Farming has become a very interesting political subject through the last decade. Here in the northern countries, and I guess also the rest of the western world, organic food has become mainstream, even the most profiled low-price stores here i Denmark is now selling a good deal of organic food. But there are some people who are arguing against organic food, saying that it’s not sustainable mainly because of its’ ineffective use of crop land compared to industrial farming using synthetic fertilizers.

But who’s right, the organics or the industrialists? I’ve tried to read a bit about the subject lately, and I’ve reached the conclusion that none of them are. They are really discussing the wrong problem, neither of them are right, and they should start to exchange experiences rather then anything else. The real problem we have is that we are to many people, and either way we know, we cannot see how we will be able to produce enough food for all people in the future without destroying our planet completely… which by the way does not solve the problem at all. So if we where to melt the best from industrial farming and organic farming, how would it look?

As the industrialists say; organic farming would triple the land use. Already is 40% or more of the planet is covered with farm land (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1206-01.htm ), if we triple that, we’re up to 120% land use. Unless we find a way to make potatoes grow on in space, it will probably not be possible to go 100% organic. But there are problems with industrial farming as well, although using land much more effectively, and leaving more land for rainforests and cities, they will eventually run out of some important substances used in synthetic fertilizers. And the use of pesticides is nothing but bad as I can see, although they give some short term advantages because less insects attack crops, they also has a tendency to be bad for humans and getting into water supplies. Less insects also mean less food for birds and other animals eating insects. Pesticides are poisoning the soil, water supplies, and destroying bird life, not exactly what I call sustainable. And there’s where the organics stand strong - taking care of animals, both on the farm, and those around it. A better life for animals means in reality fewer animals on the farm. I heard about a Danish farmer who could not take care of his pigs anymore because he started to study part time… hundreds of pigs died, and in total he owned two thousand pigs! No wonder industrial farmers are unable to treat their animals properly, nobody can take care of 2000 animals alone!

The closest we can get to sustainable farming is as follows:

• Combination of organic and careful use of synthetic fertilizers to ensure that the soil stays healthy and that we do not run out of synthetic fertilizers before we find a new way to produce it. Keep the soil healthy and use it every season as we cannot afford to use much more land for farming.
• No more pesticides unless absolutely needed in third world countries during extremely rough times. (If we quit the use of pesticides totally, it will only lead to famine, but the use must be reduced to an absolute minimum, and only where there is danger of famine).
• Animal welfare is important, we do not want people who abuse animals to produce our food! And as better animal welfare means less animals, it also means less Co2 emissions from the animals themselves, and it means more food to people as less animals eat less. But they do not have to eat completely organic food, only from sustainable farming that is good for their health.
• Meat prices will rise, but that’s OK! We eat too much meat anyway, so it’s really just a good thing, eating animals should be a luxury.

I was also planning to write something about gene modification (GM) as well, but honestly, I do not understand it well enough to have an opinion. At this point GM seems to me as messing with something we don’t understand, and that it is very dangerous, but then again, we may be forced to use GM as it looks capable of solving some well known problems, but I’m really not sure what to mean about GM. Another subject I’m thinking about, is organic cosmetics, is it really smart to use valuable farm land to produce shampoo and moisturisers? Probably not, but I will have to study that one a bit closer before I make up my mind.

I may be wrong about some of the things I bring up, mabye pesticides are really good, and mabye we should all become vegetarians, but the main point is to stop arguing who is right and wrong, and start finding a sustainable way to run all farms!

Some interesting links on the topics:

Food Crisis Feared as Fertile Land Runs Out
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1206-01.htm

Voting with your trolley
Can you really change the world just by buying certain foods?

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8380592

And search for “organic farming”, “Norman Borlaug” and “fertilizers” at wikipedia for even more information.

I came to think about a very important thing that all the free software projects around proves about capitalism, how it should be regulated, and why.

First of all, capitalism; the possibility to create a commercial company that tries to sell a service or a product on the free market, is a tool, not a goal. The overall goal for everything we do, is that we all can live a happy life in a sustainable way. If capitalism and the free market makes us unhappy, then it has no purpose or meaning, it has no value in itself, it’s just a mean in our pursue of the good life. So we really have to think about it; is a totally free market, with no regulations over the companies (I’m not saying that anyone want’s this, it’s just here to prove a point) really a good thing? Probably not. Companies are made up by people, and people made by nature, and nature’s primary goal is to survive, without any system that’s meant to motivate us, without any regulations, we’re no more than complex animals merely trying to survive.

