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I appreciate your thoughtfulness of this. Allow me to throw my hat in the ring. How do you feel about localized food production? I am a proponent of people pro

I appreciate your thoughtfulness of this. Allow me to throw my hat in the ring. How do you feel about localized food production? I am a proponent of people producing more of their own food, this reduces both transportation costs and pollution. Considering AGI and automation, this would free people up to return to the land more and produce more of their own food. Which is more sustainable. Of course implementation details would need to be worked out.

nerpderp82 4y ago
I agree. But my opinion should mean nothing without the science and quantitative numbers to back it up. I think most production should be within 200km of the consumer, that goods should probably move at the rate of a horse. We should strive for equilibrium over the time scale of 1000 years.
jxramos 4y ago
This little fixture intrigued me the other day when sharing on a slack channel at work https://farm.bot/ https://farm.bot/. It was briefly featured in some summary YouTube video that danced around a bunch of impressive automation used out in the world for a lot of agricultural stuff.
tmtvl 4y ago
Now that sounds good, in fact I can only think of three problems with it: - producing food takes space (preferrably arable land, though a larger plot of pasturable land will also work). - producing food takes time (taking care of crops or animals takes a significant amount of time, which is time people can't spend on salaried work). - producing food takes knowledge (knowing which crops to plant, when to plant them, how to properly care for them, and when to harvest them, for example). Aside from those three problems and, where applicable, the problem of needing water (I hear some place called California tends to have problems with that) I can't see any notable issues with that idea.
- baremetal 4y ago
  >the problem of needing water (I hear some place called California tends to have problems with that) I There sure are a lot of green lawns in California, maybe we can start replacing them with gardens. >- producing food takes time (taking care of crops or animals takes a significant amount of time, which is time people can't spend on salaried work). Automation seems to be taking care of that issue, if gradually. >producing food takes knowledge (knowing which crops to plant, when to plant them, how to properly care for them, and when to harvest them, for example). ChatGPT and other educational tools can take care of that. > producing food takes space (preferrably arable land, though a larger plot of pasturable land will also work). We would be able to justify single family residences more if the yards were used to grow food, and keep chickens. Added benefit of reducing kitchen waste to near 0.
pempem 4y ago
A world in which people return to the land and produce mostly, if not entirely, their own food is defined as subsistence. Local food production is a necessity and even their minister of agriculture finds the possibility of future famine to be real, but there are limited incentives even as young people consider starting farms: https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/japan's-food-self-sufficiency-alarmingly-low-72-mil-could-go-hungry-magazine-says https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/japan's-f... Most people are leaving rural japan to find more than subsistence as I would imagine many people on this platform have left one place or another to find means that ideally outstrip their needs and allow them to save for the future. Japan has a serious depopulation problem and is the first country to tip into negative population growth without much policy change to soften it. The results are not good. They are things like: - not being able to move out of your parents house - not being able to have kids - old people starving to death -limited food production, limited social services (where's the tax base), greater divides between density and rural life Like others mention Japan needs to have leadership that is not xenophobic and begin to embrace policies that encourage family growth including supporting women who work rather than continuing to build on female invisible labor at home and a salaryman effort in the public sphere.
wongarsu 4y ago
Food production is arguably the most heavily automated sector right now, especially agriculture. I think there are many benefits to bringing food production closer to the people, but it will be a hard sell if efficiency is a factor (which it is in almost any society)

nerpderp82 4y ago

I agree. But my opinion should mean nothing without the science and quantitative numbers to back it up. I think most production should be within 200km of the consumer, that goods should probably move at the rate of a horse. We should strive for equilibrium over the time scale of 1000 years.

jxramos 4y ago

This little fixture intrigued me the other day when sharing on a slack channel at work https://farm.bot/ https://farm.bot/. It was briefly featured in some summary YouTube video that danced around a bunch of impressive automation used out in the world for a lot of agricultural stuff.

tmtvl 4y ago

Now that sounds good, in fact I can only think of three problems with it: - producing food takes space (preferrably arable land, though a larger plot of pasturable land will also work). - producing food takes time (taking care of crops or animals takes a significant amount of time, which is time people can't spend on salaried work). - producing food takes knowledge (knowing which crops to plant, when to plant them, how to properly care for them, and when to harvest them, for example). Aside from those three problems and, where applicable, the problem of needing water (I hear some place called California tends to have problems with that) I can't see any notable issues with that idea.

baremetal 4y ago
>the problem of needing water (I hear some place called California tends to have problems with that) I There sure are a lot of green lawns in California, maybe we can start replacing them with gardens. >- producing food takes time (taking care of crops or animals takes a significant amount of time, which is time people can't spend on salaried work). Automation seems to be taking care of that issue, if gradually. >producing food takes knowledge (knowing which crops to plant, when to plant them, how to properly care for them, and when to harvest them, for example). ChatGPT and other educational tools can take care of that. > producing food takes space (preferrably arable land, though a larger plot of pasturable land will also work). We would be able to justify single family residences more if the yards were used to grow food, and keep chickens. Added benefit of reducing kitchen waste to near 0.

pempem 4y ago

A world in which people return to the land and produce mostly, if not entirely, their own food is defined as subsistence. Local food production is a necessity and even their minister of agriculture finds the possibility of future famine to be real, but there are limited incentives even as young people consider starting farms: https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/japan's-food-self-sufficiency-alarmingly-low-72-mil-could-go-hungry-magazine-says https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/japan's-f... Most people are leaving rural japan to find more than subsistence as I would imagine many people on this platform have left one place or another to find means that ideally outstrip their needs and allow them to save for the future. Japan has a serious depopulation problem and is the first country to tip into negative population growth without much policy change to soften it. The results are not good. They are things like: - not being able to move out of your parents house - not being able to have kids - old people starving to death -limited food production, limited social services (where's the tax base), greater divides between density and rural life Like others mention Japan needs to have leadership that is not xenophobic and begin to embrace policies that encourage family growth including supporting women who work rather than continuing to build on female invisible labor at home and a salaryman effort in the public sphere.

wongarsu 4y ago

Food production is arguably the most heavily automated sector right now, especially agriculture. I think there are many benefits to bringing food production closer to the people, but it will be a hard sell if efficiency is a factor (which it is in almost any society)