India Understands Health and Agriculture (but the U.S. Doesn't)
AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi  Last week in New Delhi, Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh kicked off a conference on agriculture
and nutrition that I attended with a speech about how his
government is focusing on "millets with a high protein, fiber,
and mineral content" and on a system for small farmers that's
critical to ensuring "nutritional security" in India. From John
Kufuor, the former president of the Republic of Ghana, attendees
learned about a Grains and Legumes Development Board that
supplies seeds to farmers to improve the quality of their
produce. And Daniel Balaban, the president of Brazil's National
Education Development Fund, referred to the $1.8 billion his
country will spend this year on an initiative incorporating
homegrown vegetables into a feeding program to nourish some 47
million school kids.  Listening to all that, I couldn't help but
think about the U.S. government's policies in regard to food.
Just two weeks ago, the United Sta