your eggs in one basket; build soil fertility, which is WAY more sustainable and less environmentally toxic; whenever possible, breed your own seed that is adapted to the local conditions, which imported seed can't be.
The Nile river carries a lot of natural minerals that makes the surrounding land extremely fertile. I am no expert on this, but is the silt in the Nile as good as artificial fertilizer?
I really would just like to thank you for bringing the attention of young people to agriculture, even if only for seven minutes. Agriculture really is one of the most fundamental building blocks of life on earth and it is not taught nearly enough in the education system. It is a huge part of the past and will continue to be a huge part of our society. Thank you.
- The daughter, neighbor, and friend of several farmers.
There should be a maze made out of maize.
You mean like the ones that pop up all over midwestern USA come September or so?
IkeofCrimea Nah, like an actual specifically designed and structured maze. It could be called The Maize to be mildly amusing / annoying.
ManToast We have fantastic maize mazes here in Indiana! They can take hours to navigate! -John
so a maize maze?
I no little about agriculture in either Ethiopia or Indiana by I now about my home county in Bacau (Romania). Fields are abandoned. Mostly nobody cultivates nothing (except some apple trees, and prune trees). We just import food here. How's that for a solution? Of course we base our economy on the developing IT industry, so who needs food anyway?
Thank you, John Green, for making this video more old school-like and paced more slowly! You clearly took our comments from the previous video seriously and professionally. This was amazing video and it was super easy to follow through in single watching. Loved the jump cuts. :)
Excellent video! Thanks, John. If you want even more (infuriatingly) complicated things to think about in the complicated realm of Food Security:
1. Fertilizer and 'new' seeds are great inputs for increasing yield in the short-term, and especially when the goal is reducing malnutrition (probably the most important of all), but in the long term, these strategies decrease biodiversity and overall land fertility, so they're a good quick fix for the goal at hand, but aren't sustainable in the long run.
2. Are we increasing all yields and stores, or just for maize? If maize begins to displace other parts of the diet because of its reliability/affordability, it could possibly lead to pellagra, in extreme conditions.
3. We want these women to have more money because they have a tendency to 'reinvest' it back into their families, which increases life expectancy for kids. Men in the developing world, however, sometimes have the tendency to spend all that money on things like alcohol and prostitution. How the heck do we fix that, or do we just accept that it may happen?
All things considered, I definitely believe food security will be one of the biggest challenges of this century. Thanks again for bringing it to your viewers' attention.
A subpoint to #2 - if we focus on growing maize (or any single crop, for that matter), we leave people open to serious starvation if/when a pest or disease strikes that crop (eg. The Irish Potato Famine).
for point #3 ethiopia is an religious country. There are only a handful of people i know that aren't religious. And this isn't the new christianity that has devoped to fit modern society, this is the kind that changed only slightly from the first form of eastern orthodoxy. Ethiopian people have a lot of values and prostitution and alcohol are virtually non existent in the city let alone the extremely religious country.
1) As the agricultural sector moves further forward it will continue to produce food on the same land, we have been adding micro-nutrients back into the fertilizer we put in the soil, live plant tissue sampling, soil sampling before and after season, leaving the material other than grain in the field to break down and help form more new, better, healthy soil is now the normal farming practice. Those who aren't and haven't adopted this practice are failing at farming, and they can only do it for a few years before the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs breaks them and their land gets sold to more progressive farmers who are using the tools at our disposal to become better stewards of the land.
2) No, our yields have increase across most foods due to selective breeding and advancements in scientific understanding of the growth requirements.
30 People will be people, and trying to control that is a fruitless endeavor, instead we all need to accept that at current growth and life expectancy rates there will be more people than needed to produce the food we need, and as agriculture is the backbone of all modern society, allowing cities to exist, art and entertainment, and further education we face the biggest change to our race ever. What to do with the surplus of labor and the obvious change of supply/demand infrastructure we have grown accustomed to.
