I've been to a village in Bangladesh where people farm their own food and live close to nature. They think that people who live in the city are completely crazy for giving up the good life. I was there for two weeks. Life really is good. Only great thing about technology is pharmaceuticals/surgery. Let's not forget tech's toll on spiritual development. Look at all the TEDsters slapping their hands together and bowing in Hindu style, many already know this
We really have not grown out of the slavery mentality. After slaves, it's illegal immigrants. It's inhumane slaughterhouses. It's runoff. It's coal power emissions. It's an oil spill. It's poor, pesticide rich food. It's increased cost of living. All of these things are examples of us exploiting the weak or the unknowing. It may not be a black man toiling in the fields. but if you look hard, the resemblance is uncanny and unmistakable. The conclusion is that slavery exists all around us.
Gameboob: There is one ethical alternative that I failed to mention. That's... meat/diary grown from replicating cell cultures on an industrial scale. This is already done, but it's like jello and doesn't taste that great (labs do it). This would only require tissue samples from live animals and from there it could be grown artifically without the need to harm any animals or pollute rivers with waste or deplete topsoil. With public acceptance it could grow to meet the needs of the world.
This might be an appealing idea if I held any interest in the human race. I think reducing the population to the point that we can reasonably feed everyone is much more beneficial over all. Not that we should actively reduce the population, but it's pretty clear there are far too many of us if we need to rely on wonderbread the world over.
The first TEDtalk that I've seen which was more appalling than inspiring.
Nevermind that she makes no mention of how to quickly replace the 2000 years of topsoil that a single year of annual monocrop agriculture destroys, or that humans are not equipped to digest gluten et al...
Her whole ideology is flawed in my perspective, because it is attempting to use the same tools, namely large scale farming, which created the problems, to solve the problems. It's like borrowing your way out of debt.
and on top of all this the large scale companies wont aloow her to do w/e she thinks she doing cause there gonna lose profits ! u idiots still dont understand that nothing NOTHING nowadays is done out of any other reason but to profit from it LMAO
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
dude when these people start sending bread to Africa then i will agree with you until then everything that shes got to say is bullshit and in this modern world most likely involves some sort of profit for her not the hungry people ? did she feed those 10000 kids that are going to die today from hunger ?? I dont think so .... brainwashed american dummies
white bread doesnt taste bad. it just has a social stigma attatched to it by the kind of white people who frequent farmers markets and eat organic pomegranites
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
"bread & food have become plentyful & affordable for all"......... this woman is lost in her little world and doesnt want to look outside of it ,i feel sorry for her...
I still propose my original idea of using nuclear weapons to solve our food shortage, our nuclear proliferation problem, global warming, and population.
The biggest obstacle to African food security is probably the political instability left over from the 19th century colonial era and the 20th century Cold War.
Most of that arose from the way Africa's ethnic groups were pitted against each other by European powers in the 19th century. Those divisions were further magnified during the Cold War.
If you're really interested in learning all the details, there is a wealth of research available on the root causes of Africa's present troubles.
I dissagree that the african tribal rivalries are a product of the colonialism or the cold war. They have only bacame more savage because the europeans introduced modern weapons and religion ideologis to the continent.
Witalian1, you disagree with something I never said. Europeans did not create tribal conflict, but colonial powers DID intensify those rivalries wherever possible, because divided people are easier for outsiders to rule.
Modern weapons and religious conflicts surely made the violence more severe. We agree on that. The same savagery arose within Europe when modern weaponry became available there, and it took centuries to stabilize.
Africa is at an earlier step in the same stabilizing process.
Lol Nicely said. People are getting really lazy and they don't or pretend to not see what's in front of them.Everybody thinks that more important and powerful figures will do the taking care, but it's our world, we need to act
I agree and disagree. Feeding the world, being aware of our impact on the environment and on social issues are important. We need to find a balance that works for all. The environment has limits to it's sustainability; at some point, our population will reach a level that even the most intelligent farming won't be able to feed. And when our petro-inputs run dry or become too expensive to use? What then? As she said, we must become more knowledgeable of our food
LunaGer, you raise valid issues but there is a point to clarify. You seem to work from outdated predictions about population.
Decades ago it seemed human population growth would keep accelerating until it crashed into the limits of our planet's ability to support us. This is no longer the case. Projections now indicate global population will become stable at around 9 or 10 billion.
Feeding that many is still a great challenge, but not the impossible challenge we once thought we would face.
All we really need to do is stop feeding all of our grains to cattle. Most of our food is fed to animals that we breed for milk and meat. Those animals also consume vast amounts of water and land. We feed more animals than humans. The waste from these animals farms is just as bad. We're running out of topsoil. We have to make wise choices. We've got to reduce our intake of meat and dairy, and find a way to supplement our diet with b12 and other nutrients that we've historically got from animals.
I quite agree with you but I haven't seen any good propositions for how to sway public opinion in this direction. Public opinion is, unfortunately, not only fickle but almost always ill informed. The blind shift to biofuels and organic production are a case in point. Both of these have advantages, but also tremendous disadvantages.
@Gameboob It's a fact. When you talk about feeding as many people as the slaughterhouse industry is feeding, it's virtually impossible to do it any other way then the way they're doing it now. If you want to have a respectable industry that is humane towards animals then either the price must go up dramatically or people will have to refrain from eating as much diary and meat as they're now. There's no other way, sir. I'm sorry. No ethical way, but since when were we ethical?
