Think Global And Buy Local – Moon of Alabama

March 2, 2009

Think Global And Buy Local

There have been several such reports over the years – two recent ones:

LSA Anaconda, Iraq – Here's what KBR made available for an ordinary breakfast: baked bacon, creamed beef, pork sausage patties, turkey sausage links, plain omelets, scrambled eggs, hash browns, grits/oatmeal, buttermilk biscuits, French toast, waffles, assorted yogurts, muffins, doughnuts, and coffee cake.

and

FOB Altimur, Afghanistan – One tent away is the DFAC, or dining facility, where a crew of cheerful civilian cooks from India stays up all night preparing a smorgasbord of goodies. There is a mountain of fresh strawberries and grapes, replenished daily. There are six kinds of ice cream and pie. There is surf and turf every Friday night, with lobster tails flown from Maine via Dubai. After a late patrol, the men can still get grilled cheeseburgers at 2 a.m.

As Napoleon said, an army marches on its stomach. Good food is good motivation. But what those reports describe is the luxury of a five star hotel. Meanwhile how many people in the U.S. have to live on food stamps? Over 30 million.

From a more strategic standpoint: Isn't one of the main problems in Afghanistan economic development? Or the growing of opium? Or unemployment?

So why not buy local food? Why no have local farmers provide what those bases need? Pay well at the local farmers market and it will be much cheaper than to fly in vegetables from California.

Joshua Foust is currently on a forward operation base in Afghanistan. He has a nice little story how he and a colleague solved a problem by hiring some locals for $60 when the French troops had planned to make that a project and hire some foreign contractor for thousands of Euros.

The net result of this very tiny amount of effort and money is that five Afghans were given work for two days, a health and equipment problem at the base was resolved, and the ANA’s relationship with the Westerners at the base was vastly improved.

I am against the foreign operations in Afghanistan. But if they are done at all, why not do them in a way that costs us less money AND helps the Afghan economy AND increases the chance of the mission to succeed.

People tend to care for stuff they made themselves and were paid to made much more then for stuff that is just given to them. Why then are Chinese contractors building roads in Afghanistan instead of local Afghans?

Posted by b on March 2, 2009 at 16:38 UTC | Permalink

Comments

b-you’re never gonna make it in government if you keep making sense like this 🙂

Posted by: David | Mar 2 2009 16:58 utc | 1

the problem with buying produce locally is that you would be hard pressed to find any Afghan farmer able to provide a constant supply.
Sure, they could come up with apples and seasonal fruit but being in the middle of occupied territory there are certainly some risks to consider wrt the food and if it has been poisoned or filled with razor blades or what have you.
one thing to consider wrt to the Chinese building roads, perhaps there is no local talent. from what I read there is not really a modern autobahn system there.
finally, who cares if we spend too much. conducting war on the cheap is just as bad imo as doing it lavishly.

Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 2 2009 17:25 utc | 2

Obviously there is much more money to be made by the private contractors (Halliburton et al) with their open-ended cost-plus contracts in dragging all that food from the US than buying locally. Your point remains valid however.

Posted by: Colin | Mar 2 2009 17:30 utc | 3

the problem with buying produce locally is that you would be hard pressed to find any Afghan farmer able to provide a constant supply.
I think that’s the fundamental problem with modern day military occupations.
Roman legions could not bring in supplies from elsewhere, so they had to make do with what they could get locally. Either install trustworthy locals in power and help them out build local infrastructure and economy that could benefit both themselves and the natives alike or exterminate anyone (and all their kin) that dared to cross them–say, by poisoning wells. It wasn’t really a matter of choice for them, nor did it need to be the policy originating from Rome–it was the matter of survival for the legions in the field themselves.
Fast forward 2000 years, the occupying army relies on its homeland for everything. It has no connection to the region they operate in or the locals. It exists in a universe of its own. Whatever happens around them doesn’t really matter to them–except what they are told they need to do by the higher ups or if the locals shot at them. The only interaction it has with the locals, in other words, is at the point of machine guns, literally. They become “foreigners” in far more stark sense than their Roman counterparts 2000 years ago.
If successful COIN depeends on establishing close linkage between an occupying army and the locals, this is no way to do COIN. To the extent that it can succeed, it will have to be immensely more costly (to buy locals’ cooperation) and heavy-handed (to instil fear in them). Of course, both require good intelligence–which close linkage between locals and the occupying army helps obtain–and that won’t be available in quantity either. Perhaps not impossible to “succeed,” but only at immense cost and tremendous inefficiency.
It’s the supply-side version, so to speak, of the same mentality that seems to pervade modern day armies–especially the US: “force protection” trumps all other concerns. Short term risk is minimized–but at the cost of multiplying long term risk. Of course, this goes beyond the military–that is exactly how the financial crisis was fomented in the first place also, isn’t it?