I'm from South Africa and live on a farm and I really believe that this is a very important issue. I feel that people don't realise how important an issue this is. We went through a really bad drought about three years ago and we are still feeling the effects of it. I wish more people would talk about this issue and understand that agriculture is both extremely difficult and extremely important.
So thanks, John for making this video.
hec-taker... hec-taker... HEC-TAKER?!
That's how he was pronouncing it though :P "hectacre"
AFGNCAAP Anderson I KNOW. I KNOW. I'VE BEEN MAKING THIS MISTAKE SINCE I WAS LITERALLY IN FOURTH GRADE.
***** John don't you mean "since I was in literally fourth grade." I think that's right... I don't know you're the author not me
epicnessofmine
Well.. authors tend to have proofreaders (or, rather, I suppose their publishers do).
epicnessofmine No, I'm pretty confident that's wrong. He was literally in fourth grade. While it was literally fourth grade, that's not the stress of the sentence.
Glad you're now okay, John. This is a very, very interesting topic since agriculture is also becoming a huge problem in the Philippines, which, as you know, is a developing country as well and relies so much on this industry. With climate change (stronger storms or no rains at all for months) unfair wages and land distribution issues for framers, the agriculture industry here is in quite a pickle. All I'm saying is, this was very relatable for a Filipino who pays attention to both local and international issues. So, thank you.
"No one reads to the end of the description so I can just ramble on down here and say whatever I want."
John, we see it all.
Yes! I can always know if it's time for a vlogbrothers video and I'm so glad you touched on this subject. I really enjoyed today's video. Also John! My world history showed crash course today and he said that he regularly uses it as a teaching tool! You guys, have really been doing a good job decreasing world suck and adding world awesome. Thanks, DFTBA.
To add another layer of complexity to this issue...we need to think not only about raising yields, but how we raise yields. Increasing synthetic inputs and moving toward a mechanized system may not be the best idea -- when fossil fuels start to run out, synthetic fertilizer won't be cheap anymore. Climate change is a big problem, as I'm sure we all realize, and in America (by some calculations) emissions that can be traced back to the industrial agricultural complex can account for roughly a quarter of total emissions. That's NOT a system we want to replicate.
We should also be comparing output per hectare of corn not only to other hectares of monocropped corn but also to polyculture systems. Overall productivity increases when we capitalize on ecosystem services -- which is difficult to do when you monocrop.
If you were my teacher ,I'd go to school *and* after school classes to learn even more .
So awesome ,and the way you speak so fluently without fault is so great to listen to and to gather information .
I love these educating and interesting facts that are great to have in ones mind.
John: "Not in the way you need Cabbage Patch Dolls..."
6 Year Old Me: "HOW DARE YOU, JOHN GREEN? HOW. DARE. YOU?"
Rice Yields quadrupled because of a neat thing.
Genetic Modification.
Seriously.
The thing that hipsters like to clamor against? Is the reason that China is not all starvation by majority in the way it used to be.
+TacComControl There's more truth in your statement than many are comfortable with. www.amazon.com/The-Man-Who-Fed-World/dp/1930754906
Yep. GM foods also had a neat effect of, you know, preventing about 500,000 deaths per year among infants and children from Vitamin A deficiency.
Naturalists tend to throw fits about GM foods because "Naaaatural" is somehow a good thing. So, apparently, is dysentery.
1) I absolutely adore your videos whether they are 1 min of silence or 15 of rambling
2) I read the end of your dobly do
3) you make me want to join something
4) thanks, John Green
Why did the Ethiopian government ban corn exports?
The theory goes that if you ban exports the corn will be used to feed your own people instead of being turned into money. You see this a lot in countries with a centralized economy. What it doesn't take into account is that if farmers are allowed to export crops, they can invest those profits in modernization of their farm, such as the aforementioned good fertilizer and good seed, thus increasing yields, etc etc. Generally I'm not one to put a huge amount of stock in trickle-down economics, but when applied to food production, there's a good amount of evidence saying it works.
osunightfall thanks!
