5 ms·

Pesticides scale really well. The alternative would be to control the environment more, but that does not scale so well. Maybe with increased automation we coul

Pesticides scale really well. The alternative would be to control the environment more, but that does not scale so well. Maybe with increased automation we could do some inroads in this direction. Consumers are to blame too. They won't accept blemished produce, but a potato with some insect larvae in it, is really not that much of an issue. You just remove around the larvae and cook as per usual, and that is much healthier than dosing your produce with pesticides, that cannot easily be washed off.

WhitneyLand 3y ago
Aren’t many insect larvae are not bad for you containing proteins, fats, and other beneficial nutrients? So as long as the potato isn’t rotted you wouldn’t even have to remove it. Biggest risk might be, ironically, if the insect contained pesticides.
- google234123 3y ago
  Yuck, ignoring all parasites and pathogens...
  - aszantu 3y ago
    can't eat potato raw anyways
    - google234123 3y ago
      You can’t kill those without turning the potato to charcoal.
owenpalmer 3y ago
Aigen is a robotics company working on scalable, clean, farming. https://www.aigen.io/ https://www.aigen.io/
- azinman2 3y ago
  We need these things to be 10x cheaper, abundant, as effective or better, and easy to acquire for this to replace what’s currently done. I really hope this happens.
Lutger 3y ago
It is actually possible to produce healthier food from healthy plants in good soils, getting good yields with reduced costs. A plant that is healthy has a functioning immune system and is capable of warding of most, if not all pests (except for mammals and birds). You can only do this without pesticides, because the pesticides and fungicides are (mostly) what creates bad soils. And contrary to what a lot of people assume, this can be scaled as well. Why is not everybody doing this at scale? Mostly I think because it requires advanced, state of the art knowledge and goes against current practice in some ways. We are only just finding out how plants actually take up nutrition (which is wild to me), and barely have uncovered the life in the soil. A lot of farmers are old, and their teachers espoused the view that soil life is literally irrelevant to farming and everything comes down to soluble fertilizers + pesticides, herbicides, fungicides. Crudely simplified it is the agricultural equivalent of putting someone on an intensive care bed, feeding them liquid food with a tube and killing every germ with antibiotics. It works and is not too hard, but the results aren't that good actually. Now try becoming a healthy person overcoming illness in the wild, its a bit more complex than feeding through a tube and taking antibiotics. Creating healthy food in a healthy way requires much more knowledge and sometimes (not always) a bit more labor, and a lot of it is going against what people know. Agriculture doesn't like to take risks. A lot of money depends on things staying as they are. A couple of big failures and you are out. Its not as easily disrupted as software. Take a look at the work of John Kempf if you want to find out more: https://advancingecoag.com/ https://advancingecoag.com/
- gooob 3y ago
  hell yeah, permaculture is what i'm talkin about!
- aszantu 3y ago
  some of plant-produced toxins are more toxic than the stuff we use - I don't know where I read it, but the indigenous ppl somewhere said to only eat stuff that has insect on it, because Insects know when the plant is less toxic - made sense to me
  - Lutger 3y ago
rpbiwer2 3y ago
I feel like in part it's an education issue. I don't have the slightest clue - was never taught - what is ok to eat and what is risky. I rely entirely on gut feelings and Google.

WhitneyLand 3y ago

Aren’t many insect larvae are not bad for you containing proteins, fats, and other beneficial nutrients? So as long as the potato isn’t rotted you wouldn’t even have to remove it. Biggest risk might be, ironically, if the insect contained pesticides.

google234123 3y ago
Yuck, ignoring all parasites and pathogens...
- aszantu 3y ago
  can't eat potato raw anyways
  - google234123 3y ago
    You can’t kill those without turning the potato to charcoal.

owenpalmer 3y ago

Aigen is a robotics company working on scalable, clean, farming. https://www.aigen.io/ https://www.aigen.io/

azinman2 3y ago
We need these things to be 10x cheaper, abundant, as effective or better, and easy to acquire for this to replace what’s currently done. I really hope this happens.

Lutger 3y ago

It is actually possible to produce healthier food from healthy plants in good soils, getting good yields with reduced costs. A plant that is healthy has a functioning immune system and is capable of warding of most, if not all pests (except for mammals and birds). You can only do this without pesticides, because the pesticides and fungicides are (mostly) what creates bad soils. And contrary to what a lot of people assume, this can be scaled as well. Why is not everybody doing this at scale? Mostly I think because it requires advanced, state of the art knowledge and goes against current practice in some ways. We are only just finding out how plants actually take up nutrition (which is wild to me), and barely have uncovered the life in the soil. A lot of farmers are old, and their teachers espoused the view that soil life is literally irrelevant to farming and everything comes down to soluble fertilizers + pesticides, herbicides, fungicides. Crudely simplified it is the agricultural equivalent of putting someone on an intensive care bed, feeding them liquid food with a tube and killing every germ with antibiotics. It works and is not too hard, but the results aren't that good actually. Now try becoming a healthy person overcoming illness in the wild, its a bit more complex than feeding through a tube and taking antibiotics. Creating healthy food in a healthy way requires much more knowledge and sometimes (not always) a bit more labor, and a lot of it is going against what people know. Agriculture doesn't like to take risks. A lot of money depends on things staying as they are. A couple of big failures and you are out. Its not as easily disrupted as software. Take a look at the work of John Kempf if you want to find out more: https://advancingecoag.com/ https://advancingecoag.com/

gooob 3y ago
hell yeah, permaculture is what i'm talkin about!
aszantu 3y ago
some of plant-produced toxins are more toxic than the stuff we use - I don't know where I read it, but the indigenous ppl somewhere said to only eat stuff that has insect on it, because Insects know when the plant is less toxic - made sense to me
- Lutger 3y ago

rpbiwer2 3y ago

I feel like in part it's an education issue. I don't have the slightest clue - was never taught - what is ok to eat and what is risky. I rely entirely on gut feelings and Google.