@johan28 Yea, it's a fact that we're using grains on feedlot animals and they need lots of water and antibiotics and their manure needs to be disposed of. But the solution isn't to stop consuming meat or dairy. We need to stop producing meat through factory farm methods. I'm not bothered by reducing the population of humans, or the increased cost of eating healthy foods. Plus this way is substantially more ethical, small farms are far more humane towards their animals.
hahaha. Your funny. your associating Ego with a movement of awareness? Last time I checked ego was a human characteristic not a symptom of Cults. Maybe you can explain what you feel is wrong or flawed about the actual Resource Based Economy Design?
hahaha. Your funny. your associating Ego with a movement of awareness? Last time I checked ego was a human characteristic not a symptom of Cults. Maybe you can explain what you feel is wrong or flawed about the actual Resource Based Economy Design?
Mass Agriculture is not the solution. Small scale production can actually be MORE fruitful. Mechanization- but not chemicalization, not genetic modifications.
she emphasied regional agriculture which i agree with: religating agriculatural responsibilities to farmers while taking into consideration the multi-use purposes of the land.
Small scale agriculture cannot meet energy and food demands. There are not enough people willing to work the fields. Not every location has acess to aerable land.
o Israel has killed Americans (eg. Sailors on USS Liberty, Rachel Corrie, etc...)
o Israel spies on this country (eg. Pollard, Kadish, AIPAC, etc...)
o Israel bought our politicians with our taxes.
o Israel steals our taxes, hence their higher income.
o Israel uses our country as their toilet.
Want more? Checkout my playlist.
Please share this post with others, and demand that your Senator and/or Representative uphold the laws when it comes to Israel's heinous crimes. Peace!
vexed? you know so much about me. i don't leave a paragraph for a comment usually because it's asking for a never ending message war. thats my comment. read a book and educate yours.
Well, DauthiPsycho, you don't seem to know what the word "vexed" actually means. My apologies if you thought I meant it as some form of insult. That was not my intent.
I also regret to inform you that you haven't really communicated anything here. I wish you better luck in your future endeavors.
i didn't take your comment as an insult. yes i know the definition of vexed and i don't plan on being elaborate with you. the comment section of this video isn't going to be filled with my views with the intention to satisfy you. my first comment was my opinion. it doesn't need a paragraph to support it. if i, or you, wanted to communicate wouldn't it be more logical to trade personal messages? im done.
DauthiPsycho, I'm not asking you to satisfy me. You chose to post your first comment, presumably to communicate something to other viewers.
I'm simply informing you of the fact that whatever opinion you wanted to express, it was not made clear in your first comment.
You might agree with the speaker in the video. You might disagree. Either way, it's not clear which of her ideas you are talking about, or why you felt it was important enough to be worth the effort of posting a comment.
Oh, I fully read your last comment, DauthiPsycho, including its mistaken idea about my goal.
When I see someone driving at night with their headlights off, I try to tell them. NOT because I want their lights to be on, but because THEY probably want their lights to be on. Most drivers want their headlights on at night, but sometimes forget to turn them on.
Here, most commenters want their comments to say something. Your comment didn't say anything. I thought you might want to know that.
Ecstatica23, What I hear in her presentation is completely the opposite from what you seem to think she is saying.
All of us who live in this world need to feed ourselves, and we do this more effectively when we work together. That seems to be the main point she is making, and I see no basis for disagreeing with this central principle.
It is not clear what you advocate. A return to subsistence farming? A return to a hunter-gatherer society? Would you be willing to clarify what you mean?
ok here's her first fallacy... she thinks, like many other people, that we need to feed the world. HA!
So lets see, we create a society that puts food under lock and key, neglect to teach people about our food and how to grow it, and deny people the ability to do so (indirectly) and you have what we have today, people depending on others to feed them... anyone notice where we went wrong? this lady is full of it. IMO!
Global population growth is already slowing. We can take realistic steps to stabilize it sooner. For example, increase economic and educational opportunity for women. They will have children later in life, and have fewer children per family. This is proven to work.
For all the problems of intensive agriculture, poor and starving people inflict far worse damage. Rapid advancement to prevent famine is key to protecting the natural environment.
Interesting, and I agree that if we do go that route, we need to be smart and scientific about it. Hydroponic towers in cities might be a good solution, and would prevent undeveloped land from being converted to farms.
Unfortunately, I don't see her solution working until there is a global body that oversees land use--and in that case, it would have to take power away from third world warlords, and regulate corporations. I fear there is not enough good will to bring her solution to fruition.
Nobody is forcing you to watch this if you find it boring. Many of us are keenly interested in such topics, and glad they are available here. I hope you have better luck finding what you prefer in the future.
Gosh a bunch of puppycock. Fresh bakers bread is just tastier then the industrial produces tripe. Pre sliced industry bread is tasteless dry terrible stuff.
Did you have something to say, mrkvamaster? You seem to think it was important enough to be worth the effort of posting a comment here. Sadly, any merit your ideas may have is hidden behind the foulness of the words you have chosen to express them.
Virtually the whole of the world's population growth occurs amongst the world's poorest people. While virtually all of the world's wealthy societies have a shrinking population (mitigated by immigration). The key to stopping population growth is to get the world's poor, much more wealthy. One of the keys to that strategy is giving them the opportunity to compete for jobs in the world market. Another crucial ingredient is making food affordable enough.
Subsidizing farmers in wealthy countries is simply a trade barrier to foreign competition as well as an impediment to efficiency and innovation. And that efficiency and innovation is what this talk was all about. Let us give the incentive to farmers to make those investments by eliminating the subsidies. It will make food more expensive for the wealthy (the people living in wealthy countries), but taxes could also be reduced proportionately (increase the minimum deduction).
Removing the trade barriers of farmer subsidies would allow the poor of the world to more effectively compete, increasing their standard of living. The increased competition and greater incentives for innovation and investment would ultimately reduce the cost of food, making food that much more affordable for all, wealthy and impoverished alike.