One of the problems is that because Ethiopia is a landlocked nation, it loses a good portion of its potential exports on not being able to ship things.
***** Yes that would also really inhibit trade. The more it has to cost to send your goods somewhere, the less money you make
***** No the landlocked issue is more the fact that Ethiopia has historically strained relationships with Eritrea and Somalia (and Somalia's coast poses a security risk). Ethiopia depends on Djibouti for maritime exports, as Djibouti is the only option to the sea. The Addis-Ababa-Djibouti Railroad provides access to the Djibouti Port.
It's very interesting seeing how other country's do agriculture and their economy compared to how the US does agriculture and our economy. I like your new way of cursing, I also like the dead authors instead of cursing. I hope you had a good birthday john!!
Hate to be another lame commenter but I've never been under the 301 view when watching any video so im very happy right now :D love the video though John, glad to see you recovering from your meningitis. Happy belated birthday from an irish nerdfighter :D
ya i know me to haha. BUT JOHN YOU SCARED ME I HAVE BEEN WAITING ALL DAY I THOUGHT YOUR MENINGITIS RELAPSED OR SOMETHING YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK
I don't know why, but it does feel like you're in some weird exclusive club when you get in at under 301 views.
John, I'm an agricultural economist and I wanted you to know that, as typical, you really nailed the issues in this video. All mispronunciations notwithstanding. The access to capital is a huge issue in the developing world, as you pointed out. A slightly more subtle issue in Ethiopia is the lack of private property rights. A farmer in Ethiopia cannot own his or her land and therefore cannot use it as collateral for a loan. Or at least that was the case when I worked there in 2001. When I was 21 I did not fully appreciate how important property rights and a functioning legal system are for development. Now that I’m twice that age I realize the huge importance of the simple right to own things and have a court compel someone to give that stuff back if they take it. It’s easy in the Western world to take that for granted.
Damn, i have never watched a video at the same time they uploaded it.
same it makes me happy!
Same! So exciting!
Yeah, me too. This is cool, actually! xD
As a farm girl from ND, this video spoke to me. I really appreciate how much easier the job is with all the advantages we have as a developed country.
Poached Tuberculosis I loved this video! I know you dont get a punishment for this, but when the steamed asthma will you do the one remaining?
This is such a beautiful thing to share about these communities and how global communities might work together. Thank you for talking about it, thank you for showing videos about it, thank you for making my outlook on the world today more optimistic.
Hydroponics / aquaponics might have an impact on improving agricultural production. Both home and commercial farms could benefit from appropriately scaled systems.
Great video!
Thanks for commenting on this, I've never seen this channel before but I'm a Sub now! I agree with you 100% and that's a HUGE part of my drive to test cheap and simple aquaponic gardens that anyone could do. I don't know how the cost of an IBC compares to ... say ... a Llama but it's worth looking into. It's probably easier to ship the IBC's too!
Hydroponics is a great way to intensify production, but the upfront costs are really high so in a place where people can't get a loan to buy fertilizer, it's probably not the best option. Plus, food grown hydroponically is typically more expensive so it can offset the higher production costs.
That's why I'm exploring the cheapest ways to go about AQUAponic gardening. Fish are cheaper than chemicals and can be eaten when they get to a large enough size! Grow media can be found almost anywhere if you use a little creativity so the biggest issue is getting waterproof equipment to the people that need it. Probably still cheaper than llama transport ...
I'm not convinced of the utillity of Aquaponics in places where people frequently die of Malaria.
Many fish will eat their larva. There's not much, if any stagnant water anyway. I doubt that mosquitoes would reproduce (effectively) in a properly maintained hydro/aquaponics system.
It makes me so happy that there are people out there who believe that young adults are both capable of and should learn about complex issues like this. Thank you for not talking down to me, John!
1:25 This graph is in HECTARES not hectacres, and the figures seem to be correct for hectares too. Yet, John is using hectacre in speech for some reason. This gives very wrong values throughout the video. So each time Johns verbally gives you a hectacre value, either assume it is hectare or divide it by 40
Oh I have just seen the channel comment. It was apparently a mispronunciation. Sorry I didn't look for it first.
