4 ms·

My grandparents used to harvest most of their food from the farm around their house. Most people in that village did the same. And they survived and the food w

My grandparents used to harvest most of their food from the farm around their house. Most people in that village did the same. And they survived and the food was very good - it had flavor and taste, attributes which are not applicable to produce grown in the large scale farms of today. The only problem is that they had to work every day all day on those farms.. Large scale industrial farming made it possible for people to move to cities and forget about the difficult task of working the land. And it was good. For a while.. But now we are faced with different problems - over populated cities, pollution, excessive carbon in the atmosphere, water shortages, etc. Robotic farmers allow us to dream of a world in which people can grow their food locally without having to do the manual labor or rely on large-scale farming. Many could move back to the countryside - closer to nature and type away on reddit just like before, while the robots take care of their food outside in the small field.

tomp 10y ago
> Robotic farmers allow us to dream of a world in which people can grow their food locally without having to do the manual labor or rely on large-scale farming. Many could move back to the countryside - closer to nature and type away on reddit just like before, while the robots take care of their food outside in the small field. This will never happen in the form you describe. It would mean no bananas and coffee for most of the planet. It would mean no fresh vegetables in the winter. Most fruit would be highly seasonal. There are only 2 ways of achieving this: global food sourcing, or complete climate control - which would need to be much more sophisticated than the "vertical farms" you see nowadays if you wanted to grow e.g. orange trees or banana palms.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
MustardTiger 10y ago
>My grandparents used to harvest most of their food from the farm around their house. I do that. To a much greater extreme than most people: all of our dairy, meat, eggs, vegetables and most fruit comes from our yard. >The only problem is that they had to work every day all day on those farms. I spend about two hours a week doing it. Clearly you do not have to work all day every day to grow your own food. >Robotic farmers allow us to dream of a world in which people can grow their food locally without having to do the manual labor or rely on large-scale farming. So did permaculture. This is already a solved problem. The reason it is not done is cultural, not technical.

tomp 10y ago

> Robotic farmers allow us to dream of a world in which people can grow their food locally without having to do the manual labor or rely on large-scale farming. Many could move back to the countryside - closer to nature and type away on reddit just like before, while the robots take care of their food outside in the small field. This will never happen in the form you describe. It would mean no bananas and coffee for most of the planet. It would mean no fresh vegetables in the winter. Most fruit would be highly seasonal. There are only 2 ways of achieving this: global food sourcing, or complete climate control - which would need to be much more sophisticated than the "vertical farms" you see nowadays if you wanted to grow e.g. orange trees or banana palms.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

MustardTiger 10y ago

>My grandparents used to harvest most of their food from the farm around their house. I do that. To a much greater extreme than most people: all of our dairy, meat, eggs, vegetables and most fruit comes from our yard. >The only problem is that they had to work every day all day on those farms. I spend about two hours a week doing it. Clearly you do not have to work all day every day to grow your own food. >Robotic farmers allow us to dream of a world in which people can grow their food locally without having to do the manual labor or rely on large-scale farming. So did permaculture. This is already a solved problem. The reason it is not done is cultural, not technical.