The solution IS simple, and made complex only when governments meddle to reduce the quantity and quality of the free market and with their regulations 'make' things more complex. The ability to feed one's kids, to educate them, to house,clothe and get them medical care, all that IS wealth. And nothing creates wealth more efficiently than capitalism. Governments do not create wealth, they consume it. Wealth is only created by people making profit, meaning they produce more than they consume.
It is also dangerous to over extend the metaphors of philosophy into the realities of the world. Some things ARE necessary to the survival of the planet, and getting the poor wealthy enough to afford a clean environment and a healthy future are among them. And there is only so much that can be said in a 500 character box. Were I able to write tomes, I could go on at length as to how sales taxes are better than income taxes, how health insurance is best provided by government, etc. etc..
lol don't ask him to *actually* back up his point with arguments. No, he just wants to look like his pathetic rationalization for his de facto dissent is somehow plausible.
Keep dreaming but there simlpy wont be room to give everyone a garden. Genetically modified food kinda scares me though, watch documentaries about a company called Monsanto.
this "industrial farming, and large-scale production" is not productive...its ...dun dun dun. Oppressive! The solution to feeding the whole world, is everyone having their own garden. Provide charities to set up small loans for farming education and tools.
I don't remember who gave it, but this brings to mind a TEDtalk about integrating agriculture into our buildings. He actually provided methods it could be accomplished by and is a lot more concrete than this talk, although it would still be very cool for all this to take place.
I don't understand her. She talks about the importance of science but doesn't back up any of her bold claims (industrial scale farming is the only way to feed the world) with facts. in fact, she counters her argument several times such as when she discusses at the end how we are in a unique period of time where we, in the US, have more than enough food. No offense to those who liked her speech but I thought this was one of the more disappointing TED talks I've seen.
Very silly indeed. The simplest way to feed people is to give them enough land to have a big garden. The sun, rain, and soil do the rest. Quit spending so much time and effort centralizing everything, and having to distribute it. THINK LOCALLY.
And what happens when most of your country is a desert? Not everyone has the capacity for big gardens. This woman did a great job of shooting down the localization theory...we aren't in the 19th century any more. We have more people, new problems, etc.
"The simplest way to feed people is to give them enough land to have a big garden."
That may work for people in California (me included) but, it won't work for people living in Wisconsin or New York. The former has winters that are too severe & the latter has no space.
What you are talking about is a return to subsistence farming.
Our nuclear arms proliferation problem and our population problem. We may even solve a 3rd problem and reverse global warming with nuclear winter. And who knows what tasty veggies may come around through the irradiated soil we'll be creating.
It'd be like killing 2 birds with one stone. Except we're using nukes.
It's good for people to know where their food is coming from, but we're looking at this from the wrong perspective. Without mass food production (include modification and fabrication), the earth could NOT support a population of more than 1 billion. Instead, we should be looking at ways of minimizing the population, the underlying issue that no one talks about. Most other issues we face are related to this.
You're making the same point she is. We cannot hope to feed the current and projected population without high yield agriculture.
Current trends indicate global population could stabilize somewhere around 9 or 10 billion by 2050. Feeding that many humans is a tough challenge, but not the impossible challenge we once thought we faced, back when the trend looked like it was going nowhere but up.
Helping the population stabilize at the projected levels may be the best hope we have right now.
White bread produced by the industry according to Dan Winter as he said: " the poison monoculture wheat, corn, and soy is like a mucous making - poison bullet to the immune system- the DNA says DEAD RADIO INSIDE!!!
And still the corporate make profit out of it as long as the borg go to bed with full stomach.
A very round about way of saying that modern agriculture isn't quite the industrial monster we thought, it can be used for good.
But Wonder bread still tastes like crap, and she hands out the hand-made loaf. We don't like home-made bread better because of its history, it's just over all better.
she wants cities to became sustentable systems in order to make less big the making- consuming cycle that gets corrupt in the middle but at the same time keep the social order intact...mmmh.....
"population rises geometrically, food production arithmetically. so famine is inevitable."
That's not true. Crop yields grow geometrically as well as technology advances. Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Prize winning agriculturalist, has been credited with saving a billion lives from starvation through his innovations in creating hardier wheat varieties. Penn and Teller have a video here on YT about him.
"Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Prize winning agriculturalist, has been credited with saving a billion lives from starvation through his innovations in creating hardier wheat varieties."
I LOVE Borlaug. He is my hero. But, his techniques have created unintended consequences such a the polution from chemical fertlizers and pesticides, plus his wheat varieties require much more water than their predessors & many regions that are planted with them are experiencing dropping water tables & salinization.
14:51 ...The rural areas to house the chronically sick? I wonder why they are chronically sick.
15:44....Doing everything by hand is not morally justified?
I wonder why she thinks she can save the world? Or why the world needs saving in the first place? Everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves. Wonder what her agenda is...
Of course we'd bloody keep the tractors and farther develop technology. But support the local resources, not to allow exploitation and pollution of lands by the greedy deeds of unregulated Global Corporations.
What an unfocused, superficial and short- sighted lecture - unusually low standards for TED
Of course we'd bloody keep the tractors and farther develop technology. But support the local resources, not to allow exploitation and pollution of lands by the greedy deeds of unregulated Global Corporations.
What an unfocused, superficial and short- sighted lecture - unusually lo standards for TED
I think she is a post-modern idealist pitching in the wrong place(is an elite american audience in synergy with a 'small market' nostalgia?)She simplifies and then projects West European resentment against Global food chains onto American audience and then comes up with a superficial notion about appreciatin what we have achieved.Phew!Total stump on diversity,poor nutrition and raging obesity,Africa etc on artificial Aid while keeping them from developing local production-that we have achieved.
