Scientific Review of the Feasabilitiy of Mycoherbicides in Eradicating Illicit Drug Crops
An interesting article from The Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources (BANR).
Dear President Obama
Dear President Obama:
Will you reconsider Afghanistan? When intellectual, political or diplomatic leaders face seemingly insurmountable problems, they often feel themselves trapped in a multi-dimensional maze, hoping to find a hidden passage, an invisible escape hatch. Sometimes, it is not invisible.
On Jan 6, 2007, The Economist wrote this in Afghanistan’s opium crop: Much gain, less pain:
“Here is an even bolder idea: an American security writer, Walton Cook, has argued that simply paying Afghan poppy farmers not to grow poppies would be cheap compared to the social cost of heroin use.”
Associated Press (7/21/09) wrote in US debating payoffs to poppy growers. “Policy review is now underway to compensate Afghan farmers and sharecroppers to voluntarily give up poppy cultivation. This is to counter Taliban insurgents from paying farmers in advance for poppy cultivation, from which Taliban then funds the ongoing insurgency.”
But what that article completely fails to explain is the most important part, how implementing such a diplomacy returns a spectacular profit to US taxpayers, not only in saving dollars and introducing alternative agricultures, but also by reducing troop needs and deaths. Here is how we explained that:
“Give me somewhere to stand, and I will move the earth.”
… Archimedes,Third Century B.C.E.
At the halls of Congress, Archimedes is knocking at the doors. He is shouting, “Give me somewhere to stand, and I will move the earth!” He thinks we have forgotten the power of levers; that imbalances, along with a well-placed fulcrum, are powerful forces.
Problems are often multidimensional, operating on more than one plane. Defining the problems and the planes in a new way can create a unique solution. Is there an unseen balance point?
Since imbalances have their inherent powers, and even though Archimedes is not elected, suppose we give him an audience? One imbalance is the economic imbalance between nations, rich and poor. Sometimes they are so clearly in view that they are hard to see. Let’s look at a startling example that compares one rich nation, the US, with one of the poorest, Afghanistan.
Nowhere are differentials in balance points, what things cost and what people are paid, made more obvious than by the following comparison of price-differentials.
The US produces every imaginable product and service. Afghanistan is the world leader in one, the production of opiates, which represents $3 billion in the Afghan GDP, almost 30%!
Afghanistan produces 93% of the world’s opiates, for which poor Afghan farmers receive $800 million dollars. In stark contrast, rich OECD nations incur a ‘societal cost’ from opiate problems of $217 billion dollars annually. The cost differential is $216.2 billion! This is leverage! Archimedes question is: How can we diplomatically leverage the existing price differentials into cash?
Using the OECD price differential, give full and equal compensation to poppy farmers and workers—but now for ‘not’ cultivating poppy crops. (And guaranteed for the next ten years, allowing civil, crop and/or occupational alternatives and adjustments to take root.) Pay the Afghan government an additional $2.2 billion to make up for their GDP loss. Add $2.6 billion to provide additional needed development to sustain domestic recovery and democratization. Results: No loss of farmer income—No government loss of income—$5.6 billion yearly to build democratic institutions—No civil unrest or increased poverty—Stabilization for the geographic region.
Now happy former poppy farmers have state-of-the-art, iris-scan ID cards. They have a range of alternate crop selections. Better yet, they have guaranteed income for 10 future years and are no longer likely candidates to violate their agreements not to cultivate opium poppies. They are secure.
Side Effects: Loss of major funding (up to 70%) for insurgency and terror, reducing revenues of al-Qaeda, Taliban, druglords, mafia and other criminal interests.
Pass Along Benefits: OECD nations save $217 billion ‘societal cost of opiates’ each year, now made available for other uses, both domestic and otherwise. (Stabilization of Pakistan)
What makes economic leverage unique? It gains power from dollars made available by reduced narcotics related costs at home. It is a simple concept; bad expense money saved, not money from additional taxation. It enables richer nations to lend generous support to poor nations, without cost but with economic and social profit. Perhaps Archimedes has finally found a place to stand in Washington? Eureka! Let us all hope that this opportunity will not continue to be missed.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, there are economic ‘silver bullets,’ capable of creating a watershed in economic diplomacy, and they come in a social ‘silver lining.’ When we originally presented this imaginative application of agricultural incentive to cultivate crops alternate to the opium poppy, we hoped that the price-differential advantage would be recognized immediately, that the vast difference between what farmers in a poor country receive at ‘farm-door’ for their crop is but a small fraction of the social costs of narcotics use in richer OECD nations.
