Two days in Boston and back to Mumbai

As indicated in my previous blog we rolled into Boston, a historical city from the American was of Independence, but also from the academic perspective. I did share with my co-participants on the famous Cambridge capital controversy with people from both the Cambridge's taking part in 1960s and early 1970s. The prominent among them being Joan Robinson and Piero Sraffa from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, United States. The former pointed out some important problems in the aggregation of capital, reswitching and on the foundations of neoclassical economics. The latter did concede to some of these but despite that the teaching of economics worldwide (including at University of Cambridge also) got dominated by the neoclassical thinking and students in many schools at the United States not being aware of this problem. A good retrospective of this debate is Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies.

Another development at Harvard is the seminal book by John Rawls, A Theory of Justice in 1971 (though I refer to the more recent Justice as Fairness: A Restatement of 2000 in my classes and in discussions) that had a serious assault on the utilitarian basis of neoclassical economics because of his articulation of reasonable pluralism - different things are intrinsically relevant on their own merit and not because of their relevance to utility.  Rawls also brought on other aspects such as 'original position' which means  that (free and equal) people who take decisions are under a veil so that they do not know who they are and this will help keep away vested interest.  With this and other fundamental ideal he goes on to put forth two principles of justice: First that there has to be equal liberties for all. Second, some inequalities are inevitable and they are of two types. The first inequality is that the most deserving persons should be appointed to positions of power so that societies concerns are carried forward in the best possible way and the second inequality is that while taking decisions the most vulnerable persons or subgroups interest should be maximized. The latter inequality is not a trade-off with better of individuals but rather preempts trade-offs where the interest of better-off is maximized by disregarding the interests of the worse-off.

Getting back to the trip. Our earlier schedule (the one that  I received by email before leaving India) for 20 May 2011 was an evaluation day. But, there was no such official evaluation and it was a free day. We decided to go on a tour of Boston. Just outside Marriott Cambridge, where we were staying, towards the Kendal Station side is also the bus stop for local tours.  At first the person wanted to sell us a ticket for 42 dollars. When we were a little hesitant then he said that he can reduce it to 39 dollars meant for students or give us ticket for another provided that is for 30 dollars - the difference being that the frequency of the latter bus is 20 minutes whereas that of the former is 10 minutes. Again, the latter ticket could also be used for two consecutive days and if we want a ticket for a single day then it would be 24 dollars. We decided for the single day and when we boarded the first bus we were told that we can use this ticket for the  next day also  because some logistics meant that there will be no services for this tour after 2.30 pm on our first day. Of course we did not need it on the second day.

Our first stop was Boston commons (a place traditionally used by farmers to graze their cattle) and one where there are people dressed in 18th century attire and explaining to people about the freedom trail.  It was nice to see the history being told and retold to groups of attentive children.

The second stop was harbor from where we took a boat ride and  were told about Boston's historic significance in maritime trade and some industry that developed but they no longer exist . We got off on  the other side of the harbor at Charles Town where there is a US Naval Meuseum and took the bus ride to Trinity church  near Copley square surrounded by the Westin Hotel, the Public Library and the the Old South church. There was a farmers market in the square and from a baker came to know that they also barter with fellow sellers. This is done at the end of the day when there is a mutual interest and at times they may also sell in exchange for coupons. A coupon is a guarantee given by the farmers market association in exchange for produce sold to those customers who paid by credit card at a central point. In the market one also met a Maple syrup seller from Vermont.

Back in the hotel had a long discussion with Sarthak. He is currently  at Wharton School,  University of Pennsylvania and had planned a visit to Boston to match mine. Both of us talked about  his thesis  and other work that we are doing and walked down to MIT and Harvard and took picture with John Harvard and then took a train back to Kendall and had a nice dinner at The Legal Seafood and discussed about size-class productivity in Indian agriculture late into the night.

On 21 May 2010 my flight was scheduled at 10.15 in the night, but checked out from the hotel at 12 noon. Our luggage was stored and we were given access to the business center but as one of the co-participants,  had a flight in the afternoon and as it is the same waiting in the lobby or at the airport, I  left early.  This  has added to the jet lag and though I am tired I am not able to sleep, and hence, this post. There is lot of work pending but that needs some rest before I start.

The whole experience has been wonderful. Nevertheless, the first feeling when back in  amchi Mumbai is sare jahan se acha hindustan hamara.

From Burlington, Vermont to Boston by Bus

We left the hotel at Burlington by 8.45 and moved over to Tetra Tech ARD's office at Burlington. There interventions in six areas, namely, Agriculture & Economic Growth, Democracy & Governance, Environment & Natural Resources, Land Tenure & Property Rights, Water Resources & Infrastructure, and Information & Knowledge Management. They mentioned about their interventions in Bangladesh and Nepal as also many other countries across the world on agriculture related aspects. Some of the larger concerns raised were increasing population pressure, availability of technology to produce more food without increasing costs and risks, and the need to work with farmers. There was a thinking that if farmers are not using fertilizers to increase productivity then they are not taking the rational approach but this questioning also stems from not being able to view the farmers perspective. At the end of the meeting we were given a sample of Vermont's Maple syrup.

Our next stop was Cold Hollow Cider Mill which specialized in making products from Apple, another product of Vermont. Had a sample of fresh and raw apple juice and picked up some tidbits of wooden toys. It is from here that we went to Stowe where we had lunch. Over lunch Roger the driver of the van was mantioning that about 40 millioniores own a vaccation home there. Even Jackie Kennedy used to come here for her skiing. The next stop was at Cabot, a cooperative of dairy farmers since 1919 that is known for its cheese in this region. From here we moved on to the last official stop at Ben and Jerry's took a tour of their ice cream factory which has some fair trade practices in paying appropriate prices to the farmers from whom they get milk and insist that they do not use any growth inducing hormones and also insist that the farmers pay their workers well.

We reached Mariott at about 7.30 pm. This hotel has its class as it is the costliest, but slightly disappointing for the participants as it does not give some facilities that we were used to - complimentary breakfast, free internet in room for those with laptops. In the evening we went out for a stroll to Charles river and then all the participants including Alan had dinner together at the Legal Sea Foods, Kendall square, for the first time. It was a nice evening together where we talked about us being at the intellectual hub lose to MIT, Harvard and the Boston college.

