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Requests for Startups Refreshed

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Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#111

Post by wastedhours »

prawn wrote: post #80
acconrad wrote: post #3

I've constantly racked my brain on the Underserved Communities and Social Services: my dad is a Vietnam vet and my mom (while we were growing up) fit that single mother middle-class type...how does technology help them? Part of the problem is they aren't tech savvy the way the HN community is - so what works for our community doesn't exactly work for theirs, or that they even use technology to the extent that we do (…

My first thought on that entry was a way of distributing earnings more frequently than weekly or fortnightly. Are people more inclined to blow their paycheque on entertainment if it's a bigger lump sum? And maybe a way of automating a certain type of withholding to build an emergency fund, or pay for bills. We grant concessions for retirement savings. Maybe the same for certain types of saving for essential bills? Wa…

I'd be really interested in this as a concept - a regressive pre-tax deduction for basic utilities. As you say, the issue will be for utility companies not to jack prices to take advantage, but offsetting some tax revenue from income would lead to an increase (potentially) from VAT/sales tax because of more discretionary income?

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#112

Post by awongh »

rojobuffalo wrote: post #86
ricw wrote: post #6

Farming is an interesting one, particularly with regards to the quoted statistic of 40%. From a technological perspective this has already been largely solved. Developed countries typically have 1-3% of the population working in agriculture. This is only possible because of large scale efficiencies, that allow 1-3% of the population to feed the rest. So am genuinely curious: what are you envisaging? How to market thi…

It's kind of a common misconception that farming in its current state is working. Farmers who run a factory model basically live on government subsidies. The ecological destruction that accompanies this model is also entirely unsustainable. Soil dies, water is polluted, species go extinct, crops and animals are highly vulnerable to pathogens (which leads to antibiotic resistance), greenhouse gas emissions are through…

this. The thing is that we've designed these systems (of governance, regulation and technology) that appears to have solved the problems of food, but we really haven't- bee population loss, inefficient subsidies, free-trade and over-protectionist trade, soil degradation, pollution, food contaminations, hunger, etc., etc. are still big problems.

The thing is that the system is inordinately more complex than we had originally thought (not just about input/output sheer production volume of commodities, i.e., pork belly, orange juice concentrate) -it's about a system that is sustainable and non-exploitative in the big picture.

I see the different factions currently working against each other for goals that should be synergistic.

-decrease hunger => increase crop yield with industrial farming tech

-non-gmo => grow only organic crops, anti-big business

-fair-trade => crop specialization for export to 1st world

But there's no reason why any and all of these groups couldn't be more aligned, and I think some of it is a question of scale and vision- no one has yet described to me the Elon Musk level vision of what a humanistically designed food system should look like and what all of humanity should be shooting for.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#113

Post by mdorazio »

bsbechtel wrote: post #110
ricw wrote: post #6

Farming is an interesting one, particularly with regards to the quoted statistic of 40%. From a technological perspective this has already been largely solved. Developed countries typically have 1-3% of the population working in agriculture. This is only possible because of large scale efficiencies, that allow 1-3% of the population to feed the rest. So am genuinely curious: what are you envisaging? How to market thi…

I agree. In underdeveloped countries however, the number of people working in agriculture is much closer to 90%. The tech clearly exists to improve productivity in these countries, but the problems are (mostly) political and economic. In particular, dumping from the US distorts local commodity prices. This makes investment in new technology impossible for local producers. This is an area where lots of technologically…

Another unmentioned issue: if we brought farming technology rapidly to underdeveloped countries and increased efficiency to western levels, how would these countries handle 80+% of the population being effectively jobless?

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#115

Post by drakonandor »

awongh wrote: post #112
rojobuffalo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of a common misconception that farming in its current state is working. Farmers who run a factory model basically live on government subsidies. The ecological destruction that accompanies this model is also entirely unsustainable. Soil dies, water is polluted, species go extinct, crops and animals are highly vulnerable to pathogens (which leads to antibiotic resistance), greenhouse gas emissions are through…

this. The thing is that we've designed these systems (of governance, regulation and technology) that appears to have solved the problems of food, but we really haven't- bee population loss, inefficient subsidies, free-trade and over-protectionist trade, soil degradation, pollution, food contaminations, hunger, etc., etc. are still big problems. The thing is that the system is inordinately more complex than we had ori…

