I was reminded of this story yesterday during a conversation with someone from the ignore the experts and subsidize fertilizer for the country's farmers. This story was written in December 2007:

But this year, a nation that has perennially extended a begging bowl to the world is instead feeding its hungry neighbors. It is selling more corn to the World Food Program of the United Nations than any other country in southern Africa and is exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of corn to Zimbabwe.

In Malawi itself, the prevalence of acute child hunger has fallen sharply. In October, the United Nations Children's Fund sent three tons of powdered milk, stockpiled here to treat severely malnourished children, to Uganda instead. "We will not be able to use it!" Juan Ortiz-Iruri, Unicef's deputy representative in Malawi, said jubilantly.

Farmers explain Malawi's extraordinary turnaround -- one with broad implications for hunger-fighting methods across Africa -- with one word: fertilizer.

Of course, the market question hangs over this sprightly piece of news:

Farmers explain Malawi's extraordinary turnaround -- one with broad implications for hunger-fighting methods across Africa -- with one word: fertilizer.

We've got a major obstacle to overcome in the West. It's our hypocrisy. This week, we'll pass a farm bill through the US Congress so laden with subsidies -- not for fertilizer, necessarily, but for whole industries. The ramifications of this bill, if it is signed by the president, will reverberate for years, long after the current global food crisis (chronicled well here and here fades.