Google needs to get into farming
Anna and I were watching Michael Pollan's talk on fora.tv ( http://fora.tv/2009/05/05/Michael_Pollan_Deep_Agriculture#fullprogram ), HT @jjprojects. He was talking about what is wrong with the American food system and what can be done to fix it - moving away from mono-cultures and feed lots to reduce the amount of oil needed to produce food; move away from spending 10 Calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of food. Also by moving to a diverse crop less pesticide and fertiliser is needed. Finally grow locally, so the produce isn't being shipped across America or the world.
The solution seemed to be that we need more diverse farmers, with a preference for farmers owning the farm rather than large corporates. It occurred to me if you want to be able to trace your Broccoli or Steak from paddock to plate, google is your best bet. They already look after our search, mail and in the US at least are starting to look after our Health records, Internet connection and power generation.
So, why not our food system.
They could track from seed to plate, gathering a wealth of information to help grown better crops in the future. Not by dumping large amount of chemicals on them, but by working out what plants grow together well. Nature is already far better at this than us, but it doesn't mean we can't find improvements to suit our needs.
Also if google are running farms across america it can better cope with the ebb and flow of demand, instead of shipping steak from California to New York ship it from New England. It will arrive quicker and in a better state.