That and 'hectacre' is not a word.
VideoNozoki www.thefreedictionary.com/Hectacre
VideoNozoki Thank you. I was just worried about myself - I know hectare and acre but then never heard of hectacre. I guess hectaacre could be a word but why even use it.
Pedro Chaves
Note that hectacre redirected you to hectare.
1 Hectare = 100 ares = (100 m)*(100 m) is a metric system derived unit. One Acre on the other hand is about 0.404686 Hectares and is an imperial unit which is essentially never used in the green lands of not-America.
This video very much reminded me of the book I had to read over the summer for college, Scarcity: Why having too little means too much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir . In the middle of the book they talked of farmers and some points you made rather correlated with it. :)
A question: When you say 'good seed and good fertilizer', what does that mean? If I remember my history correctly, there was a huge increase in agricultural output in the West in the 20th century due to mechanization and the advent of artificial fertilizer. Now, most artificial fertilizer is made using lots of fossil fuels, releasing green house gasses into our dear atmosphere. Basically, I'm wondering if 'good fertilizer' is the kind that contributes directly to global warming, or something else. I think using artificial fertilizer could make sense in the short run to bring up production, but seeing as we all, globally, should have stopped using fossil fuels a couple of decades ago, having even more people being even more dependent upon them makes me sad.
Good fertilizer can also be horse... excrement... which people actually buy and sell. There are other alternatives as well but yeah unfortunetly you're right.
We kind of can't stop using artificial fertilizer in much of the world. There just isn't a better way to generate the enormous amount of food the world needs to keep everyone alive. Horse poo and other organic substitutes are wonderful in small scale farms, but we need to feed billions every day. There isn't enough horse poo to go around.
But nitrogenous fertilisers are typically made using the Haber process converting atmospheric hydrogen and nitrogen to ammonia- so it doesn't use fossil fuels and with proper management strategies the negative effects of using nitrogenous fertilisers (eg. eutrophication of waterways from runoff etc. plus an increase in plant growth will decrease runoff anyway) can be minimised and in my opinion, the environmental effects which can be effectively managed are over shadowed by the positive impact that it can have on the production of food for a growing world population
Veronica Helen Agree completely.
Veronica Helen The Haber process needs an H source. Typically, this comes from methane. Nearly all industrially produced ammoniacal N requires fossil fuels. This needn't be the case though. People are trying to find carbon friendly sources of H that can compete with methane.
My degree is in agricultural economics. Thanks for explaining why agricultural development in Africa is so important! This is a really great overview of a complicated and important problem
Is the "good" corn seed provided by Monsanto like U.S. corn? Please answer that question, I couldn't find it at wfp.org. Thanks.
Not always, but more importantly if the water of life had Monsanto on it would you avoid drinking it for your fear of a company that you know little about?
I know their seeds.
On a personal level, or do you farm or work in a lab?
I am a biochemist specializing in molecular genetics. I am also a medical professional. I regularly self educate as well by reading peer-reviewed scientific journals including the PNAS. Do you take my inquiry on the origin of the seed seriously now?
SparxFly G. I am superman and this is the internet.
How about providing some peer reviewed research of yours?
I'm so glad people like you and hank are here
THis was easily one of the best videos I've seen lately. Thank you so much. Since it's educational, I hope I don't see a bunch of dumb comments about punishments.
Damn. I see the "It's over 4 minutes!" Crap started way before I watched. You would think a group like Nerdfighters would think a bit better for themselves...Oh well.
Thanks for talking about the problems facing world agriculture! I am an agricultural Economics masters student and we are faced with these global challenges as we ready agriculture to feed 9 billion people. Using technology and sound practices will alleviate some of these constraints, but public support is something that is strangely not coming as easily as it should. Ag wants to feed people. Malnutrition is not a necessary thing if we can empower people to support themselves and their communities.
