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A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (Now with poll!) | 37 comments (37 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (4.00 / 5)
A society without agriculture loses its connection to the interconnectedness of life. When you think of the environment as a machine with discrete replaceable parts, a machine that produces endless consumables, you become part of the machine.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Mon Jun 22nd, 2009 at 11:31:49 AM EST
Re: A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (4.00 / 4)
That's part of what I wanted to say, but you say it so much better.  Being a farmer is a vocation for many, and most I know continue farming until they die, even if it ends up costing them money.  Its a way of life and they don't know of any other way.  But I think the wider community also benefits greatly from this connectedness with the soil.  

Urban man lives by supermarket ready meals where all connection with the soil is lost.  But that sort of point is treated as mystical mumbo jumbo or special pleading by an interest group by the neo-lib reformers.  I would hate to live in a society without a vibrant rural life and agricultural sector.  But then I'm biased.  I grew up and live there.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Mon Jun 22nd, 2009 at 11:42:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (4.00 / 2)
Even at Nokia, many Finnish execs still clear their desks and head out to the summer cottage for 4 weeks. Sauna, sausages, swimming, water from the well, a crap in the wooden privy, eggs from the farmer, whittling, listening to the weather forecast at 6, building a tree house with the kids, crates of beer...are all essential to the Finnish experience.

Bu slowly it's changing: the portable TV has become a DVD player combo, the blackberry and the iPhone are along, friends come for the day - guided by car-nav.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Mon Jun 22nd, 2009 at 12:42:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (4.00 / 4)
I don't have a problem with some hi-tech innovations - they can be less resource exhaustive than older tech.  Thus modern cars are more fuel efficient, I love maps, but if sat nav gets you there more efficiently, way to go! Mobile phones can save a lot of redundant journeys or inflexible pre-planning. Laptops/wifi can give you a sense of connectedness in remote communities.

These things can coexist with the log cabin and open fire.  Less intensive farming can help sustain wildlife habitats and biodiversity.  Manual labour can be a real drag and the power take-off shaft on a tractor can be a real boon.  Increased population/urbanisation requires mass production to sustain it at some levels.  But we should retain what food and human diversity we can.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Mon Jun 22nd, 2009 at 01:32:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (none / 1)
Frank Schnittger:
Laptops/wifi can give you a sense of connectedness in remote communities.

These things can coexist with the log cabin and open fire.  Less intensive farming can help sustain wildlife habitats and biodiversity.

contadino digitale!

(translation 'digitised peasant', but it rings much better in italiano)

that's the future, and a good, noble and dignified one it could be.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Jun 25th, 2009 at 07:28:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (Now with poll!) | 37 comments (37 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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