Computerised Farmers ? No Thanks !!

Would you trust a computer to grow your food? From the study we do in our business, we’ve discovered there is a very large movement in the food industries for computerization of production systems. Essentially, this is code word for using computers to produce food.

It’s true that the cost of producing food and getting it from the farm to plate are ever increasing. I really do I applaud people for innovating on how this can be done better, cheaper and faster. However, I am disturbed that this rush for technology is de-humanising the production methods. And importantly, it is taking humans out of the process. For the millions of folks that do not have the capacity or motivation to grow their own food, the alarming question that may have to be answered is “How are we going to feed ourselves if the computer crashes?”

The fact is that at any given moment there is very few days worth of food on the shelves anywhere in the first world. Indeed, up until the early 20th century, the human race existed quite well consuming only seasonal produce. Thanks to the technological advances of two World Wars and a lot of scientists and business people, most types of food are available all year round. Seasonality has gone the way of the Dodo. And as the food industry is one of the biggest businesses on earth, with billions of dollars transacted every day, the pressure to keep the food on the shelves and people shopping is enormous.

The farmers of today, with a mix of technology, machinery and science, produce far more food than has ever been grown before. The pressure to remain profitable is growing all the time too. A friend shared with me recently that in our part of the world (South East Queensland) 100 years ago, farmers in this area got to keep 90 % of the income they received for their produce. Today, they would be lucky if they got to keep 10 %. While drones and robots do make a genuine contribution to modern agriculture, are we ready for a brave new world* of fully automated food production where the only time that a human sees or touches food is when it arrives in the kitchen of the consumer.

Taking humans out of the production process is not healthy. It is not good for food, for humans or for the landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing movement of people still growing food the old fashion way. By investing their time, labour and energy. They provide a wholesome and nourishing product, at a reasonable price and the results are marvellous. We call this transaction, direct to consumer marketing. And interestingly enough it’s not new. We’ve been doing it for at least the last 5,000 years. If modern technology does fail, at least there will be a few folks about that know how to feed the rest of us.

At Landlife Education we help folks for all over the world get a solid handle on what is going on in their business. We are delivering training programs in Queensland beginning in April 2015. For more information about how we can help you, drop by the web site or give a call. A positive choice for change, is just a choice away.

* Apologies to Aldus Huxley.