The Future of Agriculture
Before we delve into the potential direction agriculture is likely to head in the future, let us take a snap shot of where agriculture is right now.
In case you aren’t aware, in Germany farmers have shut down borders with protests over the removal of diesel subsidies as Germany tries to meet EU goals. I may actually not side with the farmers on this one, as I’m for a free market where the government does not subsidize any industries, however I do take this as an example of evidence that there is a war on farmers.
As the global powers try to direct humanity to their desired centralized diet, I mean, as the un-elected officials and political elite use their science to teach us how the traditional ways of eating are bad for us and the earth that provides those traditional foods… I’d be curious to know if they are being lobbied by biotech start ups who are pushing lab-grown meat, or perhaps the up and coming bug farmers.
As one who has been blessed to have switched to raw dairy products, I assume the risk of contamination when I chose to consume a non-pasteurized product. If there is no deceptive advertising I don’t see why farmers need to feel the brunt of the potential hazards of human life. On that note, I don’t think the government should be regulating individuals from producing, distributing, or consuming whatever they choose. Meanwhile, heavily regulated farms also find contamination in their products. The free market will force these farmers to provide a healthy product or go out of business as consumers either continue or cease to support their business. This is why transparency and knowing your farmer are so important.
Yay Italy! This is what the world could be like if they had a passionate culture around healthy local food. However, as I am for less regulation of food and consumption, I think the option should be available. My problem is, where it seems as though they are discouraging one choice for another choice. People can make up their own informed decision without the market being manipulated by culling meat or the interference of industry lobbyists influencing policy.
https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4751&context=wlulr
1740, B. Health and Safety Concerns
I have actually written in a previous posts about concerns over the disregulation of cell lines if genetically modified foods are not properly produced : “See guys, it’s fine. Cancer is just a genetic disease. Based on… changes… in… genes? Wait, what!? Hold on, hold on. How are they doing this gene modification anyway? Well it is very complicated and I am not a scientist but here is what I gathered. They use a bacteria for a culture and what is known as a Ti plasmid to cut and splice DNA. The Ti plasmid comes from the plant tumor causing pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The Ti plasmid is used to splice the new DNA to the original. The bacteria is just to culture the new genetically engineered DNA only to be killed off by antibiotics. Let me pick my jaw off the floor as I’m just a moronic laymen but are we relying on a plant pathogen that literally causes tumors in plants, to the point they found it useful for “changing genes”? Tumors… changing genes? And we all have heard of antibiotic resistance have we not? So at one point do these bacteria cultures become antibiotic resistant and enter the food chain? Maybe I’m just a highly suspicious person but that sounds sketchy. Is it sketchy?” https://www.fullcirclecsa.com/blog/2023/3/22/the-cost-of-convenience
So, lab-grown meat is potentially dangerous and probably worse for the environment… but they’ve already invested heavily in these laboratory factories and marketing it as “green” whatever will they do?
Okay, so currently from my on the ground perspective we are at a very important cross roads. As it seems the trend of young people getting into market gardening has slowed down (in my opinion based on interest in people wanting to help and views of YouTube content about small scale farming) we really need to get more people in general into producing local food on a small scale. When I am reading the literature of the culture makers (those who have the global business meetings about how to create a narrative most likely to market their end goals well) the clear trend is toward technology based agriculture.
What do you know, nearly 30% of “farm tech” investment is in “Sensing and IoT”. If you have been following my blog you will know that Iot stands for Internet of Things. (https://www.fullcirclecsa.com/blog/2023/8/30/caught-in-the-world-wide-web-the-post-organic-world) So to farm better we need to spend 30% of farm tech investments into connecting our farms to the internet? And look at that, 21 percent of the investment goes to the biotechnology that creates the genetically modified seeds and sprays that broad scale monoculture depends on.
Plant data and analysis, that must be the whole Internet of Things… thing. We’re talking about regenerative agriculture here, but they want to upload everything to the internet which consumes massive amounts of energy storing and processing and keeping the whole thing cool, as I’ve discussed in previous posts. And what exactly is regenerative about robots and genetically modified foods?( https://www.fullcirclecsa.com/blog/2023/6/19/where-there-is-smoke-there-is-fire) Lord help us when the robots are regenerating themselves, and I’m sure the biotech and pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t be happy if their scientific secrets were easily regenerated by small farmers. Now, the funiest part…
Look at these science nerds investing what, $210 million dollars into “biofertillizers”. It’s called compost, didn’t they teach you that at your fancy university? You can create fertility out of waste, as nature does, you know the nature that does the whole regenerative sustainable thing with no robots or internet apps.
So, these highly educated people talk an awful lot about “regenerative” and “sustainable” from behind their blue glowing screens in their climate controlled buildings powered most likely by “fossil fuels”, but do they really know what those words mean?
I think it is quite interesting that they are using these terms that farmers have been using to describe land based models for fertility and fodder, but they are really meaning that they are going to regenerate a system that can be sustained artificially. Not in balance with nature, but in balance with technology.
Why is the discussion never about more, smaller, better farms? It is always farming inside of a factory or sky scraper, “precision" aka the internet and technology, and genetic modification. I got an idea, modify humans to not be hungry… Oh and don’t forget the other solutions, manufactured food from factories also. And packaging solutions, which you wouldn’t need if you were getting your food from a farmer or your garden. What about pasture raised animals? What about intensive diverse cropping? What about regular old compost?
Of course, the only solution is government! How else would we be able to make educated decisions and run our lives? You see? Sophisticated technology. Imagine a world where farming is dependent on the energy grid entirely. Software teaches the farmer what to do and when to do it, but when the power is out... Just like we don’t remember phone numbers anymore, so too the farmer will forget how to raise food. Yet this is somehow food security? We already have 5 senses, that’s why people should be in the gardens not robots and biosensors.
I can tell you one thing. Our farm doesn’t need any of that technological mojo for us to grow nutrient dense high quality produce without any chemical inputs, no sprays, no mineral or otherwise mined fertility. I use the internet to rant about the powers that be intending to consolidate the means of production and to share with you all how and why we farm. Also to learn, but mostly I refer to my own extensive library we’ve accumulated over the years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming
In case you couldn’t envision vertical farming, there it is. Plants forced to grow under artificial lights force fed individual nutrients. I don’t see how this at all resembles nature, which is the definition of sustainable and regenerative I prefer to compare to. So why is it this way? Because lobbying that’s why. The private interests are so intertwined with those who legislate and regulate that conflict of interest barely scratches the surface.
So what you are seeing is the steering of society. They already invested in the labs to grow out the cultured meat. They already invested in the bug farms. They already invested in the genetically modified crops that are dependent on their sprays. They already invested in buying out the farm land. They already invested in buying out the government. If we don’t get in the drivers wheel and turn this vehicle we are headed to a world where these people continue to sell the world back to us all because we gave over our independence and self responsibility for a little comfort. When the robots are farming genetically modified bugs for us and delivering our protein mash via drone, we’ll be wishing we would have started that garden while we could still bend over easy. You’ll be thinking maybe that farmer wasn’t just a crazed conspiracy theorist, but someone who realized the script is written and we are just unaware actors playing our part, until we aren’t. We can write our own script. We can grow our own food. And food is all we really need.