Tour of Hardwick, Craftsbury, Montplier in Vermont

The day began with a nice breakfast and we left at 10 am to Hardwick. The economy of the region has not been doing well in recent years. The Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE) has been trying to revive some of the farm related business around the region. Their Program Director Elena Gustavson and a Masters student working on her thesis Heather Davis explained to us the situation in Vermont. The amount of crop land growing organic would be about 15 per cent but it is only about two per cent in the whole country. Similalry, the population associated with Community Suported Agriculture (CSA) would be about three-to-four per cent but it is only one per cent in the country. The figures are low, but they are much better than the country as a whole. On food insecurity for the state, we were told that it has increased from 10 per cent of the population in 2007 to 12.1 per cent in 2009. On the other hand, this is a healthy state and the life expectancy of the state is among the highest. The harsh weather conditions have also developed a camaraderie where people are ready to help each other.

An activity that CAE has been involved is the setting up of the Vermont Food Venture Center. It has come up as an incubator kitchen to facilitate farmers with small business. The center has been built on a federal grant but the day-to-day management expenses have to be borne from the operations. It is likely to commence work soon and the farmers can get their produce to help them come up with finished products for bakery, cutting and processing vegetables and also producing sauces and jams. The farmers will have to pay about 48 dollars per hour to take advantage of this facility. This will help small farmers package and sell their produce and also perhaps help them reduce their costs in the value addition activity.

We then went to Bonnieview farm where there are about 200 sheep from which they produces cheese and  they are helped by an intern, Joe, from an agricultural college who is also learning through this on-the job training. He plans to further study and someday be a farmer on his own. The prolonged winter this year was harsh on the lambs and they lost a few. They have a Llama, an animal that saves the sheep from predators. There are plans of expanding the business by getting more lamb and also some cows.

Our next stop was Pete's Green, a village farm at Craftsbury, Vermont. They are part of a CSA, but suffered losses due to fire in their storage yards in January 2011. They were underinsured because of astronomical insurance costs and received about 250,000 dollars as compensation whereas their total losses was three-to-four times more. Their clients raised funds of about 100,000 to 150,000 dollars. It is this response from the community that has made the proprietor think that in five-to-seven years time they will repay the money to a fund to be managed through the help of CAE that will help similar farmers in distress. Now they are trying to revive their work and they will start CSA again from end June of 2011. They are able to supply through out the year by storing some foods that cannot be produced in winter and also by producing some vegetables under greenhouses during winter.

Our last visit, also at Craftsbury, was Sterling College  where they have a course on sustainable agriculture. They provide hands-on training to students and unlike other agricultural colleges most of the training uses minimum of machines and tools. About 25 students join per year for a four year program. The tuition fees and also lodging and board costs would be around 16,000 dollars. The college also produces 25 per cent of its food requirements - they are not able to increase it more because this could affect the academic content of the program. They also had a greenhouse but this does not use any heat machine during winter. The plants do not grow but are put in a dormant stage. This reminided me of the Scandinavian story of how a man had hid his father in the basement against the kings's dictum of killing all old age people. But, a very harsh food shortage during one winter led him to take advise from his father to plough the lands along side the road where grains would have been burried but the seeds would have been dormant and ploughing in the spring following winter would germinate these seeds. It is this act that saved the land from hunger and the king from realizing his folly. Getting back, the larger concerns of sustainable agriculture is to reduce costs so that more and more farmers take it up while remaining small.

On our way back we stopped and Montplier the capital of Vermont. Their capitol has a statue of Ceres the Roman godess of agriculture indicating the relevance of agriculture in Vermont's economy. One of the major agricultural products of Vermont is Maple syrup. This is produced by boiling the sap of the maple tree that is collected in a six-week period after winter and before spring, which at times is refered to a fifth season the muddy season. Vermont borders Canada and is about 90 miles from Montreal, the capital of Quebec in Canada.

In the evening we went to the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce monthly meeting. Met an wall street analyst who was pissed up that half the Americans need to be given subsidy because they are hungry or old or vulnerable and thought that if this happens then the economy cannot revive. Then on a high he started talking about his horse and how for the last half mile he gets down and walks along with him. I told him that that is perhaps the solution to the financial mess - we need to walk together. He agreed that the greed was indeed a problem if you whip the horse and wound it to take you faster and faster then it will trip and you will ultimately fall. Another financial analyst said that he is now producing onions and tomatoes as a hobby - perhaps he will have time to empathize on the farmers. Another group I met was The Chill Foundation that is helping the undeserved youth - most importantly they teach them patience, persistence, responsibility, courage, respect, and pride. Important lessons here!

Eli was considerate enough to drop me back and on the way showed me the floods along the banks of Lake Champlain, which also borders New York state on the other side. It is time I call it a day. Tomorrow we start early, move around in Vermont and in the evening drive down to Boston.

Reached Burlington, Vermont

The trip was tiring as usual. Things were smooth at Cedar Rapids where we also confirmed at the United Airlines about my return trip, which one is supposed to do 72 hours before departure. The flight to Chicago was short.

We had a two-and-a-half hour stop there and took and soon after being airborne there was a beautiful view of a waterbody. It could not be the seas and less likely to be a river. It is the Lake Michigan. It was really huge and nice to watch as it took some time for the lake to cross the breadth. 

After about two hours of flying we landed at Burlington, Vermont in the midst of a forest. Vermont is referred to as the land of green mountains and the most environment friendly state. Its biggest attraction is tourism - skiing and other ice sports in winter, and also attractive in the othe seasons.

We are putting up at the Green Mountain Suites, a nice place to stay. In the evening just after we arrived they had complimentary drinks (beer, wine, juice or plain water) and snacks given to all, a feature from Monday to Friday in addition to the complimentary breakfast that we were told is quite spread out. This also has this business centre. Our local host here is Vermont Council on World Affairs and our contact person is Eli.

In the eveing we strolled down to the local shopping Mall about 500 meters from here. Not very successful in my endeavours and had to get out before it closed to go to the supermarket and get some grub for dinner. The climate is pleasant and slightly colder than Cedar Rapids. Rain is predicted for the next two days when we are around here, but I am expecting it to be a smooth affair. Tomorrow we are visiting local farms and I am looking forward to it.

Local and slow versus industrial and fast food

The day began with an interaction with local foods connenction, Laura Daud. She tries to bring together the farmers through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to low-income people. Most of the low income people are either single-women parents or children or old. In terms of communities they are either Hispanic or Latin Americans or Immigrants (there are a number of them from Sudan). In the usual marketing channel a farmer gets 20 cents of the dollar paid by the consumer, but through the local foods the farmer gets about 90 to 100 per cent of the dollar paid by the consumer. The poor are used to less healthy food and effort is required to make them appreciate local foods with a vegetable and fruit diet. It is difficult to take them out of the habit of fast food which also is easily accessible.

Generally under CSA the farmer gets the food baskets to a common place from where people pick up their baskets. However, under local foods some farmers who deliver at home are tied up with old and physically disbaled households who will have difficulty in traveling.

