Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: just Warren on October 06, 2017, 05:21:38 PM
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We should grow so much food and be able to sell it so cheaply that we become the defacto monopoly source of the world's calories. (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/holland-agriculture-sustainable-farming/)
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This lends itself well to automation too, and economies of scale. It's another step towards post-scarcity.
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If we can get .gov out of the agriculture business, then we could easily do this.
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Those Dutch greenhouses are using a ton of electricity.
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I'm sure there are some growers in Colorado that could compete pretty well with this if their main crop wasn't so lucrative.
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I'm sure there are some growers in Colorado that could compete pretty well with this if their main crop wasn't so lucrative.
Kinda makes me wonder how they handle snow and hail on the greenhouses.
Seems to me that skimpy little article could use some amplification and examination of some of the problems instead of being all marvey-poo and pink unicorny.
Terry, 230RN
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We can colonize Mars using the Dutch.
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Kinda makes me wonder how they handle snow and hail on the greenhouses.
Seems to me that skimpy little article could use some amplification and examination of some of the problems instead of being all marvey-poo and pink unicorny.
Terry, 230RN
Since it's on the tail end of the Atlantic Conveyor (Gulf Stream) they get rain, not much snow, nor many thunderstorms. Germany, especially the Schnee Eifel and Hunsruck* mountains got the snow.
I was stationed in the Hunsruck, I can't recall a single Thunderstorm my entire time in Germany. Lots and lots of snow and rain. But Germany doesn't have that High Pressure meeting Low Pressure fronts that cause the storms, nor does it get all that hot where there are the late afternoon/early evening storms.
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Well, OK, so there's the amplification they left out of the article.
I'd like to see them wail and moan over all them acres and acres (hectares and hectares) of greenhouses getting clobbered by 1 inch (2.54 cm) hailstones or lifted up and scattered by 50 mph (75 km/h) downdraft winds.
Or covered by 6" (15.24 cm) of wet heavy snow.
We can do that here?
Maybe in very selected places in the southwest and possibly the west coast.
Or with specialized glass roofing.
( I thought the Mars colonization remark was hilarious. roffle )
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If we can get .gov out of the agriculture business, then we could easily do this.
Still going to need a stop loss subsidy so producers will produce (hopefully control wild swings in the food market, guarantee a food crop) and also make vertical agriculture above a certain tonnage illegal. This way a small producer can still have a vegetable stand/boutique animals/specialized dairy, but keeps giants like Tyson or Cargill from owning any animals/crops until they buy it. No more contract growers, keep the money local and producers can control what they want to produce.
Autonomous farming in a traditional row crop is coming.
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Kinda makes me wonder how they handle snow and hail on the greenhouses.
Seems to me that skimpy little article could use some amplification and examination of some of the problems instead of being all marvey-poo and pink unicorny.
Terry, 230RN
Giga has a large greenhouse in Michigan at his family buisness. Both thunderstorms and snowfall aplenty there. How does his handle it?
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Energy intensive, capital intensive, etc. Not saying it's not smart, but we have more than 10x the land. Eventually, as it becomes profitable, we definitely can move to high density automated farming.
Still going to need a stop loss subsidy so producers will produce (hopefully control wild swings in the food market, guarantee a food crop) and also make vertical agriculture above a certain tonnage illegal. This way a small producer can still have a vegetable stand/boutique animals/specialized dairy, but keeps giants like Tyson or Cargill from owning any animals/crops until they buy it. No more contract growers, keep the money local and producers can control what they want to produce.
Autonomous farming in a traditional row crop is coming.
Already here to various extents. Not sure why the legal restrictions are necessary. Is anti-competition consolidation that big of an issue with ag giants?
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Energy intensive, capital intensive, etc. Not saying it's not smart, but we have more than 10x the land. Eventually, as it becomes profitable, we definitely can move to high density automated farming.
Already here to various extents. Not sure why the legal restrictions are necessary. Is anti-competition consolidation that big of an issue with ag giants?
Yes, I'm surprised there hasn't been antitrust violations issued. Also here in Iowa most hogs are owned by the packers and they contract growers to raise them and handle the manure disposal.