So, what’s my point?

If you take a look at free software projects, like the Linux kernel development, you will see that companies operating on the market while at the same time participating in development of a common operating system that everybody can make money on. And the single most important reason why a company can participate in this common good, is that their investment is protected by the GPL-licence. GPL creates a regulated marketplace that ensures that companies (and individuals) taking part in a free software project is guaranteed that the code they contribute, will not be stolen (it’s still copyrighted, not public domain) , rather, their efforts will be rewarded by other companies that also contribute code.

Again, what’s the point?!

It’s actually really simple, commercial companies has the strength that they find the optimal solution on a problem within the given rules and regulations there is. As long as the rules are not to strict, companies will flourish and grow. GPL ensures that being part of a community and contribute code for common good, is the optimal solution for a company operating in the free, but regulated marked. In other words, capitalism used to create jobs and find solution to problems through the startup and running of companies, while having a framework, licensce like GPL or whatever to motivate and direct the companies to do what you want them to do!

This does not only apply to software development, but also every other development and knowledge production: make some rules that protect companies investments and effort in common goods and just let them do their thing! It’s simply the best way to ensure that companies work towards the goal of happiness for all human kind!

Ever wondered why humanity needs Free Software? Kin Calvin’s Weblog sums it up pretty nicely in his article Why does Humanity needs Free Software ?

And, just for the record; we’re talking about free as in freedom, not as in beer.

Check out a homepage of the slow movement: http://www.slowmovement.com/

In my opinion the growth of the slow movement is the single most important thing that’s happening in the world today. Slow living is a way of life that promotes quality before quantity, that you should take your time to experience the things you do to the full. Slow living, which implicates simple living, also happens to be our best weapon against pollution and global warming.

I’ve been trying to live as slow as I can for about six months or so now, and I have to say that it really makes a difference, life feels much better. Aiming to slow down has made me better at concentration and more patient with my kids. My shopping habits are quickly changing, I no longer get a kick from just buying, but I get great satisfaction out buying things I really need and to find sustainabale products friendly to the environment. Sex has also improved!

Slow living has the tendency to be frightening to busy people who are ambitious about their career etc. I can promise you though that there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of, slow living will probably not kill your career, but it has the power to make you love your job!

So once again, please check out http://www.slowmovement.com/ and begin the first day of a new life today!

For a couple of years now, I’ve had the pleasure of knowing about kahvi.org and somafm.com. Kahvi is a place where several musicians are giving away a lot of music. The music is typically ambient style or other types of calming electronica. Most of the music can be downloaded in both mp3 and ogg-format! SomaFM on the other hand is an online radio, delivering amongst other channels the Groove Salad, which is a mix of chill-out, ambient and other high quality electronica.

Check it out today and enjoy!

I did it again!

Once again I’ve managed to end up in a situation where I have much more to do than I can handle, and it’s all my own fault. Although I’ve never been as aware of stress and the negative effects it has on my life, I still think it’s very difficult to actually “sign up for” less work. I always end up having a lot of things in my backlog that just has to be done because I’ve promised that I will do them.

I really hope I will learn this sometime, because stress makes me unhappy, and I always get a virus like a cold or something when I’m stressed.

I’m working on documenting my personal philosophy. It’s a lot of work actually, and it’s not always easy to present what I’m thinking. However, one of the basics for my philosophy is that everything and everybody is connected in one or more ways. We are depending on each other, and this gives us both some responsibilities and increased personal freedom.

I hope I will have the time to write a lot about my philosophy, I really believe I have something important to tell the world, and that the philosophy I’m developing answers a lot of questions we all have.

Everything is connected, everything depends on everything else, understanding to it’s core, is critical if we (all humans) want to live happy and meaningful lives!

I guess I’ve started ten blogs in the last couple of years, but I have never really found a good way to update my blogs. This blog will be a collection of all that I’ve tried to do with my other blogs in one blog. I will write about the environment, free software, family life or whatever else I want to tell to the world.

I have tried some other services to run my blog, but WordPress is definately the best system in my opinion, and the fact that it is fully open sourced made the choice easy.