What a strange presentation.... Do people in Europe REALLY take this food-and-farm idealism so seriously? She talks about food as if it were some kind of fetish, or a holy relic. I have to give her some credit because she's actually rebelling against the most extreme side of it, but... she's handing out bread to the front row exactly like a priest giving holy communion. Bizarre. At least my religious neighbors worship something that they think is greater than bread.
Is this a serious question? Assuming it is, I'll clarify... At least religious people, though their beliefs are untrue, worship something bigger and grander than basic sustenance.
Well, everytime you cross a border, you diet changes; there's lot's of different cuisine's in Europe as opposed to America so it might force us to be more conscious (they use this international image of some foods (baguettes, sausages whatever) to promote that particular food; food that is not accompanied by rural images is NOT SOLD).
I don't think Americans have any romantic images of the old-time farmer plowing the field, perhaps because we are fewer generations removed from it. The attitude she speaks of is peculiarly Western European.
Besides that, she was speaking to an elite audience. Everyone said they liked the "whole bread" because there's a class factor involved. No one with a degree wants to admit that generic white bread tastes better than a crusty, French-looking loaf that you have to cut with a special knife.
"French-looking" -- Most smart people in the US have a massive inferiority complex with regard to everything European, and they are prone to apeing anything that Europeans do. If it looks French or Italian, it's good as gold; if it's stereotypically American, they won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
"Special knife" -- Have you ever tried slicing bread with anything other than a bread knife? It squashes the bread.
Yeah well there's no connection to 'French cooking' in the video you see, it's funny that you would call any kind of European cooking 'French'. But I get your explanation.
But don't you use a bread knife to cut any kind of bread that is not sold precut? Like baguettes, kaisersbrödchen, white buns etc.? I don't think a bread knife is a special knife.
Also, I understand the apeing by Americans, because when we, Europeans, are confronted with any kind of American cooking, we instantly reply with 'Oh God, food is SO much better in Europe' so of course there will be a tendency to strive for something you would call 'European quality' even though in Europe, next to the quality food, there's also a lot of junkfood.
Maybe I've just missed it, but I've never heard a Pole or a Romanian wax poetic about the virtues of land plows. Maybe I just don't hear as much about Eastern Europe.
The concept of "Eastern Europe" that includes geographically Central European catholic countries like Poland, Hungary etc was only made up when the Soviets decided not to leave after WW2. But all this is beside the point, even in traditionally eastern "orthodox" countries, the feudal life of a peasant was more or less the same as everywhere else.
Food is about respect - when you eat, understand that many people are still struggling for their daily food. TO think that doing everything by hand is going to be the the solution is not really morally justified. We need to make people proud to be a farmer. Like I said before, never before has the responsibility of the production of food been left to so few.
-- This has been one of my favorite presentations (and TED videos) of all time. Ms. Fresco is passionate about her vision, and delivers A+
Gardens on buildings are being used more and more over here, it's good insulation and it's great cause you can go to the roof and have a private garden, how AWESOME. But she's a bit freaky yes.
Yes her comment on "fermented grains to heat our homes" is certainly not very smart.
The much more efficient option is to harvest the solar directly.
Don't waste that solar energy on incredibly inefficient photosynthesis.
Liquid fuels (eg: from Fermented biological matter) should only ever be used for situations where an easily transported fuel is most nessesary - ie: as fuel for vehicles.
It shouldn't be used for heating homes. There are much more efficient ways to heat homes.
I am confused about this talk. Does she talk about increasing the efficiency of agriculture in the west or does she talk about efficiency of agriculture in third world countries? Is the point that we help third world countries be becoming better farmers in the west?
This is such sophistry. Firstly, Wonderbread and its ilk is lower in nutrition and fibre, tastes like crap and is full of preservatives. It's not about nostalgia. Secondly, Wonderbread is representative of mercantilism, which forces third world countries into providing low cost cash crops instead of focusing on domestic needs and autarchy. This sounds like a corporate lobby rant. What a load of bollocks.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
I like most of the TED talks. But this woman is a category 4 moron. She's insulting my intelligence.
I disagreed with most of her premises as she presented them. Did anyone else think that she mis characherised and over simplified all of the arguments involved?
I wonder if she knows what a straw dummy is?
She probably should have had someone who knows a little about the subject check her notes. That way she could have avoided embarrassing herself infront of a full audience.
These, people ,with so much thoughtfulness on their faces about topic which would seem boring to most, are the ones who are truly saving our world with their genuine care, curiosity, passion, and... money :).
This may sound elitist, but I truly belive that these people, AS OPPOSED TO THE REST OF THE HIGHER CLASS, with their thoughtfulness and their power of class benefit the world more than any other group of people.
She says that we need to double food output by 2030.
What we really need to do is bring population growth under control. Doubling food output is really just putting air in a tire with a leak in it. Having fewer children fixes the leak.
Now, that being said, it's probably easier to bake more bread than to force people to have fewer children, so we should do all that we can...
But Malthus is starting to look more and more correct.
Do me more correct, we need to bring population under control in small and developing nations. United States has a stable population, Most of Europe is shrinking in population. Russia is catastrophically shrinking. Most industrialized nations are either stable or shrinking.
