From my economic sense blog post - The 'free-from' Nash equilibrium food marketing strategy.
A meta analysis summarizing 21 years of research related to GMO corn. Results - healthier and better yielding.
"Results provided strong evidence that GE maize performed better than its near isogenic line: grain yield was 5.6 to 24.5% higher with lower concentrations of mycotoxins (−28.8%), fumonisin (−30.6%) and thricotecens (−36.5%)....The results support the cultivation of GE maize, mainly due to enhanced grain quality and reduction of human exposure to mycotoxins."
Beyond proof of concept - blockchain
“Before the blockchain test, it took Walmart six days, 18 hours and 26 minutes to trace the mangoes back to their original source, he said. Blockchain not only cut that time down to an unbelievable 2.2 seconds” - from https://progressivegrocer.com/grocers-embrace-blockchain-new-era-transparency
Corn may soon be fixing its own nitrogen:
"Pivot Bio is on a mission to replace all nitrogen fertilizer with microbes that adhere to the crop’s root system and spoon-feed the crop each day. These microbes mature as the crop grows, matching the supply of nitrogen to the need of each plant." - https://medium.com/@ktemme/the-crop-microbiome-holds-the-future-of-fertilizer-68ce67d07ad
Facial recognition for managing cattle.
If you think that is cool, check out Image-based ex-vivo drug screening for patients.
Some research on gene drives.
Follow me at @AgEconomist
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Friday, February 2, 2018
What if they made a movie about Elinor Ostrom?
From:
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. By Elinor Ostrom (HT: Cafe Hyek, Don Boudreaux)
"Predictions that individuals will not devise, precommit to, and monitor their own rules to change the structure of interdependent situations so as to obtain joint benefits are not consistent with evidence that some individuals have overcome these problems, although others have not."
i.e. sometimes people devise cooperative ways to escape from a Nash Equilibrium without resorting to taxes or regulation.
In the movie A Beautiful Mind, there is a scene where John Nash states "Smith was wrong." I wonder if they made a movie about Elinor Ostrom if there would be a scene where she could say "Nash was wrong." Of course both statements are just terse jabs failing to capture the actual subtleties and nuances of economic theory.
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. By Elinor Ostrom (HT: Cafe Hyek, Don Boudreaux)
"Predictions that individuals will not devise, precommit to, and monitor their own rules to change the structure of interdependent situations so as to obtain joint benefits are not consistent with evidence that some individuals have overcome these problems, although others have not."
i.e. sometimes people devise cooperative ways to escape from a Nash Equilibrium without resorting to taxes or regulation.
In the movie A Beautiful Mind, there is a scene where John Nash states "Smith was wrong." I wonder if they made a movie about Elinor Ostrom if there would be a scene where she could say "Nash was wrong." Of course both statements are just terse jabs failing to capture the actual subtleties and nuances of economic theory.