Voters will rebel! In the end, people will refuse to be victims of irresponsibility, preferring not to lose basic values of wealth, security and justice. In these much tougher economic times, we are hoping that the taxpayer, diplomatic, international and military advantages now available receive your vigorous attention and support. We hope you will share this newly found economic leverage.
Walton Cook
waltoncook@publicpolicypress.com
Archived Documents
The previous eight posts contain links to documents (articles, essays, letters, proposals) dating back to 2001, before the creation of this blog site. Which are also archived on this page.
Essays & Proposals
Essays & Proposals covers efforts by Public Policy Press to influence public opinion, politics, diplomacy or world affairs. Please feel free to share your views.
Essays
- America’s Budgetary Challenge
- Drug Reform: Shame!
- Dear Mr. President: Lifetime Batteries for Your Bullhorn
- Malicious Media
- Missile Defense Shield
- The Truth About Mutation Mongers
- Biotech in the Garden of Eden
- When Should Science Play God?
- Whatever Became of Selective Breeding?
- Headline of the Decade!
- Media Watchdogs
- In a World Without Narcotic Drugs, You Will:
Proposals
Public Law 109-469 Sec 1111
Public Law 109-469, Section 1111, is the Congressional requirement which instructs the drug czar’s office, ONDCP, to conduct a scientific study to determine if narcotics plant bio-control technology may be a future policy option for controlling the cultivation of narcotics producing plants.
- Draft Letter to NRC (PDF)
- Mycoherbicide Letter Aug 07 (PDF)
- Mycoherbicides (PDF)
Biology
Biology gives readers an insight into some of the new and interesting discoveries in science, particularly as they relate to our lives.
- A New Biology for a New Century (PDF)
- Engineering hypervirulence in a mycoherbicidal fungus for effient weed control (PDF)
- NATO Advanced Study Institute (PDF)
- Universal inheritable barcodes for identifying organisms (PDF)
- Biological Control of Plants Used to Produce Narcotics in Central Asia (PDF)
- Enhancing the Efficacy of Plant Pathogens for control of weeds (PDF)
- XIIth International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds Keynote Speaker Abstracts (PDF)
- Legal and Treaty Considerations Applicable to Use of Mycoherbicides for International Drug Crop Eradication (PDF)
- Development of Plant Pathogens as Bioherbicides for Weed Control (PDF)
- Field assessment of Fusarium oxysporum based mycoherbicide for control of Striga hermonthica in Nigeria (PDF)
- Development of genetic markers for risk assessment of biological control agents (PDF)
- Trangenic Mycoherbicides (PDF)
Afghanistan
Afghanistan is one of the world’s most troubled nations and one of the poorest. Having a legacy of over 30 consecutive years of warfare and internal strife, it also suffers from male and female life-spans of a mere 44 years, combined with inadequate nutrition, high illiteracy, ethnic strife, and underdeveloped infrastructures. In some senses, it is an earthquake zone with daily disasters.
- Alternative Development: The Modern Thrust of Supply Side Policy (PDF)
- Afghanistan Economic Incentives and Development Initiatives to Reduce Opium Production (PDF)
- Food Security – Critical Research and Development Project Needs for a Safe, Sustainable and Sufficient Food and Feed Supply (PDF)
- Rebuilding Agriculture in Afghanistan (PDF)
- Helmand Provincial Counter-Narcotics Strategy (PDF)
- Tribal HelmandPublications from Areu (PDF)
Terrorism & Counter Narcotics
Terrorism & Counter Narcotics covers efforts to deal with both issues, in Afghanistan and other drug producing nations.
- Transnational Terrorism (PDF)
- President Obama’s Policy Options in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) (PDF)
- Letter to Secretary of State Rice, Re: Afghanistan (PDF)
- The Department of Defense’s Counternarcotic Efforts (PDF)
- Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs letter to DoS and DoD (PDF)
Economics
This section contains interesting current economic thinking regarding development issues and other writings of economic concern.
Human Nutrition & Development
In the past, the Green Revolution concerned itself with increasing the yield of high protein cereal crops. It has been highly successful. What is needed now is a Nutritional Revolution to address the issue of malnutrition in an age of plenty, particularly in the poor regions of the world like Africa.
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