I've been to a village in Bangladesh where people farm their own food and live close to nature. They think that people who live in the city are completely crazy for giving up the good life. I was there for two weeks. Life really is good. Only great thing about technology is pharmaceuticals/surgery. Let's not forget tech's toll on spiritual development. Look at all the TEDsters slapping their hands together and bowing in Hindu style, many already know this
crudhousefull 1 month ago in playlist More videos from TEDtalksDirector
We don't lack amount of food, we lack coordination.. Watch this:
watch?v=jA1m2aKkqdQ
Antilli 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
At 8:14 look on the left side of the audience, a bit below the middle, and you'll see John Hodgeman lol
friarkhan 6 months ago
We really have not grown out of the slavery mentality. After slaves, it's illegal immigrants. It's inhumane slaughterhouses. It's runoff. It's coal power emissions. It's an oil spill. It's poor, pesticide rich food. It's increased cost of living. All of these things are examples of us exploiting the weak or the unknowing. It may not be a black man toiling in the fields. but if you look hard, the resemblance is uncanny and unmistakable. The conclusion is that slavery exists all around us.
johan28 1 year ago
Gameboob: There is one ethical alternative that I failed to mention. That's... meat/diary grown from replicating cell cultures on an industrial scale. This is already done, but it's like jello and doesn't taste that great (labs do it). This would only require tissue samples from live animals and from there it could be grown artifically without the need to harm any animals or pollute rivers with waste or deplete topsoil. With public acceptance it could grow to meet the needs of the world.
johan28 1 year ago
This might be an appealing idea if I held any interest in the human race. I think reducing the population to the point that we can reasonably feed everyone is much more beneficial over all. Not that we should actively reduce the population, but it's pretty clear there are far too many of us if we need to rely on wonderbread the world over.
StuartIsCheese 1 year ago
@StuartIsCheese
I think your coming from a perspective lacking education.
Simple proof:
youtube:
"watch?v=oCcmKhqRB_w&feature=player_embedded"
"watch?v=KTtmU2lD97o"
Enjoy brother
socratiz 1 year ago
Well the Japanese certainly do not think so.
dinogrower 1 year ago
The first TEDtalk that I've seen which was more appalling than inspiring.
Nevermind that she makes no mention of how to quickly replace the 2000 years of topsoil that a single year of annual monocrop agriculture destroys, or that humans are not equipped to digest gluten et al...
Her whole ideology is flawed in my perspective, because it is attempting to use the same tools, namely large scale farming, which created the problems, to solve the problems. It's like borrowing your way out of debt.
massonchristopher 1 year ago
I wonder which multinational chemical company paid her to do this quirky presentation that could have been given in freshman speech class?
histerics3 1 year ago
Comment removed
88simran 1 year ago
When oil gets stuck above 120 - her whole system and her whole ideology breaks down.
That moment is not too far away.
Her system is oil intensive and unsustainable.
CityzenJane 2 years ago
Research Terra Preta - not enough people even know about it but we need to study and understand it.
CearaQC 2 years ago
At 8:14 look on the left side of the audience, a bit below the middle, and you'll see John Hodgeman lol
friarkhan 2 years ago
Holy shit you're right! I think that's really him. Right next to Kevin Nealon, lol.
imyoda69 2 years ago
Ha! Take that you tofu eating hippies!
cuallito 2 years ago 2
halleluja!
TimothyParadox1 2 years ago
and on top of all this the large scale companies wont aloow her to do w/e she thinks she doing cause there gonna lose profits ! u idiots still dont understand that nothing NOTHING nowadays is done out of any other reason but to profit from it LMAO
TubeYou380 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
dude when these people start sending bread to Africa then i will agree with you until then everything that shes got to say is bullshit and in this modern world most likely involves some sort of profit for her not the hungry people ? did she feed those 10000 kids that are going to die today from hunger ?? I dont think so .... brainwashed american dummies
TubeYou380 2 years ago
white bread doesnt taste bad. it just has a social stigma attatched to it by the kind of white people who frequent farmers markets and eat organic pomegranites
RandomishhOne 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
"bread & food have become plentyful & affordable for all"......... this woman is lost in her little world and doesnt want to look outside of it ,i feel sorry for her...
TubeYou380 2 years ago
You are completly missing the point.
witalian1 2 years ago 5
You have a very small mind if you can't remember more then one sentence
reptilezsweden 2 years ago
@TubeYou380 as she said, eat your bread and feel privilege.
nguyen2 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
jesus has come to give us bread and knowledge.
bobojr456 2 years ago
Kus must leib on! :D
cyberdaemon 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Get Jesus!
SkyBlue222222 2 years ago
I still propose my original idea of using nuclear weapons to solve our food shortage, our nuclear proliferation problem, global warming, and population.
rm06c 2 years ago
Well, it must be admitted, soon after applying your "solution" there would not be any humans left to suffer from any of those problems.
kevintype 2 years ago
Exactly. Right on.
massonchristopher 1 year ago
I wonder what are the biggest obstacles preventing Africans from producing food like we do in America?
HairLikeCottonCandy 2 years ago
The biggest obstacle to African food security is probably the political instability left over from the 19th century colonial era and the 20th century Cold War.
Most of that arose from the way Africa's ethnic groups were pitted against each other by European powers in the 19th century. Those divisions were further magnified during the Cold War.
If you're really interested in learning all the details, there is a wealth of research available on the root causes of Africa's present troubles.
kevintype 2 years ago
I dissagree that the african tribal rivalries are a product of the colonialism or the cold war. They have only bacame more savage because the europeans introduced modern weapons and religion ideologis to the continent.
witalian1 2 years ago 2
Witalian1, you disagree with something I never said. Europeans did not create tribal conflict, but colonial powers DID intensify those rivalries wherever possible, because divided people are easier for outsiders to rule.
Modern weapons and religious conflicts surely made the violence more severe. We agree on that. The same savagery arose within Europe when modern weaponry became available there, and it took centuries to stabilize.
Africa is at an earlier step in the same stabilizing process.
kevintype 2 years ago
Lol Nicely said. People are getting really lazy and they don't or pretend to not see what's in front of them.Everybody thinks that more important and powerful figures will do the taking care, but it's our world, we need to act
BboyProcessPro 2 years ago
The world need to be fed with knowledge!
