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This is actually an area I plan to invest time in after moving back to the US next year. Specifically, on automation-enhanced sustainable microfarming. Crop di

by donw 6y ago

This is actually an area I plan to invest time in after moving back to the US next year. Specifically, on automation-enhanced sustainable microfarming. Crop diversity is a pretty key part of that, as is appropriate fungal and insect management. Avoiding chemical pesticides is hard by the way -- in my current (tiny) garden, it's been the only way I was able to keep the aphids and mites from absolutely destroying my jalapeños. Ladybugs would be preferable, but are incredibly hard to come by here. Home and/or municipal composting adds another level to this, and it'd be great to get to the point where a large percentage of packaging was directly compostable. That'll be tricky -- you don't want the packaging to break down until after the lifetime of the food inside it -- but likely doable as manufacturing advances.

ehnto 6y ago
> Home and/or municipal composting adds another level to this, and it'd be great to get to the point where a large percentage of packaging was directly compostable. That'll be tricky -- you don't want the packaging to break down until after the lifetime of the food inside it -- but likely doable as manufacturing advances. I think we should change our expectations for food shopping/packaging and shelf life. If we move away from an expectation for year-round availability, and crazy long shelf life, we can do away with all of the shipping, warehousing and packaging that is derived from that demand. In regards to carbon, packaging is non-trivial, but I think it is second to the shipping involved.
- donw 6y ago
  > If we move away from an expectation for year-round availability So, here's a question: do you think you could convince people to give up smartphones? Because I think it'd be about the same level of difficulty. People really, really, really don't like to surrender convenience or comfort. I realize you aren't advocating this -- you have great intentions -- but crazy long shelf lives keep a lot of people from starving. I'm interested in the micro-farming idea primarily because (a) I like the idea of adding more redundancy into the food supply; (b) because fresh food tastes amazing; and (c) because it's an interesting problem to solve. But I'd rather see that we roll the clock forward, and develop better technology to enable both year-round availability and healthy ultra-long-life foods, while at the same time deploying indefinitely sustainable agricultural practices.
  - ehnto 6y ago
    We are definitely on the same page regarding the likelihood of people giving up their comforts of their own accord, I am just an optimist first and a pragmatist second! In practice however, you may see carbon taxes change the way people consume international goods as prices on food would most certainly go up. Bananas in Australia are a good example, occasionally they fluctuate in price and you can see consumers aren't willing to wear the higer costs. Maybe it wouldn't be a disaster if Australians could only eat local fruits for example, I think it would ruffle the status quo but pretty quickly people would adapt. I feel like a carbon tax on shipping would level the playing field toward local microfarming as well, and I would love to see agrofarming become a part of big country landscapes. Both the US and Australia are characterized by a vast majority of land being a patchwork quilt of cleared fields. I would love to see that change in my life time.
- Nasrudith 6y ago
  I would expect the wasteage to outstrip the packaging and shipping contributions. Increased waste also calls for increased production and conversion from wild habitats.
  - ehnto 6y ago
    I am not saying don't preserve food though, rather cut out the activities that make us need to preserve it so long. For example, shipping food internationally in cooled shipping containers. It seems pretty excessive, in some cases frivolous. Like shipping out of season fruits to Australia so we don't miss out year round. I think I wouldn't have this opinion if shipping were carbon nuetral mind you.

by donw 6y ago

ehnto 6y ago

> Home and/or municipal composting adds another level to this, and it'd be great to get to the point where a large percentage of packaging was directly compostable. That'll be tricky -- you don't want the packaging to break down until after the lifetime of the food inside it -- but likely doable as manufacturing advances. I think we should change our expectations for food shopping/packaging and shelf life. If we move away from an expectation for year-round availability, and crazy long shelf life, we can do away with all of the shipping, warehousing and packaging that is derived from that demand. In regards to carbon, packaging is non-trivial, but I think it is second to the shipping involved.

donw 6y ago
> If we move away from an expectation for year-round availability So, here's a question: do you think you could convince people to give up smartphones? Because I think it'd be about the same level of difficulty. People really, really, really don't like to surrender convenience or comfort. I realize you aren't advocating this -- you have great intentions -- but crazy long shelf lives keep a lot of people from starving. I'm interested in the micro-farming idea primarily because (a) I like the idea of adding more redundancy into the food supply; (b) because fresh food tastes amazing; and (c) because it's an interesting problem to solve. But I'd rather see that we roll the clock forward, and develop better technology to enable both year-round availability and healthy ultra-long-life foods, while at the same time deploying indefinitely sustainable agricultural practices.
- ehnto 6y ago
  We are definitely on the same page regarding the likelihood of people giving up their comforts of their own accord, I am just an optimist first and a pragmatist second! In practice however, you may see carbon taxes change the way people consume international goods as prices on food would most certainly go up. Bananas in Australia are a good example, occasionally they fluctuate in price and you can see consumers aren't willing to wear the higer costs. Maybe it wouldn't be a disaster if Australians could only eat local fruits for example, I think it would ruffle the status quo but pretty quickly people would adapt. I feel like a carbon tax on shipping would level the playing field toward local microfarming as well, and I would love to see agrofarming become a part of big country landscapes. Both the US and Australia are characterized by a vast majority of land being a patchwork quilt of cleared fields. I would love to see that change in my life time.
Nasrudith 6y ago
I would expect the wasteage to outstrip the packaging and shipping contributions. Increased waste also calls for increased production and conversion from wild habitats.
- ehnto 6y ago
  I am not saying don't preserve food though, rather cut out the activities that make us need to preserve it so long. For example, shipping food internationally in cooled shipping containers. It seems pretty excessive, in some cases frivolous. Like shipping out of season fruits to Australia so we don't miss out year round. I think I wouldn't have this opinion if shipping were carbon nuetral mind you.