Another problem about the poor is difficulty in accessing health care. Poor people can access some free medicare, but that will not help them for chronic diseases. Another thing is that when they seek care they will have no bargaining power. The insured always hve their insurance companies who negotiate and reduce the medical bill much after the acture care has happened but this recourse is not their for the poor who pay out-of-pocket.

The next stop was at the slow food restaurant Devotay. Food for international participants was waived by the owners Chef Kurt and Kim Friese. The tip on behalf of the participants was paid by Laura from local foods. The concept of this type of dining is to enjoy food in the company of people at a leisurely pace as against the fast, cheap and easy. After lunch Chef Kurt spoke us at length about the movement's start in Rome, Italy in 1986.

This movement is also antithetical to the industrial agriculture, which is being referred to as conventional but that is not the correct thing as it is anything but conventional. Its emergence is not even 50 years old and has failed. In the new method of cultivation, overall production has increased, but it has less nutrients and with more sodium and nutrients and vulnerable to more attack from insects, diseseases and fungus. The emphasis on producing big has now put us in a situation where a billion people suffer from hunger and a large number who are overfed with unhealthy food. In the United States it started in the 1970s under Nixon with the thinking that a farmer has to 'get big or get out'.

Another watershed in the United States agriculture is 10 Deccember 2001 when a Supreme Court judge (who earlier was an attorney for an agri-business seed producing company) passed a ruling in favour of utility patent (as against the plant patent). In the new scheme of things if the gened owned by a company is found in any other plant either because of pollination or whatever process the farmer has to pay the company.

The alternative to this is food that is associated with pleasure, awareness and responsibility. More importantly food should be good, clean and fair that is the producer of food should get a fair price. This is very essential not only in the United States and in other countries. In India, more that 50 per cent of the population are depenedent on agriculture. They are either farmers with an average holding of 2.5 acres (1 hectare) or agricultural labourers. These producers of food are also net buyers. Their status as net buyers is used to keep prices low, but the latter hurts them more.

One also needs to know that the recent prices increases of food are more to do with the middlemen and less with the benefits to the farmer. A sadder part from India is that in the last 15 years more than 250,000 farmers have committed suicides. More of this in Agrarian Crisis in India. To get back to Chef Kurt, I will end by saying that his co-authored book Chasing Chilies: Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail is about the changing climate and the need for resilience.

The last meeting was with Mr Richard of Kirkwood community education centre and Mr Bard Buchanan, a distributor of Pioneer seeds who also provides extension on soil health managment with the use of global positioning system. The information here told us the advantages of being big - the corn-soyabean cycle. The need for foodgrade quality production when it is for human consumption and with less stringent requirements when it is for animal feed. We were told that more than 90 per cent of corn is now genetically modied and it would be probably about 80 per cent for soyabean. The contaminaton for non genetically modified is more for corn as there is cross pollination but for soyabean this is not there as it is based on self pollination. The advantages of genetic modified in reducing some pests/diseases was told, but its implication on other new diseases was not very clear.

Climate change is another important question. Mr Richard pointed out that the data with us may not tell us anything conclusively but then if we wait for data we would have lost out on time. Even with the danger of dubbed non-scientific it is better to be cautious than regret.

It has been a tiring one and it is time I call it a day. Tomorrow we move to Burlington, Vermont.

Visit to Amana Colonies

Today it was a nice surprise as one of my friends from University of Hyderabad student days, Lakshmi who was doing her linuistics there, came over from Nebraska with her husband, Madhusudhan (Masa) and son, Miti who has entered his teen. It was nice because we did not interact much during our student days; of course, we have been in touch virtually in recent years. The hightlight was the gift with the tag 'good teachers think out of the box.' They came down with us to Amana colonies and it was a nice time spent.

Amana colonies, like the Amish villages we went yesterday, have a German origin. The Amaa colonies have a lot of handicrats - furniture, wollen, restaurant, brewery and other shops. It is a nice outing for a Sunday.

At the brewery we chatted up with people about American history, culture and politics. How it is perfectly right for an Iowan to talk about weather and pets but it is more about politics and who you claim to know at Washington DC and people will hardly have any time in New York leading to the saying that if you stop moving then you will be run over. Coming from a fast-paced Mumbai, one can empathise with this, as one has also heard umpteen times that the only place faster than  Mumbai is New York.

There was a discussion on taxation and how the rich can always get away by paying less. The emphasis on private property means that many people argue against taxes being used for distribution purposes. Instead, low taxes and investments are argues as alternatives for gererating employment and in that sense spreading out the reach of wealth through some trickle down.

On government expenditure, it is the defense that takes a larger pie and the rest are all from a small proportion. This limits the distributional outreach of the government. This means that we need to tax more, but we have been reducing taxes.

Another justification that one hears is the role of the market in fostering growth. One does not deny this, but observes that the relevance of the market as conveived by the founding fathers (to provide freedom in selling and buying goods and services) is missing. And in that sense, fostering freedom and an enhancement of capabilities of more and more individuals to participate in the market is also missing. The relevance and role of the market has been turned on its head. Market, instead of a being a means has become an end. The growth of the market (owned by a few) is given precendence over the freedom of the market.

In the economics sense, the relevance of the market and its justification as an efficient outcome comes from perfect competition. In this kind of a market the efficiency argument follows from an assumption that there are many buyers and sellers. If this is missing then the argument in favour of efficiency also falls. Does, this mean that we do away with the market. No, we do not. But we should be careful of the possible pitfalls. In particular,  the vested interests need to be kept out. This requires some structural differences in organising the market and regulating it witout stifling innovation. There is an increasing need to think out of the box.

Visit to Amish Farm, Kalona

Today it has been raining cats and dogs all day lond. A student volunteer from the University of Iowa who was to pick us up got delayed because of some road block and the detour also made him loose his way. He happened to be from Odisa, my home state in India. 

We went to the East West Bank where CIVIC was having its board meeting. The board members had some pot luck lunch in which we joined. Later Danielle, their executive director took us to an Amish village centre at Kalona. From here we went in a bigger van with another group of travellers to an Amish farm where we met Mr Paul. Before we started we were told no taking pictures of people. As it was raining we could not go around the farm but were first shown the buggies, horse drawn carriages that they still use today.

In the farms they still use tractors without rubber tyres so that they cannot use it for tranportation and other purposes. He has about 120 acres that he uses as a cattle ranch and also has some hogs, horses (for the carriage) and grows some vegetables ocassionally. He does not give any drugs to the hogs and the cattle are fed only with grass. This is healthier as the cattle will have less fat. More importantly the grass he grows is organic where no pesticides and fertilizer is used. He has spaced the growth the cattle in such a maner that he sells a couple of them every month, but he manages it in such a way that he avoids the growth of a baby calf during January/February when it is very cold.

