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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] "The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World." by Marina Gorbis - Putting the Social Back Into Our Economy - Social Capital

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  • From: Douglas Hinds <cedecor@gmx.net>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] "The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World." by Marina Gorbis - Putting the Social Back Into Our Economy - Social Capital
  • Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:13:16 -0500


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.




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