this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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It is very therapeutic to garden, though. (lemmy.today)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Is probably true. However, one should question their world view if they measure everything as a minimization problem with respect to cost efficience and yield.

[–] Donkter 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think it's less about ruthless efficiency and more about which system will enable even the poorest in society to have nutritious food.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (4 children)

as if this system has done so..

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

250 years ago people would rent pineapples for parties as status symbols because they cost $8000.

Nowadays the most expensive pineapple you can get is barely $400.

That's progress

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If it helps, I could sell you a pineapple for more than that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I'll have to see what my social status raising fruit budget looks like.

[–] Donkter 2 points 1 month ago

No you couldn't, they would never buy an 8000$ pineapple today because he could get one down the street for a couple bucks.

[–] Shardikprime 1 points 1 month ago

Is that Canadian toonies?

[–] Donkter 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not saying anything about the system, just about which farming method has the most potential to equitably distribute resources.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I get what you mean. Our system produces a ridiculous amount of quantity, which should be great! But in the context of where it's firmly placed within existing socioeconomics, stupid things happen like "destroying all the product to keep the value from crashing" and the "distribution problem" that feeding the poor isn't profitable.

Maybe industrial agriculture wouldn't be so terrible if food production for the human race didn't operate on the same metrics as handbags or funkopops. =\

[–] Donkter 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I agree that commodifying food, especially locking nutrition behind class walls is barbaric. I also get that the current iteration of industrial farming is scary (don't get me wrong, it sucks shit) and that "small scale farming solutions just haven't been tried!" but clearly small scale farming is a long term fantasy that would take many decades of work and public acceptance, not even to mention the process of decommodifying the agriculture industry. All I'm saying is that if I'm playing in the same space, the method that would be the most environmentally friendly and efficient (not in an economic sense) is large scale industrial farms.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

The other concern I have about small-scale farming I had, arose because I had this notion about "What if we could eliminate food deserts that are literally in the desert through household hydroponics?"

It sounded like such an awesome idea. Federated food! What a revolution!

But I also found out there's a ton that can go very wrong when you have no idea where food came from or how it is grown.

It's also my experienced opinion that a not-small percentage of the human population in this metropolis range from clinically insane to dangerously ignorant.

Industrial farming sucks in a lot of ways, but I'm also glad the (horribly underfunded) FDA and USDA exists.

Perhaps pushes for education in this field could go a long way? It seems outside of farming communities, food production is very much thought of as "farmers' work." and not much else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Borlaug's green revolution of the mid-20th century did lead to a rapid reduction in famines across Asia and Africa...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I mean. It has? Even the poorest of the poor eat better than they did a couple hundred years ago

[–] enbyecho 2 points 1 month ago

if they measure everything as a minimization problem with respect to cost efficience and yield.

Well to be fair, that 3rd home in the Hamptons and a bigger yacht are not going to pay for themselves.