I may mention that the Amish way of life is simple and they try to avoid modern facilities. They do not have any electricity. Their houses do use gas for heating as also for refrigeration. Amish children go to school in their community till about eighth grade and after that they do not do much schooling. The Amish  think that they children learn all that they require to run a farm or a family by the age of 16. It is around the age of 18 that children are allowed to go and interact with the outside world for two years and then they decide whether to be  with the community or not. Most of them join back in the community.

They generally have large families. Mr Paul has 11 children and only one, a daughter, is married. There is an increasing incidence of the young of remaining unmarried for a longer time. There are youth of 35 years of age who are still unmarried, which was not the case when Mr Paul, now 63, was younger.

Most of the Amish farmers are organic, they avoid pesticides and fertilizers, but some may be using it. The social construction of gender is that by 16 years of age the boys learn all farm activities. They can do all that their father can do. Similarly, girls learn all household chores and gardening.

Mr Paul has a very interesting hobby, he collects money from different countries. He had a ten rupee note from India with him and a 1000 won from Korea. From our group he collected a note of five real from Brazilian and a coin from Nepal. When Regina gave a box of chocolates, he took it as a matter of respect, but said that they do not receive gifts. It was worth visiting and observing a different practise in 2011 America. How they will withstand the genetic modified and mechanical agriculture jagguernut in days to come is worth studying.

We had dinner at a house who grew up as Amish when she was young. She prepared a nice dinner for us. Some green salad, some sweet salad from tapioca, mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, chicken, beans, sauce, and bread. After an outing in the cold, windy and rainy day the hot delicious food warmed up the environment. The cake decorated with some strawberry pieces was an apt desrert. Thank you!

Some more of Scattergood and Stutsman

Yesterday there are a couple of things that I missed out. First, Mr Tom (the former Executive Director of Council for International Visitors Iowa Cities, CIVIC who retired a couple of months ago) took us around and always eager to tell things about the history and small details of things that we saw whilling passing by.

Second, in the school at Scatergood we also had lunch and they begin with a silent prayer when everyone sitting around a table hold each others hand. The other thing at Scattergood is Mr Mark (the perosn in charge of the school farms as also their literature teacher) who referred to a philosopher cum writer and also farmer Wendell Berry and that how farmers are increasingly with the choice to choose between their neighnbour and his farm lands and they choose the latter though it would be humane to do the former. This is the irony of our times.  And of course, the slight drizzle while we were walking across the farm and the symbiotic relationship that Mr Mark had with his plants and animals brought the humane concerns back.

Third, Mr Roger Stutsman did mention about his perspective on the food security and how some people may blame them for selling corn to ethanol producers, but then the waste after ethanol is produced gets back as cattle feed and suffices the protein requirement for cattle. As a cattle farmer he did lament the need for food safety requirement and said that many things are beyond their control though they follow all practises laid down by federal as well as state requirements. He did say that people should reduce consumption of raw meat.

Fourth, is the hotel Best Western or Longbranch. It was a nice experience after Hyatt at Sacramento.  My room key was smoth. The room had a microwave and refrigerator that I do not use them but the possibility that I can buy some juice and keep in my room is always a nice feeling. Most importantly it has the business centre from where I can write about my experiences here. It is a little out of the way but has a nice neighbourhood.

Fifth, in the evening we went to the Czech village. The museum was flooded in 2008 and they are working on relocating it to a higher place. There was some small festival and tried some Czech cupcape and muffine - they were yummy.

In the evening, Firoz from Bangladesh and I went over to the Longbranch restaurant and had some fish and then went to Best Buy to inquire about laptops and I also recharged my mobile. Later in the night I sat and wrote down my blogs which I had not done for a few days. Today we start at 11 am as it is drizzling.

(The main thing about yesterday is in my previous blog, see below).  

Scattergood school and the Stutsman farm

The Scattergood Friends School is an interesting place. It is perhaps one of its kind that allows students to grow most of the food that it consumes and everything is grown in an organic way. The teacher in charge, Mr Mark took us around the farm. And you could see the personal effort that he has been taking whether it is the tomoatoes and corriander, the greenhouse, the experiment that the bilogy students are conducting, the sheep and the lamb  who have been bottle fed. The princples of equality were followed in the school - everyone called everyone in their first names. The meeting area of the school did not have a space for a minister all sat around and the day began for everybody with 15 minutes of silence. One of the ethos of the school is non-violence, a Quaker ethos who have founded the school. It was so satisfying to see Gandhiji's wrting on seven social sins in the school library. This was first published in Young India on 22 October  1925 and I quote from the link given abov.They are

• Politics without Principle
• Wealth Without Work
• Pleasure Without Conscience
• Knowledge without Character
• Commerce without Morality
• Science without Humanity
• Worship without Sacrifice

An eighth one added by Arun Gandhi is:

• Rights Without Responsibility

They are so relvant even in today's world.

Visit to the Stutsman,  a distribution  company on equipment, inputs and livestock feed revealed that they had agricultural roots and still continue to do some farming. The roots of this company goes back to the depression when Mr Eldon Stutsman was pulled out of school to help his father who was going to loose his earnings a second time. The buying and selling of livestock feed and other inputs for people in the neighborhood slowly grew into a big business.

Mr Roger, son of Mr Eldon  who took us around the firm first then took to his land where they grown corn in 2000 acres (shared equally by three brothers, they usually roatate and  grow some soyabean to address soil fertility management), but because of good corn prices this year all their land is for one crop only and it is beiing produced for ethanol. The whole cultivation is managed by two people on a full time  basis and another three people during peak time. The process is fully mechanized. 

They also own some cattle (for meat) which they manage at the seond stage. The first stage is to feed them grass which requires large tracts of land. But in the seond stage when the cattle are a year old they are fed corn (which now is a by-product after ethanol  production) with some  other ingredient for four months and for which they have created some hoopsheds. About 900 cattle and some sheep are grown under the supervion of a single person employed by them.

Cultivation of some organic vegetables is being managed by their daughter-in-law after their son passed away (our prayers are with him). There are political intereests in the family. Ms Sally, his wife, plans  to contest for the state legislature from a new district. All  the best.

Sacramento to Cedar Rapids

On 12 May 2011 we moved from Sacramento to Cedar Rapids that adjoins Iowa City. The travel that started at about 10 am (Sacramento Time) ended by 10 pm (Cedar Rapids or Iowa City Time). The local host was at the airport and welcomed us and made a remark by refering to her personal experience. "Whenever one looses faith in humanity, one came back to Iowa." Yes, we are eaer to explore the same, Danielle.