Support all sectors of Agriculture! Without it your life would be less fulfilling and you'd be left naked and hungry.
I don't know John, it sounds pretty sexy to me. This video was great. Is there any way we can help this? If I want to get more involved?
If you didn't know, Kiva.org is a microloan site that lends to people all over the developing world. Nerdfighteria has the largest group of lenders.
nadiact1000
We used to... until HP came out of the blue and has 2.5 times the amount of lenders we have.
But yes Daniel Kvoras, Kiva is excellent. There are many many loans on Kiva for seed and fertilizer.
Yeah I know about Kiva (I'm not new here :P). But I was thinking of help on a larger scale. I knew that this is micro-financing is probably one of the best ways to help, but I was thinking more of a volunteer work, idk If through the gates foundation or the UN or somethn.
Elvishswimmer
Aw. :( Oh well, as long as people are being helped. And who better than HP fans to take the lead.
Daniel Kvoras
Sorry. That's a good question. :)
I read to the end of the description every time. Excellent rambling, John
You specifically said nothing is simple, but at the end you said that if Ethiopia could produce as much as China, no one would starve. But there are people starving in China? Not expecting you to solve poverty in China, or anywhere, but why do you think that despite ostensible increases overall, the actual wealth increase has largely not occurred in rural areas? Basically, how do we get food to the people who need it? ps happy birthday.
I think he was just implying that if Ethiopia could produce as much as china, they would have the potential to feed everyone in the country. Of course, there are many problems that would still get in the way of that, even with the increased production, like you said.
that's the problem with capitalism, these crops aren't being grown with the goal of feeding the people that need feeding, they are grown to make people money
***** Yes, why won't people realize that with other systems the problems of capitalism go away and no new, arguably worse problems ever rise to take their place?
you're right, lets stick to the system where you can only eat, wear decent clothes, have access to decent medical care or have somewhere to live unless you go out and do a set of (probably meaningless) tasks to earn enough tokens to exchange for those things, what could possibly be wrong with that
Actually many of the farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have very small pieces of land and they only produce food for their family. They try to produce food for selling but the production is so low that they can barely feed their own family from the produce of their fields. I'd say increasing production has nothing to do with capitalism here, it first of all has to do with feeding the farmers themselves.
John, you mentioned that you could see farmers tilling the land from your vantage in the helicopter... but tilling how? by hand? with what level of machinery?
As a rural Hoosier whose entire extended family has relied on farming for income at some point in their lives, I also recognize the importance of good seed and fertilizer. However, I also know the incredible importance of machinery (and, in the absence of machinery, physical human strength). I think your video hints at another factor or two that complicate the poverty circle here: (1) the capital needed to buy good machinery which raises yield and/or (2) the capital needed to ensure that your physical strength can be used to raise yield.
What's a hectacre? Are you trying to say hectare? As in 100 metres by 100 metres? Or is this some new measure?
You crazy American, you...
Mispronouncing things is his thing, remember?
You make me think you teach me and you remind me of my place in the world and the importance of my existence. You rock, Sir.
Maybe teach seed saving instead of buying seed? Would that not eliminate some need for loans? American farmers, until recently, saved seed.
The seed they use is far lower quality than the seed with have in North America. John goes through the example from 1:36 to like 2:43. They save the seed they have, but they started with bad seed, so they continue with bad seed. They simply can't afford better seed.
Plus, the most productive seed is usually GMO which companies always require you to sign contracts stating that you will not save seed (at least here in Canada).
Most high-yield commercial crops are grown from hybrid seeds. Seed that is saved from a hybrid won't go true to type. This isn't a problem with ignorance of seed saving, this is a problem of technology. There are relatively few true breeding high yield crops.
Seed saving is not a long term solution. Corn is a hybrid of many different strains (gmo or not) and has to be cultivated carefully. If one were to keep planting the same seeds, hybrid vigor would decrease and production declines. That's why they buy seed. There's many factors in production that can't be solved by short suggestions. Making it to where these people can afford to produce (and making sure the money goes to the right person as John hit on) will do far more to increase the welfare of these people and communities.