Posted by: kao_hsien_chih | Mar 2 2009 18:18 utc | 4

In Palestine and Iraq, the efforts to destroy, completely smash local agriculture are crystal clear.
Ripping out trees, plantations, annihilating the infrastructure that supports it – mostly water (bomb the pipes/wells, and create nasty slums with bugs galore and rats, slow death, tooo saad, those dumb ppl can’t take care of their own…), and seeds – prevent locals from trading seeds and force them to buy from the likes of Monsanto. For Afgh. similar, though because of the terrain, the drug issue it is less clear (I can’t go into that now.)
The hungry and starving will work for a pittance to buy imported junk food, agri surplus, to survive. (As will US citizens.)
Go local is all very fine for yuppies who shop in local food markets – they actually have a choice, pay big bucks, they aspire to be PC and maybe slim down their fat children with talk of the glamor of local home grown greens, before dining next day at whatever restaurant. (Or now at home.)
*Food as a weapon* brings up X million hits on google. It is the ultimate weapon.
Ppl will do anything to eat. So money to buy food MUST be paid to the occupier, the overseers, the corporations, the puppet Gvmt., etc. and the amount of work to obtain it has no limit.
Industrialized agriculture (“green revolution”) actually manages to feed the 6 billion+ of us, with many starving to be sure. Those who starve are of no account, they have no political power and are mostly in Africa. The system eats up oil and fertilizer (oil product), degrades soil and depletes water tables. Common estimates are for 10 calories in for a few 1-3 calories out. We can’t drink the oil that goes into the tractors (or the rest of the infrastructure), can’t profit from the sunlight directly, and have to deplete the environment to eat.
In the next 5 years, the system will break; in the West it may not be that visible, as killing off ppl and slave labor will have been upped.

Posted by: Tangerine | Mar 2 2009 18:42 utc | 5

@DoS – The thing to consider wrt to the Chinese building roads, perhaps there is no local talent.
Talent is there for sure – maybe to little engineering capability to build an autobahn on a magnificent bridge. But for a place that never had much of roads, a gravel road will be just fine, thank you. The locals can build those if one provides a bit of money and a few simple machines and materials.
There are also lots of Afghan expats with decent University grades – who could take care of the bigger projects. And teaching some halfway experienced Afghan car mechanic how to use an asphalt laying machine can not be too difficult either.
@kao_hsien_chih – spot on!

Posted by: b | Mar 2 2009 19:02 utc | 6

@ Posted by: kao_hsien_chih | Mar 2, 2009 1:18:30 PM | 4
Good point, the Romans had cattle herds behind them in the battle-field, they found a perfect working dog in the Rottweiler in Germany. Guess he was happy with a bone to chew.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Mar 2 2009 19:15 utc | 7

@b – thx for the registan link – i’d not seen that site before.