Last day with formal meetings at Sacrameto and Davis

The day was packed with meetings at Glide Ranch, followed by being part of lucheon organized to honour Asia and Pcific Islanders community at USDA, visit to Yolo county Cooperative and Extension Service, brief tour of Farmers Market at Davis and a Home Hospitality at Sacramento.

At Glide Ranch, David Runsten exposed us to his magazine 'Buy Fresh, Buy Local: The Eater's Guide to Local Food'through his Community Alliance with Family Farmers. The concerns of the farmers were echoed and reiteratd the futily of defining a small vs large famers. He also agreed that when the call for 'organic' farming was echoed by the family farmers to create a demand it also has been  taken over by the industrial-mechanical farming group and 'certification' is becoming a costly affair for family farms. He also identified that the increase in productivity in the conventional method is also linked with a decline in nutritional content. These are some similar concerns that we face in India. While we were leaving, he said that Glide Ranches houses a number of offices that work on agriculture related issues and the ranch is a rescue centre for old horses and cattle that the owners do not want to take care off.

Luncheon at the USDA's regional office of Sacramento honouring the asian and pacific islanders was a good time  with different kinds of food and came to know about people from different communites. The Hawaiian are a part of the US, but the Japanese and Sikhs have settled down couple of centuries ago and Hmong came perhaps more recently.

Meeting at the Cooperative Extension  of Yolo revealed that they have been interacting with the community to improve healthy eating and hygenic practices. With demonstration they shouwed to us how less than 20 seconds of cleaning can still leave germs in our hands. However, the absence of link with researchers and the extension workers became evident. It seems that in recent years as extension workers retire their posts are not filled. Current research in universities is more about doing big things in large sizes and this seems to ignore the relevance of the extension officer. This is so because research is also increasingly going away from the farmer.

We moved through the farmers market at Davis observing their wares and fresh products of fruits, vegetables, bakery stuff and many other things. It is a weekly affair and has a demand in  this university town.

The California Crop Improvement Association inspects and certifies seed  growers and tells them whether the seed has followed  adequate norms to maintain purity. Technology is being increasingly used to find out the distance between plots of seed growers. But the distance with commerical crop growers is done with physical verification, it is not linked with other crops/seeds grown, and there are no limits for  cotton and corn. Genetically Engineered crops are going to stay and they are going to spread as the limits will increasingly become ineffective. The end to interesting discussions at Sacramento.

Home hospitality saw interactions with interesting people and good food. A Rabbi indicated that he is working for 'Equal  access to produce (to grow), and equal access to produce (what is grown)' at Fresh Producers. An event manger wanted to facilitate these and told how the Governor's house, which is now owned by Doctors of Indian origin, or her own house can be used for raising awareness. An attorney had her son wanting to go to developing countries to know about issues of deprivation. A financier cum enterpreneur wated to set up agro-processing factories that produce healthy food and also create bio-waste as an alternative to fertilizer.

Risk Management by USDA, Arcadia's Biosciences and Full Circle Farms

The Risk Management Agency at the regional  office of USDA mentioned how for commodities that are indexed at the Chicago market the prices depend on that, but for commodities that are not traded there and local to California such as strawberries, almonds and the like then they use locally collected informtion to arrive at some price. In almost all insturances, the federal government gives a subsidy and the agency managing it collects the remaining premium and fee but in case of payout their liability is only 30-60 per cent depending on the crop and the loss. Premiums are paid for nature induced losses interpreted in a broad way. For instance, following the recent Tsunami in Japan and the nuclear disaster some food items were obsorved to be contaminated (which exactly is not nature related),  but as the outcome was in a sense induced by nature they agreed to pay the insurance amount. On the  possibility of farmer and insurance company colluding, they agreed that it can happen and even identified a case where the individuals involved were asked to repay the money - unfortunately, the farmer and his wife ended their lives.

Meeting with Aracadia biosciences revealed that they work largely with bringing technology related, particularly genetically engineered ones, to find solutions to some presing problems of agriculture - salinity, pesticides, and need for increasing yield among others. They indicated about New Rice for Africa (NERICA), also see its wikipedia page here. On the genetical interventions, many questions do still remain - cost of the technology, disregard for alternatie technologies that can be  costly, and of course health implicatio which can only be known 30/40 years down the line if some research is done. For instance, they tried to address nitrogen fixation by genetic modification and cared less for nitrogen fixation by azola or other cost-efffective measures that are locally feasible. Similarly vitamin A fortification leading to Golden rice can be  supplemented by making the populations available milk, egg, carrots or spinach among others.

In contrast to the above, we also visited Full Circle Farms at Davis. A group of four people have rented the place for 600 dollars and provide vegetables, fruits, nuts or eggs under a commuity supported agriculture scheme to 20 families by charging 20 dollars for a week. The labour put in these farms is much more to the conventional farms that are largely mechanized, but one could relate with similar practices in India. One/two more days at Sacramento, California.

The Capitol at Sacramento and the UC Davis Meat Lab

The highlight of the day was the visit to the state Capitol of California which is just across the road from where we stay, Hyatt, Sacramento. We were taken to the Assembly (lower house) and the Senate (upper house) and then had discussion with the Consusltant for the Senate Committee on Agriculture. A lot of important issues were raised. The budget cut in recent years, the conflicting interests withing agriculture - for instance, citrus groweres do not want bees near them while growing seedless varieties whereas almong growers and bee-keepers would prefer them. The shortage of labour as there have been restrictions on cross-border migration from Southern America.

As the budget is to be decided there were many lobby groups that we saw today. Most important were the teachers who have been reeling under cuts for the last three fours. In fact, last year many teachers lost their jobs and as a result the quality of teaching has been impacting.

The other isues of concern are hunger and homelessness. Almost one in six/seven Americans are facing hunger. And this situation has worsened in the last couple of years. Our discuss with small business and restaurants revaled that business has been poor in the last two years and the difficult part is that they do not see thing being revived in the forseeable future.

We began the day at the University of California Davis Meat Lab where we were told about different processes in slaughtering cattle, lamb, and hog (pig). The United States Departemnt of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors are to be present before an animal is butchered to ensure 'ethical' treatment before being butchered. Well, these are meant to ensure food safety standards. They use some 'foodgrade' chemicals to keep the environment fly free, they keep the digestive tract empty by not feeding tthe animal the previous night to reuduce possibilities of bacteria. After being butchered they are cleaned properly and stored in below 45 degree farhenite to ensure bacteria free environment. An animal can be slaughted under state inspector but that can be used only for personal consumption and cannot be sold in the market.

