permaculture

[Douglas Hinds <cedecor@gmx.net>]

Lawrence, we've known each other a long time, and I'm glad you put so 
much time and effort into making relevant information to people via your 
ibiblio lists, but I really think you ought to read what you post more 
thoroughly.

A new and steadily growing industry has emerged around ostensibly 
"helping" community efforts obtain increased outreach and funding, and 
this appears to be one of them.

And before you publicly tell me "Ho', Loota Hype" again, I strongly 
suggest you examine what I'm going to say in depth.

That said, the Institute for the Future, iftf.org is located in Silicon 
Valley. /"Valley/ refers to the Santa Clara Valley 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_Valley>, located at the 
southern end of San Francisco Bay 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay>, while /Silicon 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon>/ refers to the high concentration 
of companies involved in the making of semiconductors 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductors> (silicon is used to create 
most semiconductors commercially) and computer 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer> industries that were 
concentrated in the area. These firms slowly replaced the orchards 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchard> and related agriculture and food 
production companies which gave the area its initial nickname, the 
Valley of Heart's Delight."

Get that?  No more orchards! No more food production!  But that's not all:

http://www.iftf.org/iftf-you/programs/global-food-outlook/

   In 2013, IFTF’s Global Food Outlook program will undertake a
   year-long exploration into the ways that emerging technologies and
   sciences are reshaping the global food web. Along the way, we’ll ask
   questions like: How will we as individuals, communities, and
   organizations be challenged or empowered by applying new
   technologies to the global food web? What technologies will help us
   grow and distribute food throughout the world, safely and
   sustainably? How will technologies help us strike a more optimal
   balance between the microbes that help us and those that harm us?
   How will innovations in consumer technologies shift what we want and
   value in our food?

   We’ll map out the critical technologies shaping the agriculture,
   food distribution, and retail – with particular emphasis on food
   safety, sociality, and governance. We’ll also develop a set of
   consumer perspectives highlighting what these technological shifts
   mean for what people value about food and what they choose to buy
   and eat.


   The year will be structured around a set of workshops, virtual
   exchanges and research deliverables with a focus on imagining tools
   to improve the resilience of the global food web.

IFTF is a TECHNOLOGY company and they intend to apply technology to the 
Global Food Web.  Not local, not grow your own, not CSA's or Farmer's 
Markets, but industrialized, corporate food from Chile and China, sold 
through super-markets.  They support the food biznez, not natural food:

The following is from page 40 of their document: 
http://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/SR-1429B_IFTF_GFO_Food_Choices__Scenarios.pdf

(Transformation In North America:  Chasing Variety, Enhancing Performance):

›› Thevarietyofflavors, textures,utilitarian attitudes, andcontextsin 
whichfoodis eatenin North America expandsdramatically.Amongthosewho 
embrace syntheticandcustom-producedfoods, 
thepossibilitiesaboundforperformance-enhancing 
offerings,wildcombinationsofflavors, and immediategratification.

››Easy,accurate,andsafeon-sitemanufacturing further 
blursthelinebetweengroceriesandready- made 
foods.Retailersleasebrandsandformulations frommanufacturers,butin 
theburgeoningopen designspace,in-housespecialtiesandhousebrands proliferate.

››Directsalesthroughkiosksbecomethemainstay of 
allsortsofbrandedfoods,includingsnacks,drinks, 
andwholemeals.Themoreadvancedunitsandthe high-endpersonal 
modelssyncwithpersonal sensor 
dataforfine-tunedgastronomy.“Epigeneticdiet” foodsandpillsarein fashion, 
combiningpersonal geneticinsight,localvariation, 
environmentalconsciousness, andextremepersonalization.


››Althoughpackagingculturehasshiftedtowardper- 
sonalizedandreusablecontainers,theabundance offoodresults in 
amentalitythatdoesn’tmindfood

waste.Obesityanddiet-relatedhealthproblemsgrow in 
thispetridishofabundantchoice,butthereare

alsoformulationstocounteractit.

››Actualcooking,alanguishing skill, is fullofsocial 
significanceandelicitsadmirationwhen 
it’spracticed.Agriculturaltourismtoold-stylefarms booms 
asthesesettingsbecomeanevenquainter curiosity. Biochemistryis 
taughtatadvancedlevelsin grade schools,andunderstandingone’spersonal 
geneticneedsis somethingthatmany children take forgranted.


Douglas


On 4/9/2013 10:23 AM, Lawrence London wrote:
> [What a find, previously communalism, now social capital, nurturing the
> future. LL]
>
> "The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World." by
> Marina Gorbis - Putting the Social Back Into Our Economy
> http://boingboing.net/2013/04/09/marina-gorbis-bio-hackers-cr.html#more-223480
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451641184/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1451641184&linkCode=as2&tag=boingboing0e-20
>
> *Marina Gorbis is executive director of Institute for the Future, a
> non-profit thinktank
> https://twitter.com/mgorbis
> http://www.iftf.org/
>
> **Putting the Social Back Into Our Economy
> by Marina Gorbis*
>
> "My mother never heard the term social capital, but she knew its value
> well. In the Soviet Union, where she lived and where I grew up, no one
> could survive without it, and she leveraged her social capital on a daily
> basis.