Once the world has the knowledge, it will create the food.
intelliGENeration 2 years ago
I agree and disagree. Feeding the world, being aware of our impact on the environment and on social issues are important. We need to find a balance that works for all. The environment has limits to it's sustainability; at some point, our population will reach a level that even the most intelligent farming won't be able to feed. And when our petro-inputs run dry or become too expensive to use? What then? As she said, we must become more knowledgeable of our food
LunaGer 2 years ago
LunaGer, you raise valid issues but there is a point to clarify. You seem to work from outdated predictions about population.
Decades ago it seemed human population growth would keep accelerating until it crashed into the limits of our planet's ability to support us. This is no longer the case. Projections now indicate global population will become stable at around 9 or 10 billion.
Feeding that many is still a great challenge, but not the impossible challenge we once thought we would face.
kevintype 2 years ago
Permaculture answers these questions.
popeymike 2 years ago
@popeymike as well as hydroponics and aeroponics
oreolvrs 1 year ago
All we really need to do is stop feeding all of our grains to cattle. Most of our food is fed to animals that we breed for milk and meat. Those animals also consume vast amounts of water and land. We feed more animals than humans. The waste from these animals farms is just as bad. We're running out of topsoil. We have to make wise choices. We've got to reduce our intake of meat and dairy, and find a way to supplement our diet with b12 and other nutrients that we've historically got from animals.
gukonni 2 years ago 5
I quite agree with you but I haven't seen any good propositions for how to sway public opinion in this direction. Public opinion is, unfortunately, not only fickle but almost always ill informed. The blind shift to biofuels and organic production are a case in point. Both of these have advantages, but also tremendous disadvantages.
a42579 2 years ago
@gukonni Sounds like you need to read "The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith and then go look up Joel Salatin's farming method.
Gameboob 1 year ago
@Gameboob It's a fact. When you talk about feeding as many people as the slaughterhouse industry is feeding, it's virtually impossible to do it any other way then the way they're doing it now. If you want to have a respectable industry that is humane towards animals then either the price must go up dramatically or people will have to refrain from eating as much diary and meat as they're now. There's no other way, sir. I'm sorry. No ethical way, but since when were we ethical?
johan28 1 year ago
@johan28 Yea, it's a fact that we're using grains on feedlot animals and they need lots of water and antibiotics and their manure needs to be disposed of. But the solution isn't to stop consuming meat or dairy. We need to stop producing meat through factory farm methods. I'm not bothered by reducing the population of humans, or the increased cost of eating healthy foods. Plus this way is substantially more ethical, small farms are far more humane towards their animals.
Gameboob 1 year ago
"La revolucion de las grasas"
xoJSeAxo 2 years ago
If you want to feed the whole world, see:
The Venus Project. com
Jacque Fresco ideology with logical concepts, study it.
resourcebasedeconomY 2 years ago 13
@resourcebasedeconomY The Venus Project and The Zeitgeist Movement is an ego cult and a waste of your time
oreolvrs 1 year ago
@oreolvrs
hahaha. Your funny. your associating Ego with a movement of awareness? Last time I checked ego was a human characteristic not a symptom of Cults. Maybe you can explain what you feel is wrong or flawed about the actual Resource Based Economy Design?
socratiz 1 year ago
@oreolvrs
@oreolvrs
hahaha. Your funny. your associating Ego with a movement of awareness? Last time I checked ego was a human characteristic not a symptom of Cults. Maybe you can explain what you feel is wrong or flawed about the actual Resource Based Economy Design?
Or else, your a waste of our time.
socratiz 1 year ago
I'll stay with my whole wheat / whole grain.
rich0319726 2 years ago
Amazingly well spoken. It's great how her actions carry her points so well, to engage an audience on an ostensibly simple topic.
anodyne8 2 years ago
Mass Agriculture is not the solution. Small scale production can actually be MORE fruitful. Mechanization- but not chemicalization, not genetic modifications.
Meat consumption is killing the planet.
MegOMegOMegO 2 years ago
she emphasied regional agriculture which i agree with: religating agriculatural responsibilities to farmers while taking into consideration the multi-use purposes of the land.
Small scale agriculture cannot meet energy and food demands. There are not enough people willing to work the fields. Not every location has acess to aerable land.
bmed19 2 years ago 2
you nave no idea about the definition of mass agriculture. go hippy somewhere else.
BlueCrystalGem 2 years ago
So lovely to insults and name calling on the comments of such intelligent videos as TED talks. Feel better after your little tizzy BlueCrystalGem?
LunaGer 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
o Israel has killed Americans (eg. Sailors on USS Liberty, Rachel Corrie, etc...)
o Israel spies on this country (eg. Pollard, Kadish, AIPAC, etc...)
o Israel bought our politicians with our taxes.
o Israel steals our taxes, hence their higher income.
o Israel uses our country as their toilet.
Want more? Checkout my playlist.
Please share this post with others, and demand that your Senator and/or Representative uphold the laws when it comes to Israel's heinous crimes. Peace!
HateAllNazis 2 years ago
vexed? you know so much about me. i don't leave a paragraph for a comment usually because it's asking for a never ending message war. thats my comment. read a book and educate yours.
DauthiPsycho 2 years ago
Well, DauthiPsycho, you don't seem to know what the word "vexed" actually means. My apologies if you thought I meant it as some form of insult. That was not my intent.
I also regret to inform you that you haven't really communicated anything here. I wish you better luck in your future endeavors.
kevintype 2 years ago
i didn't take your comment as an insult. yes i know the definition of vexed and i don't plan on being elaborate with you. the comment section of this video isn't going to be filled with my views with the intention to satisfy you. my first comment was my opinion. it doesn't need a paragraph to support it. if i, or you, wanted to communicate wouldn't it be more logical to trade personal messages? im done.