Meat are graded and those with more fat content and of poor quality are priced the cheapest. These are the ones you will find in fast food and those frequented by the poor leading to greater ill health.  One observed a  homeless man in a bicycle came and put his head into dustbins looking for food. We are in telling times.

Napa Valley

On 8th we went to Napa Valley. We toured around the Robert Mandavi  Wines. We ere told about the requirement for labour for varied activities picking leaves, harvesting grapes and some other activities. There are some activities that cannot but be done with labour. Some other activities are mechanized. The topography, the sunshine and the closeness to bay gives the advantage to Napa Valley so that they could produce some of the godd wines. We ended the tour by tasting four different types of wines.

Landed in Sacramento

Today has been a long dayLeft Washington DC and reach Sacramento, California. First we took a hoping flight via Chicago to Los Angeles and then a second flight to Sacramento. Unlike in Inida, the passenger in the hoping flight were allowed to go out have food and come back. At LA we had some difficultues because the smaller flight had some technical problem and we had to start after and hours. The time lag between Sacramento and DC is three hours. On the way to LA we saw theGrand Canyon. The most interesting part was when the flight landed in Sacramento, it gave the feeling that we landed in the midst of agricultrual field,

California is the biggest state of the US and if it were an independent country then it would the eitghth largest in terms of economy. It is known for Hollywood, agriculture, gold mines in the earlier years. Here we are put up at the Grand Hayatt, but I do not have easy access to the computer as I had in DC. And hence, I may not write as frequently. Tomorrow we are all heading to Napa Valley to visit wineries. It is time that I take some rest.

In this tour of Washington DC

In this tour of Washington DC,
I have these lessons,
For you and me to see.

In the name of science-based policy,
There are some counter-evidences,
That we must must see.

In the name of growth and meritocracy,
There are vested interests,
That we cannot not see.

In the name of majoritarian democracy,
There are some people with less,
That we have to see.


(This will be my ode to Rabindranath Tagore, whose birtdhday falls today. Happy Birthday Guruji.)

Penultimate day at Washington DC

Today is the last day of our official engagement at Washington DC. We began the day by going to Feeding America. Interaction with Sophie Milam brought out many perspectives. Some of the important initiatives by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and School Meals among others. The poor are more likely to be those who eat unhealthy food, and hence, likely to be obese. These will have adverse implications on health as also life expectancy. Some of the biggest chalenges that they face are budget cuts. She also emphasised the need for a nutritional guidelines.

The next stop was at the United States Agency for International Development. There were discussions on feed the future. In fact, the research strategy is version is uploaded on their website and they want comments from public. They engage with different stakeholders (particularly other governments) in developing strategies to provide technology-enabled assistance. A caution that one would like to give is that in their engagements with many countries, vested interest come into play and that is why it is necessary to invest in people. There are positive experiments world wide in this people-centric initiatives, but these need to be scaled up.

Had lunch at a Thai outlet and then went to Best Buy from where I purchased a phone - for those coming from outside and staying here for a couple of weeks, the go phone by at&t is good. You pay about 10 dollars for the phone (it will not be operational once you leave the country) and another 15 dollars or 25 dollars for refilling. Thee are two interesting schemes - ten cents per minute and 2 dollars per day. I have taken the latter.

After having got the phone I called up Baba (for CDS people he is Prof KKS's son) who came to Pentagon city and picked me and another co-participant from Bangladesh. Touched base with Padma aunty who had just arrived. Came to know that Baba is a farmer (urban bee-keeper). He has sent some honey for people at home in Mumbai/Hyderabad. Later he took us to an Indian store owned by a Telugu speaking person who employed a Tamilian, a Nepali and a Hispanic. All Indian vegetables and food items were available. I picked up chicken biryani from there for my dinner. Tomorrow we fly to Sacramento, California.

Meetings at Whole Foods, CNFA and IFPRI at Washington DC

Our day started with a meeting at Whole Food's Market that provides a niche market for natural and organic foods. They make constant endeavours in maintaining high standards of quality, satisfying customers, creating wealth, caring for community and environment, facilitating suppliers, promote healthy eating. One wonders whether such an initiative can be taken up by the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) (to being with, it should be in a small scale but it can expand later) in Andhra Pradesh.

The days second meeting was with CNFA (an acronym for which I did not get the full form). This elusiveness was also evident in my understanding of what they are doing. Their interventions are among poorer regions of Africa, Central Asia and South Asia to increase productivity and give a higher income to farmers. But, it gave me an impression that they are using technologies that have been developed elsewhere and have not been locally grounded. One only hopes that their concerns of global hunger and food security has some good initiatives and it is a laudable. Nevertheless, concerns on immediate benefits and long term ramifications remain. The irony is that the immediate benefit will be shared by many but adverse consequences will only be limited to the local communities.

Outside our itinerary, the participants decided to go to a conference by USDA's 'The Economic Research Service: Celebrating 50 Years' and attended their session 3 'Leading the Study of the Food System'. There were four panelists. David Zorn, 'Understanding the Economics of Food Safety', talked about new technologies and the need for new regulatory systems and research so that consumers can make informed choice. More importantly food safety research has to go beyond presence/absence of germs. Discussions on other aspects of nutrition (sodium, fat, calories among others are equally relevant).

Elise Galon's 'Exploring the Determinants of Food Choice' discussed about What, Where, Why and How of Food and indicated about the affordability of food because of the prices. She touched upon the fact that there is a price variability across regions, but the value of food coupons given to the vulnerable is the same. There is also a need to understand food demand from the perspective of behaviourial economics. In a survey where people were told that the wine is from 'North Dakota' then they sipped and said it is not good. The same wine was given to them and they were told that it is from 'California' then the said that it is very good. These have implication that suggest that the choice the consumer has is 'subjective'.

Steve Carlson's 'Measuring Domestic Food Security' acknowledged the developments in measurement of food security but said that the main picture of hunger is missing in the analysis. What is more, the discussion of numbers misses the richness of information that one can gather from peoples experience and the socio-economic milieu.

Neel Convelin's 'Assessing Global Food Security' raised the global concerns of hunger. When it comes to households the question of distribution cannot be ignored. At the national level policies on trade and development become relevant and at the global level the growth of population should be kept in mind.

One of the questions, which was also in my mind, is that some of the discussions and views expressed here are missing in the policy on global hunger and food security. Are concerns of food safety not relevant there?

The last meeting of the day was at IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute). Guillaue Gruere has been working on South Asia with a focus on technology and has recently written a paper on farmer suicides and Bt cotton. This has reference to some of my earlier work. Kamiljon Akramov was working on development strategy and governance with a focus on Central Asia.

