If you are not comfortable putting non-free software in your computer, have you ever thought about the non-free nature of the food you put in your body?
A group at MIT's Media Lab have started the Open Agriculture (OpenAg) initiative and there was a TED talk (video[1]) about it in Geneva that makes it really clear what they are doing and why.
The documentary Food, Inc[2] also helps understand what is at stake.
Has anybody else looked at this or any similar projects already?
A group has been formed[3] in Zurich to try and build one or more of the food computers collaboratively. A venue is to be announced shortly. I already raised this on the Zurich mailing list, but would anybody else want to come to Zurich to participate, be part of this remotely or replicate the idea in their own location?
One challenge for us in Zurich is to try and find an efficient way of ordering all the parts, the list[4] includes over 100 items from about various suppliers. Making up orders would be rather tedious, so grouping the orders together could help lower the hurdle for people to get started.
One significant opportunity with this initiative is the outreach to other groups with environment, sustainability, urban agriculture and culinary interests. OpenAg provides a way to developed a shared philosophy about what free really means and how free software is part of the solution to social problems like food security.
Regards,
Daniel
1. https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_grow_your_food_in_... 2. http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/ 3. https://www.meetup.com/openag-zh/events/239207170/ 4. https://github.com/OpenAgInitiative/openag_pfc2/tree/master/BOM
Hello, I didn't understand what is it all about... sorry to look rude, but could you provide a small document that introduce the topic? In general, I don't like/have the time to watch videos, and I can't judge from your email if it is interesting...
Cheers, Antonello
On 10 May 2017 at 17:54, Daniel Pocock daniel@pocock.pro wrote:
If you are not comfortable putting non-free software in your computer, have you ever thought about the non-free nature of the food you put in your body?
A group at MIT's Media Lab have started the Open Agriculture (OpenAg) initiative and there was a TED talk (video[1]) about it in Geneva that makes it really clear what they are doing and why.
The documentary Food, Inc[2] also helps understand what is at stake.
Has anybody else looked at this or any similar projects already?
A group has been formed[3] in Zurich to try and build one or more of the food computers collaboratively. A venue is to be announced shortly. I already raised this on the Zurich mailing list, but would anybody else want to come to Zurich to participate, be part of this remotely or replicate the idea in their own location?
One challenge for us in Zurich is to try and find an efficient way of ordering all the parts, the list[4] includes over 100 items from about various suppliers. Making up orders would be rather tedious, so grouping the orders together could help lower the hurdle for people to get started.
One significant opportunity with this initiative is the outreach to other groups with environment, sustainability, urban agriculture and culinary interests. OpenAg provides a way to developed a shared philosophy about what free really means and how free software is part of the solution to social problems like food security.
Regards,
Daniel
https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_ will_grow_your_food_in_the_future 2. http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/ 3. https://www.meetup.com/openag-zh/events/239207170/ 4. https://github.com/OpenAgInitiative/openag_pfc2/tree/master/BOM
Discussion mailing list Discussion@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
On 11/05/17 08:17, Antonello Lobianco (not reply) wrote:
Hello, I didn't understand what is it all about... sorry to look rude, but could you provide a small document that introduce the topic? In general, I don't like/have the time to watch videos, and I can't judge from your email if it is interesting...
The video shows exactly what they are building, so it is probably quite helpful.
I'm preparing a blog about the topic and that will give a more thorough written explanation.
Briefly, their food computer is open hardware and free software for growing plants like fruit and vegetables.
The motivation for this is to have a wider source of food. The range of products in a typical supermarket is not so wide, maybe 200 fruit and vegetables. The food computer can grow tens of thousands of different things.
As well as diversity, the quality is much higher because the food is fresh. Even though it is grown in a machine, you have to remember that food in a supermarket often spends months in cold storage and transport networks, that is also explained in the video, Harper gives the example that the average apple in a supermarket has spent 10 months in storage since it was harvested.
Regards,
Daniel
Am 11.05.2017 um 08:17 schrieb Antonello Lobianco:
Hello, I didn't understand what is it all about... sorry to look rude, but could you provide a small document that introduce the topic?
It's about hardware and control.
The large companies try to profit from every aspect of our lives, including food, breeding, seeds, etc. Therefore they try to control the machines used in agriculture. The german-language newsletter article copied below shows this development und suggests the development of a free software based controller for John Deere tractors.
The "food-computer" project goes much further, encouraging the development of free software based machines for many more people than just owners or users of large farms. This would help enable many small-holders worldwide presently ensnared by the large companies to escape to freedom and a worthwhile life. Although this is also possible without "food-computers", these could increase the efficiency of small-scale food-production with respect to labour and may appear desirable, thus attractive.
Best wishes, Theo
---------------
Wenn der Traktor nicht dem Bauern gehört
Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,
ich weiß nicht, ob Sie in der Landwirtschaft arbeiten, mir selbst ist diese Branche eher fremd. Mit digitalen Geräten dagegen kenne ich mich ganz gut aus. Und wie ich jetzt erfahren habe, zählen die Traktoren, mit denen die Landwirte ihre Felder pflügen, inzwischen auch zu den digitalen Geräten.
Und da zeigt sich, dass Microsoft nicht der einzige Hersteller ist, der das Wort "Kundenbindung" im Sinne von "knebeln und fesseln" versteht. Der Traktorhersteller "John Deere" treibt es dabei so ziemlich auf die Spitze. Der Zugang zur digitalen Traktorsteuerung ist grundsätzlich verriegelt und vernagelt, damit nur teure Vertragswerkstätten einen solchen Traktor reparieren können.