Posted by: Jeremiah | Mar 2 2009 20:19 utc | 8

Apart from financial aspects of juicy contracts to KBR, I understood the absence of local produce and employees in feeding US troops in Iraq was due to the evaluated danger of poisoning US troops en masse. Or even, given the hyper-hygienic obsessions of many Americans, the excessive fear of a churning gut while on patrol.
Actually it is not only an issue of sourcing food locally, but also giving employment to locals for doing the work. As far as I know, all Iraqis, and even Muslims, have been excluded. There are all sorts of non-Muslim orientals employed in slave conditions.
Even if mutton stew from fat-tailed sheep (delicious, by the way) doesn’t appeal to the average US soldier, there are plenty of local products which are common to the American diet. Chicken is produced in large quantities, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers. So part of the consumption could have been sourced locally, but it was not. Much a product of Bush-period paranoias.
However this did not begin in 2003. Back in the 80s, I worked near French contractors in Iraq. They received a container per month with all the Parisian necessities. It was like a little France, cut off from the outside world, though no doubt fresh produce was sourced locally, and Iraqis employed. They very kindly let us poor Brits have the run of their supermarket for Christmas, I am in no way criticising them. We gorged on brandy and champagne, after an Iraqi diet of mutton and, at best, Arak.
The point here is, apart from politics, the fear of the alien diet. We need to make comparisons. Are US troops in Japan and South Korea entirely fed from the US? Are Japanese and South Koreans employed for the work (in this case, I think, yes)?

Posted by: Alex | Mar 2 2009 21:01 utc | 9

So why not buy local food? Why no have local farmers provide what those bases need? Pay well at the local farmers market and it will be much cheaper than to fly in vegetables from California. b
The major problem with this proposal is that if adopted on a widespread conscious level by community minded people, it could spell the doom of the multinational-corporate-capitalist-paradigm.
Eg. Just as in France between 1994 and today the French beekeepers challenged the multinationals Bayer and BASF regarding the IMD (imidacloprid) proven cause of CCD(Colony Collapse Disorder). In the face of the most compelling studies the companies continued to defend and bring pressure to bear on government to not continue the ban of the offending pesticides. The ‘scientists’ and administrators who’s careers are invested in these products (to say nothing of profit driven managers) can no more see beyond their culturally and professionally imbued paradigm than church elders were able to see Galileo’s moons moving. How else could they perpetrate such heinous acts? …Oh yeah, statistically there have to be psychopaths inhabiting all these levels.
Thus the PR $’s and lobbying $’s would inveigle against such a proposal on a bureaucratic level that it could never happen there. It has to happen right here in my own backyard and via neighborly interdependence. And that goes for each and every one of we the people.
On that note and in the vein of Lizard’s remark on another thread:
i don’t want to participate in a mature debate about what the top can do for the masses. i want to participate in a passionate debate about what the masses can do for themselves.
LOCAVORE is a starting point but it has to go on from there to include as many of or daily and seasonal needs as possible. The more we don’t buy from them… well I really don’t need to further elucidate for this choir.
It doesn’t mean you can’t buy Vermont maple syrup in Germany but it will certainly be considered a luxury item as even in relative abundance we here in VT consider it so. Can’t think of a good exchange as VT local beers have now caught up to typical German brews.

Posted by: Juannie | Mar 2 2009 21:13 utc | 10

So why not buy local food? Why no have local farmers provide what those bases need? Pay well at the local farmers market and it will be much cheaper than to fly in vegetables from California.
On the question of adequacy of local production, we’ve been tracking the expansion of local agriculture in Iraq through satellite imagery. Sorry no information on Afghanistan. In Iraq, agriculture has expanded many times since 2003. I have no doubt that with a bit of effort, the US forces could also have been supplied.
That said, Iraq is a desert land, made fertile by the Tigris and the Euphrates. Well, the Turks now have four dams on the Tigris, and four on the Euphrates, and the Syrians one more on the Euphrates. Little water, maybe half, comes down the two rivers. The farmers of Nasiriyya have already complained about salinisation of their land. Last week, the BBC had a video about the Marsh Arabs complaining about the drying out of their marshes. The US has done nothing, even in the period of formal occupation, 2003-4.

Posted by: Alex | Mar 2 2009 23:14 utc | 11

Well, the Turks now have four dams on the Tigris, and four on the Euphrates,

What was the water policy before 2003 and how was it enforced? Were the Turks bribed with water?

Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 3 2009 0:15 utc | 12

Well, the Turks now have four dams on the Tigris, and four on the Euphrates,

What was the water policy before 2003 and how was it enforced? Were the Turks bribed with water?

Posted by: rjj | Mar 3 2009 0:15 utc | 13

Alex9) The mess of every US base around the world is all you can eat and the food flown or barged in from the US, because that’s how you maximize food budget profits for civilian defense contractors. When we were based with CincPac South, the reefer vans would often fail in their container ship trip from the US, so not only would you be eating reject of Tysons and Hormel, but it had thawed and refrozen a couple times. One chicken roast we put in the oven gagged out the entire party with the smell of gangrene as it stewed, but like they say on the Sodexho-Marriot Food Services poster over the mess door, “hey, what’r ya’ gonna’ do?”
Food-service local hires got paid less than $5 an hour but got to eat whatever was thrown out, plus whatever potable water they could carry back to their families waiting in their one-room plywood and tarp tenements, until next day’s reveille.
It’s time to get up, It’s time to get up, It’s time to get up, in the morning.
—
A online file monitoring company based out of Pennsylvania has discovered that a pc based in the US was sharing information about the President’s helicopter transportation over a peer to peer network. A defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had their computer set to enable file sharing and one of their documents had detailed blueprints and information about Marine One. Tiversa, the company that discovered the files located them on a pc in Tehran, Iran and were able to track the file back to it’s source location. Tiversa spokesmen (including retired
General Wesley Clark) have said that countries are actively pursuing intelligence information over p2p networks. So in case you didn’t already know, please don’t put file sharing software on your classified computers. It would be a “very, very bad outcome” should Tehran move forward with a suitcase bomb, and know the detailed blueprints of Marine One.
[ed.] No, it would be a “very, very bad outcome” if Americans knew how corrupt and incompetent and complicit in war crimes their so-called “Defense” department is:
—
Green Beret acquitted in Afghan killing case, keeps souvenir
Submitted by WW4 Report on Thu, 02/26/2009 – 18:50.
A US Green Beret was found not guilty at court-martial Feb. 25 of murder and mutilating a dead body in connection with the March 2008 killing of an Afghan man near Hyderabad, Afghanistan. Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Joseph Newell of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) was charged last September in connection with the death, which occurred after a driver whom Newell had stopped for questioning “lunged at me” the defendant claimed, prompting Newell to shoot the driver twice. The military jury deliberated for about four hours before returning its verdict, that Newell had acted in self defense, and the fact the corpse lost its ear was deemed irrelevant to the case. (Jurist, Feb. 26)
US soldier argues self defense in court-martial over Afghan civilian killing
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 02/21/2009 – 01:56.
A US Army Special Forces soldier facing court-martial proceedings over the killing of an Afghan civilian in March 2008 has admitted to killing the man but argued during opening statements Feb. 19 that the act was committed in self defense. Master Sgt. Robert Newell of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) was arraigned and charged with killing the unidentified Afghan and mutilating the corpse by cutting off an ear as a war souvenir. Military prosecutors allege that the killing was premeditated, and that the civilian posed no threat to Newell.

Posted by: Elliot Michaels | Mar 3 2009 0:30 utc | 14

Capitalist production, by collecting the population in great centres, and causing an ever-increasing preponderance of town population, on the one hand concentrates the historical motive power of society; on the other hand, it disturbs the circulation of matter between man and the soil, i.e., prevents the return to the soil of its elements consumed by man in the form of food and clothing; it therefore violates the conditions necessary to lasting fertility of the soil. By this action it destroys at the same time the health of the town labourer and the intellectual life of the rural labourer. [244] But while upsetting the naturally grown conditions for the maintenance of that circulation of matter, it imperiously calls for its restoration as a system, as a regulating law of social production, and under a form appropriate to the full development of the human race. In agriculture as in manufacture, the transformation of production under the sway of capital, means, at the same time, the martyrdom of the producer; the instrument of labour becomes the means of enslaving, exploiting, and impoverishing the labourer; the social combination and organisation of labour-processes is turned into an organised mode of crushing out the workman’s individual vitality, freedom, and independence. The dispersion of the rural labourers over larger areas breaks their power of resistance while concentration increases that of the town operatives. In modern agriculture, as in the urban industries, the increased productiveness and quantity of the labour set in motion are bought at the cost of laying waste and consuming by disease labour-power itself. Moreover, all progress in capitalistic agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the labourer, but of robbing the soil; all progress in increasing the fertility of the soil for a given time, is a progress towards ruining the lasting sources of that fertility. The more a country starts its development on the foundation of modern industry, like the United States, for example, the more rapid is this process of destruction. [245] Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth-the soil and the labourer.