Later in the evening we went to Ford's theatre to see 'Liberty Smith'. It was an enthralling performance. 

Interaction with USDA

USDA or the United States Department of Agriculture is the second largest federal department after Defense. Yesterday (4 May 2011) we had a number of interactions with people working on different aspects. It began with Jeannie Harvey of the Foreign Agricultural Services (FAS) introducing us to various possible research collaborations. There was discuss about 'Feed the Future' a theme which has been coming back in all interactions for which work is already underway for Bangladesh and Nepal (from where we have two of our participants). India also seems to be a part of the scheme indirectly as it wants to provide logistics support in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The day's second meeting was with Dan Lawson of the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) which is one of the departments with field level officers who interact closely with farmers in providing research and extension, but not on a top down basis - it is the farmer who has to finally decide what is good for him/her after the informtion is provided. However, their experience from the field is that individual farmers want to conserve the same for future generations. The farmers have strong self regulatory norms that would prempt others to impose norms that can be costly for farmers down the line. Time lag and personnel shortage are some of the difficulties that might delay work in some cases. But, a very good initiative that takes farer as the base - there are lessons for other countries.

Next, we had a meeting with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) formerly known as the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). Ann Lichens-Park mentioned the relevance of Education (Moral Act passed about 150 years ago), Research (Hatch Act) and Extension (Smith-Lever Act) to make scientific-advances in agriculture to be locally grounded. Their work is organized into five focal areas - global food security and hunger, climate change, sustainable energy, childhood obesety and food safety. And they fund other university and researchers to take up work either independently or collaboratively (see the Coordinated Agricultural Projects that brings in multiple disciplines).

Her colleague R Hedberg who is involved with the sustainability issues under their Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) where even farmers can put up proposals to test some gut feeling. He mentioned about a success story when the farmer came up with some seed variety that has been having a lot of demand from other neighborhood farmers. The focus of sustainablity under this are for human needs, economic, environment and social concerns. Again the two presentation did through of lessons for other countries, that is, research should be grounded with local concerns and based on the principle that the farmer has to decide.

Dane Williams from the Office of the Agreements and Scientific Affairs (OASA) informed us about agricultural trade, the World Trade Organization and the concerns of the United States in havin access to markets. These concerns differ from those of some other countries and how the Doha round has been going on for a long long time.

In the final meeting we again interacted with five people from the FAS whose work was on technology and trade. An implicit view that could be sensed is that exporting technology developed in the developed countries would solve the problem of global hunger and food security. One wishes that it was that simple.

Later in the day we went the to the Smithsonial National Meuseum of Natural History. The best part was the live butterfly park. The displays were wonderful and intersperced with various modes of presentation were very educative. One could spend one full day in the museum and there are many other museums, on American History, on Science, on African culture and on American Indian population among many others. Later in the evening visited the farmer's market at Foggey-Bottom and then went to meet a friend at the Center for Global Development. Came back late in the night. It was a long day.

Sustainable Agriculture, Federalism in the US and the Department of State

On 3 May 2011 the program has been really exciting and I wanted to write more, but time will permit me to only jot down a few quick points. We the participants under the 'Food Security and Sustainable Development' theme of the International Visitor Leadership Program had three meetings.

The day began with a meeting/interaction at the office of the National Sustainable Agricultural Coalition with their Executive Director, Susan Prolman. One view that opend up is that 'sustainable' is not necessarily totally against fertilizers and pesticides, but it does engage with the ills of higly energy intensive and chemical input intensive monocropping systems of agriculture. Similar efforts in India include the Association for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture that recently organized a Kisan Swaraj Yatra (Farmers Freedom Tour).

The next meeting was with Mr Akram Elias who introduced us to the American system of federalism and the separation of power. Some of the highlights that would indeed help us understand and carry forward the interactions as we go are the following. (a) The individual is the basic unit of social order (of cousre, family and community are important but because the indivuduals want it as such) and from that perspective it the individual's spirituality (not any specific religion) and the pragmatic political aspects. (b) There are certain rights that the individual has (for instance, speech, religion, ...) and the state does not interfere in these affairs - they are in the domain of the individual. (c) Following from the above, the government has a limited role in the economic sphere. It is association of individuals that initiate policies so as to exchange information, develop standard or code of conduct, help upgrade skils/knowledge and take to advocacy/lobbying to espouse their cause. The government's role is to regulate or deregulate as demanded by the people. (d) The USA is a federal government with the states having delinqished three important powers - defense, monetary policy and foreign policy. In all other domestic matters it is the state government. The questions that keep bothering is how to keep the vested interest out. This is by reiterating that the capitalism is a form of democractic capitalism. It is not against private property. It is not against people making profits (and it that sense against value added tax). But they need to be regulated. And as I would like to add; it should definitely be a matter of concern if one person's methods of making profits is scuttling the freedom and capability of many others.

We had lunch at one of the outlets of Sizzling Express, a Korean joint, and let me tell each one of us could fill our plates according to our wish. Eunmi and Rambabu are you listening.

The last meeting was at the Department of State. It began with a tour of the section where they have kept the gifts that the Secretary of State or others receive during their vists abroad. We then went up to the Library to have a meeting with a very illuminating interaction with some of their staff (Melissa, Bill, Kevan, Rebacca and Anthony). There were a range of interesting discussions coving subsidies (both in the US and in developing countries), poor implementation of schemes in the developing countries, infrastructure and marketing, global concerns of food security and hunger including rising prices, community-based sustainable practices in the US as also in India and a host of other concerns.

In the evening went to Gerorgetown Park (met a Pakistani man who traced his roots to Lucknow and a student from Seri Lingampally in Hyderabad who was working on a part-time basis) and then walked down the Potomac. It wa a lovely day!

The Formal Program Begins at Washington DC

The formal program 'Food Security and Sustainable Development' under the aegis of 'Internationan Visitor Leadership Program' began at the Meridian International Center on 2nd May 2011. After a formal welcome and a detaing of the events to follow in the course of the next three weeks and sorting our of the logistics we were taken to Ris for lunch - a nice place. From there we went to the International Food Information Council who are engaging with the different stakeholders so as to give a balanced view to the people to make them informed choice. There are possibilities of exploring such media interventions in India. The Centre for Media Studies in New Delhi may be one to begin with but there are others spread across he country.  In the evening we went to the Millenium statge at the Kennedy Center for Perfoming Arts where free performances are given by artists everyday at 6.00 pm (they can be seen on line also). In the evening spent some time at th Dupont circle.

Tour of Washington DC

Hello!

I have already been around for more than a day. Yesterday morning went by smoothly with not much of action, but whiling around my time at The River Inn. It is a nice cozy place. The Business and Fitness centre has a gym and and two computers with internet (one of them is not working for the time being), but as there is not much rush, I could spend some time correcting a note in the forenoon and some chatting up.