Nolan Thiessen It's not that you aren't allowed to save seed, it's that your seasonal contract comes with seed when you sign. So not only is it guaranteed to be the genetic profile that is advertised (which isn't going to be the same in the progeny generations), but the collected seed from last harvest can be sold for profit.
this is something that is sadly not mentioned at all by John. because if this better crop that is used in Indiana is patented hybrid by monsanto or Pionear that could also lead to problems. rising prices and dependencies. infertile and infinite other crops a.s.o.
Can I just say how happy I am to see a vlogbrothers video about agriculture?
aren't videos not supposed to be more than 4:00??
Educational videos are an exception.
As well as nerdfighter montages!
fossilfighters101 But it seems to me that almost all of their videos are educational. How do they decide what can be longer?
Billy Giuliano I am not exactly certain, as you are right, it is ambiguous as to what is and isn't an educational vlogbrothers video, but I'm guessing that it's because this is a super super important issue and its extensive coverage has the potential to help solve some of the world's most pressing issues.
Billy Giuliano
Seems to me like you just want to punish John,most of their vids are 4 minutes long or less,and even if they do make a lot of educational videos (mostly on other channels which are exempt from the rule), would that not be a good thing?
I focused on economics of the developing world for my bachelors and presented a paper on Ethiopia at a conference, with not so good predictions. The growth has been pretty impressive, these programs have worked. Watching these videos has been a joy.
Even if you won't be punished for this video, don't you still have an outstanding punishment? I know Hank did his, but has John?
He won't be punished for this video because it's educational, but yes, he does have an outstanding punishment.
What did Hank do for his punishment?
Oh, was it "Pain and Science" video? Ah, I guess that counts, but somehow I feel cheated. (I like way back when Hank was shy, first performance in a bar / humping things around town / trying to give away peeps. Now he'd probably have no problem with any of those.) I have no desire to see them in pain, I just like the awkward squirm of social mores. Ex: have to introduce himself to 20 people as, "Hello. I'm John Green, I'm VERY famous on the internet. What is your name?" just knowing how it makes him squirm to refer to himself as famous.
VideoNozoki
Hank always seemed to do the embarrassing punishments, and John always seemed to do the disguising or painful ones. I guess this was a rare exception. (I wonder what this trend says about their relationship towards each other.)
True. Before Hank played in a bar of strangers & John waxed his chin... Now Hank is getting whipped (by Dr.Doe isn't a punishment (wink))and eating that pepper. I guess this means John needs to do the non-painful/socially embarrassing type this time.
Ohhh how they have grown. (>sniff
I'm loving this fairly Ethiopia-centric videos! Thank you!
All I have to say is GMOs and the documentary Bitter Seeds.
Cause starving people make your toes curl in delight? Better dead than eating something with no scientific evidence to backup claims?
Do not let slick documentaries fool you. Go read up some independent science on genetically modified food and then come back to us.
***** "I now say that the world has the technology - either available or well advanced in the research pipeline - to feed on a sustainable basis a population of 10 billion people. The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers will be permitted to use this new technology? While the affluent nations can certainly afford to adopt ultra low-risk positions, and pay more for food produced by the so-called “organic” methods, the one billion chronically undernourished people of the low income, food-deficit nations cannot." Norman Borlaug
Watch the documentary. It's about how Monsanto is taking advantage of poor farmers around the world, causing them to have LESS harvest and profit. The actual eating of it is beside the point.
Norn wen
I do agree that there are some ethical issues with the way big companies are run at the moment, but do not conflate that with the technology they use. Listen to John Green; any simple narrative is likely very far off the mark. Including that documentary.
Thanks...for the upload "Understanding Agriculture in the Developing World".
one word *Veganism*
Aaaaand there go simple explanations again. Do you really think starving Ethiopians are starving because they fed all their food to their animals? Do you think they ever see large amounts of meat at all? Do you think the predominantly European lactose tolerance evolved because of an overabundance of food? Do you think the special care vegans need to take to avoid food deficiencies is practical in countries where people are lucky to get enough food at all? Do you think a drop in demand for agricultural products induced by radically more vegans in industrialized nations will magically transfer food to countries like Ethiopia?
