tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288243942675666021.post6686155707977488022..comments2011-06-21T15:38:20.449-07:00Comments on The Pinprick of Desire: Of Haymakers and Rainmakerspanopticonopolishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01235859936534076508noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288243942675666021.post-26720291601293568052010-10-28T14:02:21.188-07:002010-10-28T14:02:21.188-07:00Hi Bix!
Thanks for your comments. It's true t...Hi Bix!<br /><br />Thanks for your comments. It's true that Aerofarm isn't some horrendous, Soylent Green-style food factory. It is organic and sustainable in letter if not in spirit, and that is what I am critiquing here. I think ventures like Aerofarm are essential to the food movement defining itself more precisely and for greater impact. <br /><br />And yes, if Aerofarm provides fresh produce to inner city dwellers that currently occupy "food deserts" then more power to them. I think there is plenty of room, and plenty of urgency to the situation. <br /><br />As a good friend of ours likes to say, "The end of civilization is always only three missed meals away".panopticonopolishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01235859936534076508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288243942675666021.post-88064063108784300432010-10-27T15:03:36.774-07:002010-10-27T15:03:36.774-07:00Hey p,
Could it have been your opening salvo conce...Hey p,<br />Could it have been your opening salvo concerning Aerofarm ("Their model does not have anything to do with creating community, or building soil health, or even encouraging food awareness or organic agriculture.") that set the panel on its heels to the degree they missed your point about money?<br /><br />I hadn't heard of Aerofarm and so went to their website. I can't say I agree with your statement about their model. They restore and reoccupy empty buildings in blighted areas with these systems; argue the health benefits of what they call "a cutting-edge type of hydroponic technology", and it is; use no pesticides and argue the other sustainability issues of their method against conventional and greenhouse approaches. True, there are no soil health issues since their system doesn't use dirt, but everything I read suggests "organic" in the sense of clean, healthy and nutritious food as good if not better on all accounts (subject to the actual tasting, of course!) I think the crowd you describe is more into Arcadian idyl than urban agriculture.<br /><br />I get your discussion on the money though, and it's smart money, ambitious money that invests half a million dollars on a useful technology like this rather than cozying up a much smaller amount of old money for the last 20 years before letting it go today. I'm happy to see VCs investing in clean, efficient useful technologies like Aerofarms that could feed large numbers of people using little space. If the monocultures we've become so dependent on should suddenly collapse to disease or climate change, our ability to feed ourselves would be severely compromised. It will take a lot more than a few local organic farmers committed to sustainable farming and happy soil to satisfy the hungry in those numbers.<br /><br />Finally, I just gotta say it...an operation like this back in the day of growing the bud...man!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com