Today was one of those serendipitous days.  After days of heavy rain and general dreariness in northern Virginia, the sun was out and I was making a trek to my favorite nursery to select plants for my own little backyard “farm.”  (Ok, it’s a townhome patio, but trust me, it is very labor intensive.) 

(Serendipity 1)  Driving back I glanced at my BlackBerry and saw that Becki had posted a comment regarding my post on the internet game that sends rice to poor countries, FreeRice. Thrilled that someone had actually read the blog, and then taken the time to respond, I pulled into a parking lot to read her message (yes, safety first—no texting or reading email while driving on the Beltway).

Becki wanted me to know how much she enjoys the FreeRice wordplay, and shared that “I know the little bit I play doesn’t make a difference by itself, but together with others, it really does. And isn’t that how all important differences are made, anyhow?”

Yes, Becki, that IS how important differences are made – your message struck me as dually simple and profound as I continued my drive listening to the program Fresh Air on National Public Radio (NPR). (Alert readers will note that this is Serendipity 2.) The reporter was interviewing Paul Polak of the nonprofit International Development Enterprises who has spent 25 years working to eradicate poverty.” The discussion with Mr. Polak was about his new book, Out of Poverty, in which he discusses a new approach to agriculture to help resource-poor farmers improve their living standards and emerge from poverty.

Of the world’s 525 million farms, more than 450 million are less than 5 acres in size.  These small plots are mainly farmed by the “dollar a day poor” who are feeding their families on only a few hundred dollars a year.  You can listen to the interview and hear the wonderful story of a farmer in Nepal who, by using a very low-tech drip irrigation system, increased his farm revenue by a few hundred dollars a year and moved his family solidly into the middle class.  All his grandchildren are now able to go to school and a cycle of poverty has been broken.

But the thing that really struck me, were the three, very simple tools that Mr. Polak believes farmers in developing countries need to employ to improve their livlihood.  Not fancy machinery, not government subsidies, but aid from the private sector to provide them with seeds; the knowledge to improve their cultivation practices; and simple irrigation systems to provide them with water.  It sounds so easy, and called to mind a statement that Dr. Florence Wambugu (an African biotech researcher) makes in her book, Modifying Africa:  “Transgenic crop varieties are tailor-made for Africa’s farmers, because new technology is packaged in the seed, which all farmers know how to handle.”  Yes, a tiny seed is a package that carries whiz-bang technology right inside and can deliver the same cutting-edge advancements to a farmer on a small plot of land in Africa that it can to a 2,000 acre expanse in the United States – it is truly scale-neutral.  

 The second requirement Mr. Polak references, improving cultivation practices, is also aided to some degree by growing biotech crops.  A study by the Conservation Technology Information Center found that, “Biotech crops are contributing to reductions in cultivation of agricultural crops, resulting in less soil erosion, better air and water quality, less fossil fuel consumption, reduced release of greenhouse gasses and more natural habitat…”  The study was based on crops in the United States, but it seems to reason that some of the same results (albeit on a smaller scale) could be realized in other countries if the biotech seeds are incorporated into farming practices.   

And finally, irrigation.  I won’t claim that biotech seeds will self-irrigate the fields.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?  But researchers are working to modify seeds that are adapted to the often harsh climate conditions found in other parts of the world.  The resulting plants would require less water and be more drought tolerant.   

I realize this is my Pollyannaish view of the world.  And that biotech seeds are not a solution in and of themselves, but as Becki observed in her note, “…it doesn’t make a difference by itself [FreeRice donations], but together with others, it really does. And isn’t that how all important differences are made, anyhow?”

Becki, I agree wholeheartedly.  A seed may be a very small thing in and of itself, but it is the very essence of food production.  Small things such as seeds, put together with large things such as Mr. Polak’s 25 years of work to help eradicate poverty, sharing these ideas on public radio, people reading this blog, the multitude of other small steps we take each day,  all these things together can help make a very important difference.

And the final serendipity (and what does Kevin Bacon have to do with this anyway?) If you insert an extra “lac” in Mr. Polak’s name, you have the same last name as Andy Pollack, The New York Times reporter whose article I referenced in an earlier post.  Six degrees of separation……