Do we need to drastically reduce our demand for meat? Definitely.
Is veganism really the one-word answer to all our malnutrition woes? Definitely not, and if you had taken the video seriously you'd already know that.
Penny Lane
I don't think "veganism" was really an answer for Ethiopia. It's an answer at large for the misplaced resources that go into animal agriculture around the world. And it's not that simple, but it would be an excellent step in the right direction for those whose living situations allow that kind of dietary change.
Lisa Wood I'm not even all that sure about that. I mean it surely is in an "in an ideal world" kind of way but in this world, small steps by huge amounts of people are going to have a much larger effect than drastic steps by a small minority. If you feel that veganism could be your thing then by all means, go for it. But trying to convert other people to it who aren't into it at all is likely to do more harm than good. Eating less meat is something everybody living a conventional Western lifestyle can do with minimal effort.
I do think every movements needs their kinda extremist pioneers and veganism isn't quite driving solar cars or doing the full-on degrowth thing but either way it's important not to expect everyone to get there any time soon or even ever. It's more of a "if they are growing their own food then maybe I can get my ass to the farmer's market more often" or "if they can get by without connection to the electric grid then maybe I can manage to switch to a renewable energy provider" kind of thing.
I am and have been for several years, and I know that a "fire and brimstone" approach to spreading my ideology isn't going to work. =) Still, being politely vocal, while unpleasant to some, is not harmful and let's people interested in the lifestyle know that there are people around to ask questions of. I may not convince the world of anything, but a small minority making big steps in no way hinders a majority making small steps. Like you said, if a few can do a lot, a lot can do a little. Everything helps.
Hmmmm Vagenism... Arghlahh
I kind of love the fact that this video was so good at explaining something so complicated, but I was still left giggling because of the repeated mispronunciation and the end of the video's description.
No you can't say whatever you want, John, and the chanting was hilarious.
Took me a while to get round to watching this, glad I found the chance to watch it during going back to school chaos!
Excellent video, John, thanks! At the risk of making you into some sort of Dear Leader, I'm pretty sure you could tell us what to do to help the situation in Ethiopia and we'd all rise to the challenge in a mighty, Nerdfightastic roar, so...what can we do? Anything?
Happy (late?!) birthday, John!
You are a good man, Mr. Green. The Yeti is very lucky to have you. I'm REALLY glad you took that helicopter ride and weren't all fear of heights freaked out over it. Keep up the good work on that end.
I'm REALLY grooving on the new exclamations. encephalitis over easy, I do.
One very big reason why the U.S. has high corn yields is because of GMO crops, and a very big one is corn, which is heavily subsidized. Also, Bill Gates owns 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock, a worth of $23 million. I'm not trying to shoot down your efforts, as I applaud them in seeing they are genuine, but I would like to see some vlogbrothers videos on GMOs, Monsato, and their influence and affect on the world. Sincere thanks for all you do John.
I just finished reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers and it was very thought provoking. Thanks John for telling us in Nerdfighteria about it.
I can never suppress a smile watching your videos. You're awesome John Green!
Perfect timing! Just finished my homework. I needed my vlogbrothers fix.
As a member of the FFA (Future Farmers of America) I have to say that this topic is very relevant! And that the perception of agriculture is far from the reality. So thank you for making a video on it, even though it is about Ethiopian Ag, it still has to do with ag in general.
AAAAA SUPER COOL! I just started my thesis and it's also about agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa! It's really nice to see an overview like this, especially since I've been reading articles for a month and I won't have time to actually visit the countries I'm doing my research about (it's only a bsc thesis). Anyway, raising production per hectare is totally one of the coolest things to do, though looking at the soil and how it impacts the growth of the crop.... It makes things super complicated. Kiva loans may already help the farmers get that money they need to fertilize their land to get a higher production but there are many parts of degraded lands where a decade of fertilisation is needed before production starts to go up again. I really wonder how we can fix that, money wise, since as you made clear these people simply don't have the means to invest in something that will only return on them 10 years later...