In the afternoon we went around seeing the place, Washington DC (wher DC indicates formerly district of Columbia). The place itself was built as a capital and started functioning since 1800 (more than 200 years now) and is sandwiched between Virginia (located to its south), with which it is separated by the Potomac river and Maryland (located to its north).

The tour of this historic place (about 210 years only) is different and unique from many other places. They are monuments of democracy. We began our tour from the White House. The place where the President of the United States of America stays and works. It was deliberately built not to so the granduer of a palace meant for Kings because the person (it was always been he so far) is a representative of the people.

The next is the Capitol, the seat of power (or the parliament) constructed on a hill. This is the most powerful institution and the biggest and grandest building of DC. It houses the Congress, comprising the Senate (two respresentative each from the 50 states) and the house of representatives. This is the most powerful institution in a democracy. The people's power. (The irony is that top of the Capitol has an American Indian lady facing east. One story is that it represents justice and equality. From the about 600 American Indian communities perhaps only about 100 ramain. The words justice and equality keeps echoing).

Our next stop was the Jefferson memorial (built after the third President) and espoused as an important contributor to the cause of democracy, he was the principal author of the 'Declaration of Independence', propounded separation of state and the religion and espoused republicanism (liberty and inalienable rights). The cherry trees gifted by the Japanese makes the plae live with cherry blossoms in April and the national festival associated with it durig the onset of sprin is a also a celebration of people's participation.

The fourth stop was Lincoln memorial (built after Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President) who fought against slavery. A very important contribution to the evolution of democracy. It is a culumination of this that today we have Barrack Obama as the President. Long live democracy!

The Capitol Hill and the White House are in a single line, and then the Jefferson memorial and the Lincoln memorial for another line that they cross each other and at the centre stand the Washington monument (the tallest building of DC).

Later in the evening I went to see the screeing of My Prestroika at the National Gallery of Art. This was followed by a question and answer session with the director Robin Hessman and three of the protagonists.

The other things I missed out is Georgetown, the oldest places and cool place to hang out in the evening (will try out some time), the church (one of the largest but not identified with any denomination) and the Smithosonian meuseums (will not have time to visit them, but they are excellent places). As I sign out, I hear that President Obama has announced that Osama Bin Laden is no more. Let us move on with democracy, change and peace.

Landed in Washington DC

Good Morning America!

It is an irony that 'food security and sustainable development' has brought me here. Well, this is the theme of the program, as also my related work in the area, that led the US Department of State to invite me under their 'International Visitor Leadersip Program' to tour around and interact with various people during the next three weeks. This blog is about my trip from Mumbai to Washington DC and the first night here.

At Mumbai on 29 night/30 morning April 2011 the check-in was smooth and much faster than I thought. I was pleasently surprised to get access to a free phone and internet; used the first to call up my wife at the wee hour and the web to chat with her for some time.

The in-flight entertainment by Lufthasa had some Hindi song channels (21 and 23), a Tamil one (22). The relaxation or stress buster channel (13) was good in the morning (German time) after having not slept in the night. Channels 2 and 3 also give western classical (vocal and instrumental respectively). I wish some more written information was there.

The breakfast arrived when I was really feeling hungry - opted for Indian vegetarian with Utthapam, Sambar and Upma. Wow! Arrived on time at Frankfurt.

Used the skyline and then some walking to go to the respective terminal. I had almost four hours for boarding my connecting flight. Some of the personnel with the 'May I Help You' tag come foward and know things, but at times you will be lost and no one to whom you can ask. Information is electronic/digital but if the one for your flight is not there then ...

Security check was smooth. They ask you to keep all your belonging, belt, purse, money, and jacket through the scanner. You should not carry anything in your pockets. A sari clad old Indian lady was subjected to a thorough check, but I was not.  

Another problem I faced is looking for drinking water. The Lufthansa service desk people also did not know and there were no symbols/signs indicating the same. However, talking with the wash room personnel did reveal about the location of a drinking water facility - language was no barrier. He went out of his way to convey as much as possible. And, yes after those sips of water to may parched throat, what a relief.

While inquiring about internet availablity at Frankfurt Airport (or Fraport) I was told that one can access using payments through credit cards. Out of bounds for me. True, nothing should be free. But, if these were available at Mumbai (now privatized) then why not at Frankfurt. Passengers like me would have taken the opportunity to blog about them. They do not loose much, as I am doing it now. I used the time to skim through the Wall Street Journal writing about the Royal wedding in London, one child policy in China and the demographic concerns of an aging population, the relvance of the Arab spring (Jasmine revolution) with respecting plurality.

The connecting flight from Franfurt was by United Airlines (the earlier was their code share with Lufthansa that I had taken). There is a stark change in the in-house entertainment. All the muic was jazzy, peppy and what not. The closer to Indian song was something like 'Narayana, Narayana, Na, Na, Narayana, Om Namah Bhagbati...' The song that I liked most is 'Doe a dear...' as this reminded me of a program by Nerika. Lunch (vegetarian food was specially ordered through the travel agent) and snacks befor we touched down. Used this leg of the journey to see/glance at time  two/three movies. I don't know their names (not even those of the actors), but enjoyed it.

Again reached on time at the Dulles International Airport, Wachington DC (it is actually located in Virginia, which is to the south of DC. Transfer from the flight to the departure area was in a specially designed vehicle (like a bus but feel of a metro), whose height could be adjusted. The quere at the customs was long, but once the process was done, my luggage was waiting for me. Once I came out, I could locate the English Language Officer for the program. Waited for some time for other participants but left as they were not showing up. I understand that they also reach withi 30/40 minutes of my coming to the hotel.

At the hotel, I met the other participant from India who had also come from Chennai. It seems that she also came via Frankfurt and was there at the same time and took a flight that was one hour prior to that of mine. Some coordination could have put us in the same flight because we reached Frankfurt around the same time (in fact, I reached earlier). That is a small matter. Both of us went for some shopping to Trader Joe's - I brough fruits and some drinks and a packet of corn chapati.

Later in the evening/went out for a walk towards the Foggy Bottom-GWU (George Washington University) metro railway station, located near the George Washington Hospital. The public telephone booth there operated by Verizon is a pay phone if one uses some other calling card (I do not know what will be the status with a Verizon card). While returning, went to the library of the medical college and was told that only people with GW card are allowed. Some time in the recent past they changed the policy and are not allowing outsiders to the library. Close by there is a store seven-eleven (is open till midnight). Was nice to walk in the pleasant spring weather! Look forward to explore more of this in the next few days.