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An improving economy means fewer
Russians
have to depend on their own potato crop |
There's good news for the Russian economy: potato planting
is down and birth rates are up for the first time in 10 years.
These are not widely quoted economic indicators, but both reflect
a big change in mood among Russians. Potatoes have always been
insurance against hard times. As the Soviet government gave nearly
everyone a plot of land to build a dacha - a summer house - most
people also plant fruit and vegetables to see them through periods
of scarcity. Fully half of Russia's agricultural production comes
from dachas. If people are planting fewer potatoes it means they
are more confident about the future.
As well as encouraging potato planting, economic chaos depressed
male life expectancy to catastrophic levels; the average man is
still lucky to get to 60. At the other end of the demographic
curve, birth...
