In the documentary 'We Feed the World', a UN representative states that according to assessment reports we could, with today's outdated agricultural technology, feed 12 billion people. Of course, with today's tech., monocultures and all, that wouldn't be sustainable in the long run, but people are already investigating and utilizing the techniques of permaculture, vertical farms, and other methodologies.
To go with what this UN representative said is the fact that today so much food is thrown away (and when it comes to fruit, a lot is thrown away when it is just about ripe, or only slightly over-ripe, or a bit bruised), that people could almost feed themselves well, day-by-day, by dumpster diving (assuming that the homeless population isn't already very large where you live). Of course, if things are free, the economic system doesn't work, so locks are put on dumpsters.
A large part of the one billion starving or hungry humans today used to be farmers who were put out of business because of rich countries selling their subsidized crops so cheap in the countries of these farmers, that said farmers could not compete (as explained in the documentary 'The World According to Monsanto'), and thus went out of business. The idea of supporting local food initially makes less sense to people brought up in a monetary culture, if that food is more expensive and one doesn't have much money to thrown around to begin with.
In other words, today, and moreso tomorrow, and even moreso in the tomorrow of a fulfilled Venus project, we could just give away food to people at distribution centers. And with global access and cooperation, improved technologies, and without a corruptable elite governing the logistics (and with improved upbringings that make it highly improbable that someone would want to become part of such an elite, and would be disgusted by the idea), it won't be the equivalent of deprived Soviet distibrution centers.
What happens if people are just given food? Will they become lazy and take things for granted, or will they love the society that so cares for them, that they, with their more positive upbringing (less time needed to work to afford food, etc., allows for more time to spend with one's parents, neighborhoods, etc., who are all for sustaining the value system necessary for a TVP society) will want to contribute in such a way that they maintain and/or improve the functioning of the society?
Below is the beginning of a link collection. If you mention something smart and/or link to something, that bears relevance to things I have written and/or what could be useful for 80-10-10 food production, then I will update this post to include it (what I have written is very much just a draft - I should word myself more precisely and concisely, as well as post more references).
Methods, paradigms, techniques, etc.:
www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2008/ch_3.html
www.verticalfarm.com
Mechatronic technologies (farm robots, etc.):
www.newscientist.com/article/dn17224
www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/ingelligent-harvesting-robot-to-take-over-uk-farms.php
http://narc.naro.affrc.go.jp/projects/agrobots/rice_t_e.html
www.associatedcontent.com/article/290850/robotic_fruit_pickers_revolution_in.html
www.singularityhub.com/2009/04/14/mit-and-the-constant-robotic-gardeners
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fKDi-F_d0o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcvhtn7I2qw&feature=player_embedded
Bananas being grown on Iceland. With improved tech. and clean energy generation and transporation, we could grow and supply anything anywhere in the world, and do so sustainably.
In a Venus project society, there will be such a thing as a 'free' lunch - but people who want to forage instead of lazily waltsing about in a distribution center could do so on trips into the nature "reservations" (which might be everything outside our cities, as we will likely simplify transportation, as well as making it more effective, along with changing other things that will allow us to leave large areas of nature untouched by things other than our bodies and truly clean and non-intrusive technology, while still going about our business. These areas could be thus be free of most human intervention other than scientific observation.)
Replies
love this. i'm all for automating food production. i've been thinking of building and testing a simple rainwater collecting system that monitors rainfall and meters out water to fruit trees for remote orchards (could be set up on public land, etc, using a small solar panel + battery + semi buried trash can water container... would it work? maybe)
also built a fairly large hoophouse in the backyard recently, i should post pictures. I'm going to try some automation based on the Garduino (Arduino-powered garden automation kit)
I agree Helena. There is no escape, and many people need to recognize this. It would only be short-term, and the idea would be to show people it can be done, and promote the movement further. Towards the end of Zeitgeist Addendum, PJ recommends that we become as self-sufficient as possible, to stop supporting the energy companies. With the corruption of the food companies like Dole, Conagra, Monsanto, we must boycott them too, while we create critical mass.
In solidarity,
Andreas
Thanks Nicolas! Here's another link we can add:
http://factualsolutions.blogspot.com/2009/03/venus-project-tool-box...
And here's the Greening of The Deserts video in case you haven't seen it yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzTHjlueqFI
Farmers are among those opting for machines to perform tasks while reducing costs and boosting productivity.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-no-help-wanted-20101004,0,718...