It’s December, which means I’ve hit the year anniversary of my defense (wow!) and 2019 is near. I’ve been reflecting on work done the past year – not because productivity is the goal – but because I, like many others, constantly fall into the trap of feeling underproductive and therefore overlooking actual accomplishments. So, I … Continue reading 2018 in Review
Author: joevarock
A Potato Named Kofi
Earlier this week, Ghanaian scientists announced they plan to name a new sweet potato variety after fellow countryman Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General who died on August 18 of this year. The primary investigator overseeing the sweet potato project, Dr. Ernest Baafi, told reporters the naming was in tribute of Annan's work with the … Continue reading A Potato Named Kofi
Encountering Food in the Field, Centering it in Development Studies
Why aren't rich and tasty food cultures more central to development efforts?
Dissertation Defense
I'm excited to announce that I will be defending my dissertation on December 1st, 2017. The defense is open to the public, and if you'll be in DC and would like to attend, please send me a message and I'll relay the details to you. My abstract is below: We Are Not Starving: GMOs and … Continue reading Dissertation Defense
An update on GM crops in Ghana
It's been two years since Ghana's High Court overturned a temporary injunction on the commercialization of genetically modified (GM) rice and cowpea. Since then, research on both have continued (though there was no indication that it stopped during the injunction), and GM cowpea is slated to hit the market in 2018.
Making “the case for colonialism” in Ghanaian social studies textbooks
By using "The Case for Colonialism" as a point of departure to discuss Ghanaian school curriculum, my intention is not to overlook the very real problematics of the article, nor to suggest that Gilley's argument is exceptional (it is not). Rather, I believe the quick lining up of for/against overlooks the need to interrogate the very real ways in which colonial legacies exist within, and mark, every day life.
On Farmers as “Very Difficult People”
The Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture resigned today after calling northern Ghanaian farmers "liars," "very difficult people," and accusing them of extortion. Many were understandably, and rightfully, upset at the Deputy Minister's comments, but I argue that his comments, though vile, are not exceptional. During fieldwork, I regularly encountered super negative discourse about Ghanaian farmers from technocrats in Accra. In this blog post, I share some of these encounters, and muse about their importance.