DauthiPsycho 2 years ago
DauthiPsycho, I'm not asking you to satisfy me. You chose to post your first comment, presumably to communicate something to other viewers.
I'm simply informing you of the fact that whatever opinion you wanted to express, it was not made clear in your first comment.
You might agree with the speaker in the video. You might disagree. Either way, it's not clear which of her ideas you are talking about, or why you felt it was important enough to be worth the effort of posting a comment.
kevintype 2 years ago
maybe you didn't fully read my last comment. Im done. draw your own conclusions.
DauthiPsycho 2 years ago
Oh, I fully read your last comment, DauthiPsycho, including its mistaken idea about my goal.
When I see someone driving at night with their headlights off, I try to tell them. NOT because I want their lights to be on, but because THEY probably want their lights to be on. Most drivers want their headlights on at night, but sometimes forget to turn them on.
Here, most commenters want their comments to say something. Your comment didn't say anything. I thought you might want to know that.
kevintype 2 years ago
loss of jobs and nutrition in the name of money.
DauthiPsycho 2 years ago
DauthiPsycho, you seem vexed, but it's not clear exactly why. Are you willing to share your thoughts about this in more detail?
kevintype 2 years ago
Ecstatica23, What I hear in her presentation is completely the opposite from what you seem to think she is saying.
All of us who live in this world need to feed ourselves, and we do this more effectively when we work together. That seems to be the main point she is making, and I see no basis for disagreeing with this central principle.
It is not clear what you advocate. A return to subsistence farming? A return to a hunter-gatherer society? Would you be willing to clarify what you mean?
kevintype 2 years ago
ok here's her first fallacy... she thinks, like many other people, that we need to feed the world. HA!
So lets see, we create a society that puts food under lock and key, neglect to teach people about our food and how to grow it, and deny people the ability to do so (indirectly) and you have what we have today, people depending on others to feed them... anyone notice where we went wrong? this lady is full of it. IMO!
ecstatica23 2 years ago
the only thing I didn't agree with is the biotech...
funnyguise 2 years ago
Well, we can have more intensive agriculture, more of the problems it brings, or we could just stop breeding so darn much...
CathodeRay00 2 years ago
We have more options than that, CathodeRay00.
Global population growth is already slowing. We can take realistic steps to stabilize it sooner. For example, increase economic and educational opportunity for women. They will have children later in life, and have fewer children per family. This is proven to work.
For all the problems of intensive agriculture, poor and starving people inflict far worse damage. Rapid advancement to prevent famine is key to protecting the natural environment.
kevintype 2 years ago
Interesting, and I agree that if we do go that route, we need to be smart and scientific about it. Hydroponic towers in cities might be a good solution, and would prevent undeveloped land from being converted to farms.
Unfortunately, I don't see her solution working until there is a global body that oversees land use--and in that case, it would have to take power away from third world warlords, and regulate corporations. I fear there is not enough good will to bring her solution to fruition.
CathodeRay00 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
this is boring
clowns1564 2 years ago
like whitebread? lol... I think she made some great points...
LCServiceCorps 2 years ago
Nobody is forcing you to watch this if you find it boring. Many of us are keenly interested in such topics, and glad they are available here. I hope you have better luck finding what you prefer in the future.
kevintype 2 years ago 3
This has been flagged as spam show
here something you may enjoy:
disney(dot)com
hydrademian 2 years ago
Gosh a bunch of puppycock. Fresh bakers bread is just tastier then the industrial produces tripe. Pre sliced industry bread is tasteless dry terrible stuff.
retepvosnul 2 years ago
The needy need kneading.
watzupdawg 2 years ago
This is the first time a talk has ended with handing out bread...fantastique.
Mrmoc7 2 years ago
we dont eat wonderbread because we dont want fat asses....thats all.
macwild1234 2 years ago
Meh.
thedailyenglishshow 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
paste this to 2 other videos
go to your channel and see your comments
JUST DO IT IT SCARY
zink220 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Because it's HEALTHIER, not because it's MORE TRUE, stupid bitch
mrkvamaster 2 years ago
Did you have something to say, mrkvamaster? You seem to think it was important enough to be worth the effort of posting a comment here. Sadly, any merit your ideas may have is hidden behind the foulness of the words you have chosen to express them.
kevintype 2 years ago
it seems like she has little idea what shes talking about
D00dle15 2 years ago
Virtually the whole of the world's population growth occurs amongst the world's poorest people. While virtually all of the world's wealthy societies have a shrinking population (mitigated by immigration). The key to stopping population growth is to get the world's poor, much more wealthy. One of the keys to that strategy is giving them the opportunity to compete for jobs in the world market. Another crucial ingredient is making food affordable enough.
Panpiper 2 years ago
Subsidizing farmers in wealthy countries is simply a trade barrier to foreign competition as well as an impediment to efficiency and innovation. And that efficiency and innovation is what this talk was all about. Let us give the incentive to farmers to make those investments by eliminating the subsidies. It will make food more expensive for the wealthy (the people living in wealthy countries), but taxes could also be reduced proportionately (increase the minimum deduction).
Panpiper 2 years ago
Removing the trade barriers of farmer subsidies would allow the poor of the world to more effectively compete, increasing their standard of living. The increased competition and greater incentives for innovation and investment would ultimately reduce the cost of food, making food that much more affordable for all, wealthy and impoverished alike.
Panpiper 2 years ago
So in other words, your entire thesis is: "Wanna solve world hunger? need more capitalism!!!"
