3 ms·

If I understand correctly, it's that everyone will still eat < 100 plants, but they'll be different ones from everyone else. Maybe every grocery store won't hav

If I understand correctly, it's that everyone will still eat < 100 plants, but they'll be different ones from everyone else. Maybe every grocery store won't have the exact same kinds of squash in it. Maybe we'll have more region-specific crops! The example given about olive trees is illustrative, I think.

karaterobot 2y ago
That's where the economics question comes in. How do you make a living as a farmer selling a very specific variety of squash, when there are now (let's say) 9000 varieties of squash on the market, and the same number of people out there buying squash?
- Retric 2y ago
  The same way you make a living when there is 1 type of squash in the market and 9000 farmers planting it. Mostly through government subsidies sometimes supplemented by selling actual food eaten by actual people. That’s perhaps overstating things, but remove biofuels and we would have an even larger surplus even as everyone gets fat from excess production. Western farming has no real need for increased efficiency unless we get rid of a lot of farmland.
  - karaterobot 2y ago
    Setting aside the subsidies part, if every grocery store decided to stock 9000 types of squash, this could totally work.
    - Retric 2y ago
      Or 4,000 stores selling 3 un/labeled types. Grapes, apples, and a few others get labels but I see a lot of generic items. Do you know the exact kind of carrots you’re buying in those little bags? Are your pumpkins just labeled pumpkins? How about blueberries etc etc.
tschwimmer 2y ago
how do you allocate which types of squash farmers will be able to plant? Knowing very little about farming, I do know that certain varieties have much more desirable traits than others. For example, yield, pest resistance, soil acceptance, etc. What if everyone just wants to grow the "good" kinds of squash? How do you allocate the winners and losers? How do you allocate who will get to eat the "good" squash?

karaterobot 2y ago

That's where the economics question comes in. How do you make a living as a farmer selling a very specific variety of squash, when there are now (let's say) 9000 varieties of squash on the market, and the same number of people out there buying squash?

Retric 2y ago
The same way you make a living when there is 1 type of squash in the market and 9000 farmers planting it. Mostly through government subsidies sometimes supplemented by selling actual food eaten by actual people. That’s perhaps overstating things, but remove biofuels and we would have an even larger surplus even as everyone gets fat from excess production. Western farming has no real need for increased efficiency unless we get rid of a lot of farmland.
- karaterobot 2y ago
  Setting aside the subsidies part, if every grocery store decided to stock 9000 types of squash, this could totally work.
  - Retric 2y ago
    Or 4,000 stores selling 3 un/labeled types. Grapes, apples, and a few others get labels but I see a lot of generic items. Do you know the exact kind of carrots you’re buying in those little bags? Are your pumpkins just labeled pumpkins? How about blueberries etc etc.

tschwimmer 2y ago

how do you allocate which types of squash farmers will be able to plant? Knowing very little about farming, I do know that certain varieties have much more desirable traits than others. For example, yield, pest resistance, soil acceptance, etc. What if everyone just wants to grow the "good" kinds of squash? How do you allocate the winners and losers? How do you allocate who will get to eat the "good" squash?