Aug 12 2018 79 mins 22
Do you consume Garcinia? What does it mean to (not) own land or the forests? Do farms and forests lie on a continuum? Can forests themselves be farmed? Does wildlife conservation impact people for whom forests are a source of livelihood? Do we eat what some animals would not eat? Do you primarily eat (volatile) fresh produce? How are agricultural markets different from, and similar to, other markets? Is the Market an alien imposition atop the subsistence ‘economy’? Why are farmers often price takers? Where does market power emanate from, & what leads to interlocking and/or intermediation? Does ‘exchange’ capture more value than production? How is rice different from wheat? Have agrarian worlds always been rich exchange environments? Can agriculture generate sufficient surplus to support empires (or families)? Are small-farm farmers always more productive? Why isn’t there economies of scale in production? What makes agriculture so, so, complex? Are farmers becoming workers? Does Nature need to be protected from agriculture? Should seeds be preserved in seed banks, or plates, or Half-Earth? Are all consumers a member of the agrarian community? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from anthropology (Dr. Mekhala Krishnamurthy, Ashoka University, Delhi (NCR)), ecology (Dr. Nitin D. Rai, ATREE, Bangalore), & economics (Dr. Vamsi Vakulabharanam, UMass, Amherst). Listen in...