There's a lot of misinformation campaigns from the "anti-GMO" companies and crowd who get in the way of an "Elon vision" for the industry. Most anti-GMOers don't even realize that transgenics occur in nature, while making their signs that foreign DNA is food = frankenfood.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#117

Post by rojobuffalo »

drakonandor wrote: post #115
awongh wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this. The thing is that we've designed these systems (of governance, regulation and technology) that appears to have solved the problems of food, but we really haven't- bee population loss, inefficient subsidies, free-trade and over-protectionist trade, soil degradation, pollution, food contaminations, hunger, etc., etc. are still big problems. The thing is that the system is inordinately more complex than we had ori…

There's a lot of misinformation campaigns from the "anti-GMO" companies and crowd who get in the way of an "Elon vision" for the industry. Most anti-GMOers don't even realize that transgenics occur in nature, while making their signs that foreign DNA is food = frankenfood.

GMO is not inherently bad, but the goals of most companies working on GMO seeds are profit over all else. This means they select for compatibility with pesticides, fertilizers, and monocrop annual planting. Perennial wheat, for example, could be an incredible ecological success for GMO. But it wouldn't have the built-in annual demand for seeds. The concern over GMO is misplaced--people should be debating the accompanying practices that are pushed by the industrial system. When Bayer buys Mansanto, that should be a huge f*cking red flag.

The big vision for the future doesn't need to be entirely novel. The great cuisines were born out of a conversation with nature. Highly local, distributed, diverse farming systems < 50 hectares with an emphasis on soil health should be the model. We just need to make it easier for people to collaborate on these kinds of projects. Entrepreneurs and farms on this scale are mostly constrained by up-front resource requirements. Once ecological systems mature, they are far more profitable than the factory model.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#118

Post by cfreeman »

zipfle wrote: post #59
acconrad wrote: post #3

I've constantly racked my brain on the Underserved Communities and Social Services: my dad is a Vietnam vet and my mom (while we were growing up) fit that single mother middle-class type...how does technology help them? Part of the problem is they aren't tech savvy the way the HN community is - so what works for our community doesn't exactly work for theirs, or that they even use technology to the extent that we do (…

Make blue apron for food pantries. One summer I volunteered on a kind of food pantry truck; twice a week, we'd load up this box truck with whatever the local supermarkets had donated-- pallets of turnips about to expire, pallets of bread, cucumbers, whatever--and we'd drive to some designated areas, set the food out on tables, and people would line up to collect a share of it. We had to limit based on availability; m…

I love this idea. I think bringing the idea of blue apron to a lower income market would be amazing, especially if it could take advantage of government incentives. One of the hardest things about cooking healthy is doing all the meal planning.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#119

Post by awongh »

rojobuffalo wrote: post #117
drakonandor wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of misinformation campaigns from the "anti-GMO" companies and crowd who get in the way of an "Elon vision" for the industry. Most anti-GMOers don't even realize that transgenics occur in nature, while making their signs that foreign DNA is food = frankenfood.

GMO is not inherently bad, but the goals of most companies working on GMO seeds are profit over all else. This means they select for compatibility with pesticides, fertilizers, and monocrop annual planting. Perennial wheat, for example, could be an incredible ecological success for GMO. But it wouldn't have the built-in annual demand for seeds. The concern over GMO is misplaced--people should be debating the accompan…

I don't think the big vision of production needs to be novel, but I could envision, if not GMO, then genetic analysis / breeding to start re-localizing what kinds of crops are being grown. I think there are plenty of ways you can take old-fashioned seeming systems and practices and modernize them, maybe with more careful data collection to help it along.

I do think that if this system will ever really work on a larger scale then a big vision will be needed to reimagine the kind of distribution system you would need to efficiently bring the product to the customer; Getting rid of the cold chain and reducing the amount of food waste on the way. A lot of the assumed ways people buy and eat food are shifting with gen x/y/z. The supermarket is a dead zone of product placement kickbacks and corn. What comes after that?

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#120

Post by wolfgke »

mdorazio wrote: post #113
bsbechtel wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. In underdeveloped countries however, the number of people working in agriculture is much closer to 90%. The tech clearly exists to improve productivity in these countries, but the problems are (mostly) political and economic. In particular, dumping from the US distorts local commodity prices. This makes investment in new technology impossible for local producers. This is an area where lots of technologically…

Another unmentioned issue: if we brought farming technology rapidly to underdeveloped countries and increased efficiency to western levels, how would these countries handle 80+% of the population being effectively jobless?

At least for the medium-term: birth control.
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