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Does any of that contradict the statement: "When his seeds were used widely in 1963, Mexico instantly went from famine-prone to a wheat-exporter. Their wheat ha
by hughprime 17y ago
Does any of that contradict the statement: "When his seeds were used widely in 1963, Mexico instantly went from famine-prone to a wheat-exporter. Their wheat harvest was six times greater after" ?
The seeds may have been capable of increasing the Mexican wheat crop by a factor of six, but not capable of making Mexican wheat production price-competitive with producing it elsewhere and shipping it to Mexico. They may have been a net importer since the 1970s, but presumably that means they were in fact a net exporter in the 1960s.
- billswift 17y agoIn fact, since the 1970s, the almost sole cause of poor crop production has been political; there have been droughts, but only a small portion of the poor countries have been affected by them at any given time. The most common causes have been either the gov't cutting off supplies to "rebels" or politicians beholden to poor urban masses holding down food prices so much that farmers can't sell their crops for enough to break even, so they grow only enough for themselves (or both together, with other stupidities thrown in, like current Zimbabwe).