Man sollte meinen, wenn man etwas kauft, kann man damit machen, was man will. Nicht so bei den Traktoren von John Deere. Die Hardware gehört zwar dem Kunden, für die Steuerungssoftware aber erwirbt der Kunde nur eine eingeschränkte Lizenz.
Findige Hacker haben diese Traktoren daher als Markt entdeckt. Sie knacken die Software, entwickeln eigene Steuerungen und verkaufen sie in geheimen Online-Foren, deren Zugänge unter der Hand weitergegeben werden.
Ich finde: Das ist ein Fall für die Community! Wir sollten dringend eine Open-Source-Steuerung für John Deere Traktoren entwickeln. Für Pkws gibt es sowas ja schon.
Viel Spaß mit den Open Source Secrets wünscht Ihnen,
Ihr
Achim Wagenknecht, Chefredakteur Open Source Secrets 25.4.2017
On 05/10/2017 05:54 PM, Daniel Pocock wrote:
If you are not comfortable putting non-free software in your computer, have you ever thought about the non-free nature of the food you put in your body?
A group at MIT's Media Lab have started the Open Agriculture (OpenAg) initiative and there was a TED talk (video[1]) about it in Geneva that makes it really clear what they are doing and why.
The documentary Food, Inc[2] also helps understand what is at stake.
Has anybody else looked at this or any similar projects already?
I'm working with permaculture, which I see as analogous to free software in that it represents a science-based and ethical approach to food production based on natural processes and the maximising of useful connections.
In permaculture, the idea is also to replace the constant waste of fossil fuels by growing food locally, and generally decrease the energy spent in food and energy production by careful design, e.g. of a guild of edible annual and perennials, including trees, shrubs and herbs, and allow a full mycorhizal network to develop by ot tilling or turning the soil. Instead of electronically microcontrolling the nutrients (obtained as artificial chemicals) as in these food computers, the mycorhiza (the so-called "internet of the plants") will distribute nutrients between "friends" in the network.
The drawback of the food computer with respect to permaculture is, in my view, the degree of complexity involved - yes, you avoid shipping food, but you still need someone to produce (extra) electricity and to move all material for doing that around, and you need to source a wide array of metals and have them processed in a very complex and energy-consuming factory and afterwards have them shipped to a lot of locations in order to build the food computer. I believe permaculture, avoiding chemical fertilizer and pesticides, keeping a careful tally of the ressource consumption so at least as many ressources (water, energy, carbon) are recreated as consumed, is a more sustainable future for food production. The variation advertised in the video could also be achieved by growing and developing many different varieties as well as species, which in all cases gives more resilience against pests and diseases.
Plus, while many people may not want to be farmers, which might either mean complete industrialization with pesticides, fertilizers, giant pig farms fed with soy beans grown on former rain forest, or impoverished thirdworld farmers, many people *would* like to grow their own food and become more self-sufficient and independent.
That said, the ideas behind the food computer are interesting. It might be the most rational way to source some plants (rather than exploit vulnerable ecosystems and have them shipped across the globe), and in terms of sustainability it might be more rational than industrial farming.
But I think it would be more of a supplement and that the majority of the food we eat should be produced by natural methods, following the permaculture principle of rebuilding at least as many ressources as are consumed.
The Mocambos network and other social movements in Brazil represent an interesting way of working with communities, combining free software, permaculture and more low-tech and traditional ways of living as may be seen in this video:
http://hyndla.modspil.dk/#mocambos/cabruca/media/7bc4766b-6794-4cd4-914a-48f... (direct link http://hyndla.modspil.dk/media/mocambos/cabruca/video/15/11/29/iv-jornada-de...)
Interestingly, what that video shows is a way for communities and individuals to take back control that these food computers might also enable. But, as I said, as more of a complement than as the thing itself.
Best Carsten
A group has been formed[3] in Zurich to try and build one or more of the food computers collaboratively. A venue is to be announced shortly. I already raised this on the Zurich mailing list, but would anybody else want to come to Zurich to participate, be part of this remotely or replicate the idea in their own location?
One challenge for us in Zurich is to try and find an efficient way of ordering all the parts, the list[4] includes over 100 items from about various suppliers. Making up orders would be rather tedious, so grouping the orders together could help lower the hurdle for people to get started.
One significant opportunity with this initiative is the outreach to other groups with environment, sustainability, urban agriculture and culinary interests. OpenAg provides a way to developed a shared philosophy about what free really means and how free software is part of the solution to social problems like food security.
Regards,
Daniel
https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_grow_your_food_in_... 2. http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/ 3. https://www.meetup.com/openag-zh/events/239207170/ 4. https://github.com/OpenAgInitiative/openag_pfc2/tree/master/BOM
Discussion mailing list Discussion@lists.fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
On 11/05/17 10:00, Carsten Agger wrote:
That said, the ideas behind the food computer are interesting. It might be the most rational way to source some plants (rather than exploit vulnerable ecosystems and have them shipped across the globe), and in terms of sustainability it might be more rational than industrial farming.
But I think it would be more of a supplement and that the majority of the food we eat should be produced by natural methods, following the permaculture principle of rebuilding at least as many ressources as are consumed.
Thanks for raising the topic of permaculture. I feel these things all have a role to play too. Some points about the role of the food computer:
- there will always be some countries who can't produce enough food through purely natural processes due to size/population ratio (think of Singapore) and people in those places will be attracted to solutions like this
- it is great for educational and research purposes, especially in the family home or in cities
- from a hacker/developer perspective, both permaculture and food computers provide interesting problems to be solved and some software development will help in both domains (reusable code libraries anybody?)