Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look at it this way: if the percentage income spent on food dropped from 60% to, say 20%, that would effectively double their remaining income! I don't see how that could not affect a local economy, regardless of the absolute scale.
I think the point is that actually doubling income is a better way to increase income than trying to optimize the price of one product. What we do know is that food is already very cheap in Africa. It's not obvious that food could get much cheaper, let alone the 300% price reduction that you give in your example. On the other hand, we do know there are huge gains to be had when it comes to increasing income and econo…
Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
41–50 of 94 posts
Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
From your linked article, the reason people spend a greater percentage of their incomes on food is not because of the cost of food, but that their incomes are much lower: > The figures do not mean that food is more expensive in Nigeria than in the US. In fact, quite the reverse. The average American spends $2,392 per year on food, the average Nigerian half that: $1,132. The average Kenyan spends just $543 a year on f…
Where do you get this number, $2,392 per year? I can tell you that for me, it's way more than that.
Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look at it this way: if the percentage income spent on food dropped from 60% to, say 20%, that would effectively double their remaining income! I don't see how that could not affect a local economy, regardless of the absolute scale.
I think the point is that actually doubling income is a better way to increase income than trying to optimize the price of one product. What we do know is that food is already very cheap in Africa. It's not obvious that food could get much cheaper, let alone the 300% price reduction that you give in your example. On the other hand, we do know there are huge gains to be had when it comes to increasing income and econo…
Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#44Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is both off topic and a flamewar topic, which the site guidelines ask people not to introduce. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html To give this article a fairer chance at having its actual content discussed, I'm going to collapse this subthread.
How is a simple question and reference to an event a flame war?
On HN, we're trying to open up a space to discuss new things, unexpected things, curious things. Those exert a weaker force on attention than the sensationalized hot topics that already exist in people's minds. When comments hop from a new topic to an intense pre-existing topic, that creates a path to flamewar hell. It's moderation's job to restrain and undo that, so that the more curious, weaker topic can get attention again. Does that answer your question?
Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is both off topic and a flamewar topic, which the site guidelines ask people not to introduce. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html To give this article a fairer chance at having its actual content discussed, I'm going to collapse this subthread.
I see you’re still censoring to shape the narrative and silence wrongthink discussions. Have you considered you’re not in the right, when both Congress and the Whitehouse have investigated social media censorship?
In the unlikely event that Congress or the Whitehouse take an interest in HN moderation, I'll be happy to share with them how we approach this.
Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
From your linked article, the reason people spend a greater percentage of their incomes on food is not because of the cost of food, but that their incomes are much lower: > The figures do not mean that food is more expensive in Nigeria than in the US. In fact, quite the reverse. The average American spends $2,392 per year on food, the average Nigerian half that: $1,132. The average Kenyan spends just $543 a year on f…
Where do you get this number, $2,392 per year? I can tell you that for me, it's way more than that.
I do wonder if this accounts for SNAP and other food expenses not directly paid with cash income.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/consumer-expenditures/2017/...
Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#48One thing that shocked me is they breeding "giant rats" (Cricetomys gambianus). These are known vectors of monkeypox. Also, snails usually carry very harmful parasites to both humans and plants.
Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article doesn't really seem to back that up. Lots of the people pushing that theory are definitely alt-right types, but when the article doesn't present any facts to contradict them it doesn't make it seem like they're actually wrong. For some "conspiracy theories" it can be impossible to prove someone wrong, but there should be some pretty straightforward statistics to help figure out if this is bogus or not. FW…
> but there should be some pretty straightforward statistics to help figure out if this is bogus or not. Sometimes they're not: https://www.thelocal.se/20180508/why-sweden-doesnt-keep-stat...
Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame
#50The weird thing is that small scale farming will only be viable as long as Africa is not attractive to big farmers. The moment big farmers can get going I think it will be the end of small scale farming.