Posted by: slothrop | Mar 3 2009 2:18 utc | 15

b, Part of it is the international msm focus on Terrorism™ as a directed banner for war profiteering and news sales. Blood sells papers. Terror builds bigger budgets. Nobody wants to read a story of a successful Afghan farming project, there are only a tiny fraction of Americans in any way connected to farming now anyway. Part of it is the justifiable fear by msm reporters in-country of getting their face splashed with acid or sprayed with burning fuel oil. Part of it is the huge cost of mounting a merc escort service to get out into the field, away from the hotel in Kabul. Part of it is earlier failed reconstruction programs from 2001-2003, where Afghans build umm, not very well is the nicest way to put it, and $100M’s simply disappeared into hidden hands. There’s no doubt the Afghans can do the work. See photos of Kabul from Fazal Sheikh’s, The Victor Weeps, pg 16, the mainstreet of Kabul in 1998 looked like Dresden in 1945. Today there are bazaars and fancy hotels built by Afghans, (staffed by poor Nepalese who haven’t been paid in a year). The “problem” is endemic in the Afghan culture. Only those corrupted by money and power will do business with the American Empire. Put another way, for the Afghan’s, doing business with a colonizer and especially taking money, is just not possible. Only the corrupted collaborators will do business with US:ISAF. (with some few “good Indian” type exceptions, as there always are) You can see these failed projects all over Afghanistan today. The primary problem is US defense contractors aren’t going to set foot outside Kabul. So poor quality work done by Bangi or Paki conscripts under poor in-out supervision, too rapid schedule, and you get a very expensive end product that will not stand the test of time. Eat local food? You can always tell a Westerner when they first get in to Kabul, their eye’s transfixed on the mounds of fresh fruit and melons, oh, look at those! Bakeries overflowing. Meat stalls filled with brilliant red. Mountains of pomegranates and raisins. Then their first case of ‘Kabul-belly’, or ‘Herat-belly’, or ‘Kandahar-belly’, standing frozen, bent half over, like a stoat being ‘harvested’ with an anal prod, and suddenly a hamburger, coke and fries is a pretty nice and safe perc for being stuck in a 50º in the shade desolation, climbing razor thin ridges on 45º slopes with a 90-pound pack and no ambush cover? You’re going to take a chance on eating local food? I don’t think so.
Still, there is success, and that’s what you need to focus your re-blogication on:
http://www.urd.org/fr/URD_Afghanistan/recherche_afgha/fichiers/PMIS_farming%20systems%20research_final%20report.pdf
Obviously their Global War of Terror won’t publish counter-intel empirical evidence.
Everything is relative to what the media and “management” what us to pay more for: http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/03/02/us-mexican-drug-violence-is-deadlier-than-afghanistan-war/4253/
Obviously their Global War of Drugs won’t publish counter-intel empirical evidence.

Posted by: Shah Loam | Mar 3 2009 3:07 utc | 16

I’m in full agreement with Tangerine@5 in hir explanation of using food as a weapon. This idea of heaping our Western classicist ‘go local’ middle class system on a culture, is subtle but effective. To overlay our grid upon the local culture is soft colonialism. It is a mechanism of Control, whether at home or abroad, behavioral problems in children such as hyperactivity, learning disabilities and criminality are skyrocketing, particularly in the industrialized nations. Not to mention, environmental toxicity, serious problems in the very social fabric, and we methodically, want to create that same controlled chaos there. The locals (there) already ~~buy~~ eat local. I’d even go so far as to say, Monsanto, and the Archer Daniels Midland Company, along with our Government agencies such as the FDA, EPA, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)are branches of the military industrial complex. As above, so below, as at home, so abroad.
Indeed, Juannie@10, and thanx for the link…
Ahh, yes, rjj @12/13 and welcome. Water. Some are already predicting the next resource wars under the heading of: ‘Peak Water’.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 3 2009 6:07 utc | 17

rjj @12/13
What was the water policy before 2003 and how was it enforced?
Water policy? You are joking.