PS: the project I'm in, N2Africa, is also funded by Bill Gates. We're totally colleagues! :P
Thanks for always enlightening me. Thank you for educating people on issues and teaching us in a way where we can learn and raise awareness. You do a lot and its great!
Hey John, so I'm pretty sure you're going to save the world. People need you, and you're inspiring others (woah like me!) to be more involved as well. I don't know if you're ever going to see this, but thank you for everything you do to empower, support, and defend humanity. DFTBA
I am studying agriculture, and there has been a lot of focus brought to how we can improve production in developing countries. Most of the time there is poor extension work to help the farmers improve their practices in a sustainable way, let alone the resources to do so. This aspect is even more fundamental than providing the funding or grain or fertiliser.
I am not sure if you get this. John Green, it's 2 am my time so in Indianapolis it's 4 or 5 I am not sure where the time change is. But, when I started watching your videos. I was caught by the way you presented information. It's what I love most about your Books as well. I aspire to be a know writer. Cause let's face it, when your born to write. You write, right? I finished The Fault in our Stars movie. Yes, I read the book first. I cried. I cried for the book, but it made me want to say something to you. On whim or whatever the reason. I guess I am not expecting a response. I just wanted to say I loved it. Writers are an envious bunch. I quote a movie I like stuck in love. I envy your ability to finish a story. Thanks for the books, Sincerely Stephen
Ahem, I ALWAYS read to the end of the description with the hope that I will find a fun thing there. THANK YOU FOR THE FUN THING, JOHN
Excellent stuff. Expounding hopes break a cycle for both recipient and subject. Keep em coming
I feel like I haven't watched a video like this from John in awhile. Very much love them.
It's hard to get past the hect-acre problem, but when I do - one of my favourites. Thanks John.
Go WFP! Thanks for the support John!
A very interesting video, especially on the systems the WFP is putting into place. Thank you for the little slice of insight.
(And, for what it's worth: I didn't even realize I've been saying/thinking hectare incorrectly as "hectacre" until this video.)
Thanks so much for this video, John. I love seeing videos like this explaining tough and complex subjects - they really help me understand topics I wouldn't normally think about.
Yay! Was waiting all day at school for a video from John!
How much are these programs investing in infrastructure? All the grain in the world does squat if you can't get it to market to sell. But these programs are awesome. Helping people help them selves!
My corn was about the size of the ones you said were in Ethepia and I am working out exactly what combination of nutrients I need to improve it. Northern Michigan has a short growing season and poor soils, but I intend to discover what I need to do to improve it next year. I was practicing the native american tactic of growing corn, beans, and squash together and last year I had huge squash plants and mediocre corn with poor kernel development and I more or less ran out of good weather to flush out the ears, so I only had like 10 good ears and the rest was like baby corn. I have chickens now that can eat the baby corn that ended up rotting on me. Last year's beans were bush beans instead of vine beans (due to lack of knowledge at the time of purchase) and instead of climbing the corn, they bushed out and the squash crowded them out, but they did make beans. This year I got runner beans, but they are taking too long to mature and the vines insist upon making flowers that don't make beans. The squash/pumpkins were a flop this year while the corn is a bit better this year and had a two week head start.
Belated Happy birthday John!
Given that I am actually trying to re-watch a whole bunch of Doctor Who before Series 8, hearing you use Tom Baker-era Doctor Who as an example of expenses made my day. Thanks for that John!
Awesome video John. I've been loving your Ethiopia videos. I definitely wanna do something this year to like benefit people in the developing world. I think I'm gonna try and raise some money some way and donate during the Project for Awesome this year. I may also get an account on Kiva since it seems really cool and also, I'm a small business owner so helping other would be awesome!