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Requests for Startups Refreshed

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Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#121

Post by bsbechtel »

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?

Increasing efficiency to western levels won't happen overnight. It still takes time for the market to develop, and there would be several cycles of commodity prices collapsing which would squeeze out less efficient participants.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#122

Post by radicaldreamer »

rojobuffalo wrote: post #87
radicaldreamer wrote: post #11

Don't think flavor matters as much as yield -- at least not from the farmer's perspective. Plenty of flavorless vegetables and fruit everywhere, because they're mostly sold by weight, not by flavor or other qualities.

It should be though -- flavor is a signal for nutrition, it almost always signals ecological health in it system of origin, and it makes life more interesting. We already produce 50% more food than gets eaten and huge portions go to livestock. We don't have a yield problem.

Yes, but farmers (especially subsistence farmers) just want to get the most yield they can. That's the only part of the chain they're involved in.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#123

Post by rojobuffalo »

awongh wrote: post #119
rojobuffalo wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 large…

You're spot-on about bringing genetic analysis into breeding and re-localizing. [Steve Jones][1] is an awesome breeder who is doing this in Washington's Skagit Valley.

I see there being a higher participation in local food production. There are already people who want to do it but can't afford the upfront cost. As really good food becomes more available, I think it will drive more interest in growing. It was only 8 generations ago that participation in farming in the U.S. was 90%, and now it's down to 1%.

For the people who don't grow or collaborate directly with growers to get food, I see the responsibility falling to chefs to insist on working with local ingredients. Maybe self-driving cars will also usher in a new system of delivery for getting ingredients from local farms to households.

[1]: http://css.wsu.edu/people/faculty/stephen-s-jones/

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#124

Post by awongh »

rojobuffalo wrote: post #123
awongh wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 large…

You're spot-on about bringing genetic analysis into breeding and re-localizing. [Steve Jones][1] is an awesome breeder who is doing this in Washington's Skagit Valley. I see there being a higher participation in local food production. There are already people who want to do it but can't afford the upfront cost. As really good food becomes more available, I think it will drive more interest in growing. It was only 8 g…

Hm this is interesting. One question would be if any of these approaches is scalable outside a single climate / area- exportable into a repeatable system that will help breed crops given the inputs of a specific local ecosystem.

I hear some good stuff coming out of academic style research but nothing that goes beyond small studies for a given local climate, nothing disruptive/commercial. Maybe it's just unsexy and doesn't have that 100x potential, but it's sometimes hard to understand why monsanto et.al have such a monopoly going.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#125

Post by drakonandor »

awongh wrote: post #124
rojobuffalo wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're spot-on about bringing genetic analysis into breeding and re-localizing. [Steve Jones][1] is an awesome breeder who is doing this in Washington's Skagit Valley. I see there being a higher participation in local food production. There are already people who want to do it but can't afford the upfront cost. As really good food becomes more available, I think it will drive more interest in growing. It was only 8 g…

Hm this is interesting. One question would be if any of these approaches is scalable outside a single climate / area- exportable into a repeatable system that will help breed crops given the inputs of a specific local ecosystem. I hear some good stuff coming out of academic style research but nothing that goes beyond small studies for a given local climate, nothing disruptive/commercial. Maybe it's just unsexy and do…

Why assume that Monsanto etc isn't also capable of using data to figure out what works best?

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#126

Post by acconrad »

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 actually had an idea around that - neighborhood cooking. There is definitely some widow grandmother on my block who would love to make some extra money cooking her awesome meals for her neighbors. And I'd love to pay for that service. Unfortunately state regulations for what is defined as a kitchen and cooking for others has huge health code implications, and never took off.

This, what you're saying, is more of a logistics and resource allocation problem, all needing to be done in real time. Very smart, but would require quite a bit of up-front innovation. I'll ruminate on this idea for sure!

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#127

Post by awongh »

drakonandor wrote: post #125
awongh wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm this is interesting. One question would be if any of these approaches is scalable outside a single climate / area- exportable into a repeatable system that will help breed crops given the inputs of a specific local ecosystem. I hear some good stuff coming out of academic style research but nothing that goes beyond small studies for a given local climate, nothing disruptive/commercial. Maybe it's just unsexy and do…

Why assume that Monsanto etc isn't also capable of using data to figure out what works best?

I'm sure they do, but their mo seems to be vendor lock in / price fixing vs. open ecosystem. Nothing wrong with making a profit, but I feel that plenty of their practices are criminal / actively harmful. One of the powerful things about the Elon narrative is that some of the underlying motivations are humanitarian. Monsanto may claim to be interested in feeding the world but it's clear that they don't really have any real interest in doing this beyond making good PR.

I believe it's totally possible to be profitable in some of the areas monsanto works in and not be so... evil

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#128

Post by drakonandor »

awongh wrote: post #127
drakonandor wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why assume that Monsanto etc isn't also capable of using data to figure out what works best?

I'm sure they do, but their mo seems to be vendor lock in / price fixing vs. open ecosystem. Nothing wrong with making a profit, but I feel that plenty of their practices are criminal / actively harmful. One of the powerful things about the Elon narrative is that some of the underlying motivations are humanitarian. Monsanto may claim to be interested in feeding the world but it's clear that they don't really have any…

Which practices of theirs do you find distasteful?

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#129

Post by the_watcher »

klinskyc wrote: post #8
the_watcher wrote: post #4

I'll be fascinated to see what Mass Media ideas come through YC. It's pretty obviously a problem, but I've honestly got no ideas at all about how to solve it (although, to be fair, there's a non-zero chance that the media has always been a problem of this magnitude, but the internet/echo chamber culture has simply exposed what was lurking all along).

It's not going through YC, but Purple ( https://getpurple.io ) has done a good job, IMO, of having good coverage in a novel way (through facebook messages)

Thanks for the rec, will check it out.

Re: Requests for Startups Refreshed

#130

Post by awongh »

drakonandor wrote: post #128
awongh wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they do, but their mo seems to be vendor lock in / price fixing vs. open ecosystem. Nothing wrong with making a profit, but I feel that plenty of their practices are criminal / actively harmful. One of the powerful things about the Elon narrative is that some of the underlying motivations are humanitarian. Monsanto may claim to be interested in feeding the world but it's clear that they don't really have any…

Which practices of theirs do you find distasteful?

Here's one summary that's rather bland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_legal_cases

And here's one that's more... opinionated: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0101-02.htm

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