Posted by: Alex | Mar 3 2009 9:07 utc | 18

b@6. maybe to little engineering capability to build an autobahn on a magnificent bridge
Actually not even that is true. In the Arab countries, they found in autobahn building that as soon as they dumped the foreign contractors, things went a lot faster and cost a tenth as much (I don’t have the exact figures). Local contractors proved to be perfectly capable of building autoroutes.

Posted by: Alex | Mar 3 2009 9:17 utc | 19

First smoke signals for retreat …
France calls for NATO Afghan pullout

French Defense Minister Herve Morin has requested that NATO set a timetable for the withdrawal of alliance forces from Afghanistan.
Delivering a speech at a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Morin said Monday that although NATO forces should remain militarily engaged in war-torn Afghanistan as long as necessary, it should be known that they cannot stay in the country forever.
Morin urged NATO members to set specific timelines for achieving progress in Afghanistan’s security and governance, warning that alliance commitment should not be unlimited.

Posted by: b | Mar 3 2009 13:36 utc | 20

b,
sounds like the French are pressuring the allies to admit that there is no way that they can at present realistically set any specific timelines for achieving any goals in Afghanistan save to keep things from getting worse…

Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 3 2009 14:21 utc | 21

Water:
I questioned in 2003 if water might be as much a factor as oil in Dubya’s Glorious War.
Googling around found chart showing increased cotton cultivation in the Southeast Anatolia Project area.
The Cotton People claim “From Figure 1, it is clear that cotton is not a “water hog.” In fact, in more humid environments, cotton’s water use is very comparable to that of corn and soybeans.” But the graph shows it requires twice as much as corn or soybeans – and Anatolia is not humid.
Reading quickly it seems the yield of cotton is very much a function of the water regime over the growth cycle and I AM GUESSING growing it in relatively arid regions such as Anatolia AND Uzbekistan AND Texas permits better control.
This topic needs a monograph and some expertise. Anyway it is a tangent. Enough. Bottom line: locally/globally involves the closet as well as the pantry.

Posted by: rjj | Mar 3 2009 15:36 utc | 22

Even with increased production, increased demand (and increased ability to pay) for local food drives up prices for the local people, no?

Posted by: rjj | Mar 3 2009 17:19 utc | 23

Avoiding Pakistan, New Supply Route to Afghanistan Opens

Some of the cargo, which is made up of commercial goods, was rolling by rail through Russian territory on Tuesday, said Capt. Kevin Aandahl, the spokesman for United States Transportation Command. The cargo enters Europe at the port cities of Riga, Latvia, and Poti, Georgia. For now, the cargo will enter Afghanistan from Uzbekistan, but some is expected to travel through neighboring Tajikistan in the future, said Western diplomatic officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, following normal diplomatic protocol.
As the United States begins increasing its war effort in landlocked Afghanistan and the security in Pakistan deteriorates, the issue of supply lines has become crucial. Bagram Air Base, the main hub for forces in Afghanistan, moved over 50 percent more cargo and people in January than in the same period in 2008, the military said.
But the new route is complex, covering a diverse set of countries, some of which dislike one another and few of which have first-class infrastructure. It will also not be a replacement for Pakistan, which currently allows the shipment of between 2,000 and 3,000 containers a month into Afghanistan. The new route is expected to handle about 500, Captain Aandahl said, and the shipments will include nonlethal goods like food, water and construction materials.

Those number of containers seem too low to me.

Posted by: b | Mar 4 2009 6:50 utc | 24

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