Since I don't get the hard copy version of Technology Review, I'm not sure whether it's one issue, but this is the notation they attach to the beginning of a number of posts on their website:
"This story is one of a series about how hidden innovations produce the foods we eat at the prices we pay."
The big story seems to be: How to train a weeding machine. Does the work of 30 people. It broadens into a discussion of the problems of digitizing vegetable production, starting with Landsat back in 1972 (I remember ASCS had a guy in Houston working on Landsat for a while--big dreams back then.)
There's also one on GMO maize in Kenya A comment here--the farmer notes in passing:
"But I still have more crops than some of my neighbors, who sometimes recycle seeds and don’t have very much at all."
That one sentence seems to me to encapsulate the challenges for the small farm/food movement people. It points to an evolution over decades which will lead to modernized production ag growing the bulk of our calories, with smaller operations producing for the niches.
No comments:
Post a Comment