Wow. Talk about simplistic when you attribute one solution to EVERYTHING.
NwZ2 2 years ago
The solution IS simple, and made complex only when governments meddle to reduce the quantity and quality of the free market and with their regulations 'make' things more complex. The ability to feed one's kids, to educate them, to house,clothe and get them medical care, all that IS wealth. And nothing creates wealth more efficiently than capitalism. Governments do not create wealth, they consume it. Wealth is only created by people making profit, meaning they produce more than they consume.
Panpiper 2 years ago
Like I said man, essentialism and reductionism are bad ideologies.
NwZ2 2 years ago
It is also dangerous to over extend the metaphors of philosophy into the realities of the world. Some things ARE necessary to the survival of the planet, and getting the poor wealthy enough to afford a clean environment and a healthy future are among them. And there is only so much that can be said in a 500 character box. Were I able to write tomes, I could go on at length as to how sales taxes are better than income taxes, how health insurance is best provided by government, etc. etc..
Panpiper 2 years ago
Her analysis seems to have a lot of holes. Local food production is gone? How about a balanced approach?
chucklyfun 2 years ago
Louise your video is dull and way too contradictory .Yawn
cannoir 2 years ago
where was the contradiction?
redpandacheese 2 years ago
lol don't ask him to *actually* back up his point with arguments. No, he just wants to look like his pathetic rationalization for his de facto dissent is somehow plausible.
NwZ2 2 years ago
Keep dreaming but there simlpy wont be room to give everyone a garden. Genetically modified food kinda scares me though, watch documentaries about a company called Monsanto.
humanoidfloyd 2 years ago
I usually like the TED Speakers, but this lady tripped a lot of alarms for me, still some of these ideas are good...
dzhaphaarI 2 years ago
It seems she's saying genetically modified food is good because it feeds the world, and is condoning corporatism.
I, for one disagree with what she has to say.
7DavidKim 2 years ago
this "industrial farming, and large-scale production" is not productive...its ...dun dun dun. Oppressive! The solution to feeding the whole world, is everyone having their own garden. Provide charities to set up small loans for farming education and tools.
goten1201 2 years ago
She didn't say anything positive about genetically modified food. You are only imagining that she did.
By disagreeing with an imaginary point, you are merely disagreeing with your own imagination.
Listen again to what she actually did say, and then you might be able to come back here with a response worth reading.
kevintype 2 years ago
I don't remember who gave it, but this brings to mind a TEDtalk about integrating agriculture into our buildings. He actually provided methods it could be accomplished by and is a lot more concrete than this talk, although it would still be very cool for all this to take place.
rangusroung 2 years ago
I don't understand her. She talks about the importance of science but doesn't back up any of her bold claims (industrial scale farming is the only way to feed the world) with facts. in fact, she counters her argument several times such as when she discusses at the end how we are in a unique period of time where we, in the US, have more than enough food. No offense to those who liked her speech but I thought this was one of the more disappointing TED talks I've seen.
bigchewypretzels 2 years ago
whoa good speech but the problem its deforestation and the soil that suffers from excessive agricultural, we need people who cares about what we eat.
tenisplayer 2 years ago
that was a beautiful ending
cthulhex 2 years ago
Very good presentation.
whymustwe712 2 years ago
You get a mouthful... of bread... Kryptonite!
Brandtalones 2 years ago
Very silly indeed. The simplest way to feed people is to give them enough land to have a big garden. The sun, rain, and soil do the rest. Quit spending so much time and effort centralizing everything, and having to distribute it. THINK LOCALLY.
kv3g 2 years ago
And what happens when most of your country is a desert? Not everyone has the capacity for big gardens. This woman did a great job of shooting down the localization theory...we aren't in the 19th century any more. We have more people, new problems, etc.
andid 2 years ago
"The simplest way to feed people is to give them enough land to have a big garden."
That may work for people in California (me included) but, it won't work for people living in Wisconsin or New York. The former has winters that are too severe & the latter has no space.
What you are talking about is a return to subsistence farming.
MisterGibs 2 years ago
"The simplest way to feed people is to give them enough land to have a big garden. The sun, rain, and soil do the rest."
Quite obviously someone who has never had to support himself through farming.
It's a lot of work just to have anything sizeable, let alone gross enough in food production to replace buying at a supermarket.
kDest 2 years ago 3
What is an Emu doing in Brazil?!
You are lost Emu
roidroid 2 years ago
gogo paleo! :P
nvcn86 2 years ago
This is not a problem once you eliminate the World Bank and the IMF.
ytgetter8758 2 years ago 2
This comment has received too many negative votes show
We should put to use all those nukes we got lying around and stabilize the population. Preferably on poor countries.
That'll take care of the population issue.
rm06c 2 years ago
Of course, rmo6c, you already know any such use of nuclear weapons would be the ultimate example of stupidity.
You aren't seriously proposing this course of action.
I don't know what you think you're accomplishing, really, but I'm not going to play along and pretend your "idea" deserves serious discussion.
kevintype 2 years ago
By using nukes we would solve 2 problems:
Our nuclear arms proliferation problem and our population problem. We may even solve a 3rd problem and reverse global warming with nuclear winter. And who knows what tasty veggies may come around through the irradiated soil we'll be creating.
It'd be like killing 2 birds with one stone. Except we're using nukes.
rm06c 2 years ago
Your claims are unworthy of discussion, rm06c. I will waste no more time on them.
kevintype 2 years ago
It is satire.
The point is you can't solve a problem doing more of what created the problem.
massonchristopher 1 year ago
what the hell?
MihaZ 2 years ago
It's good for people to know where their food is coming from, but we're looking at this from the wrong perspective. Without mass food production (include modification and fabrication), the earth could NOT support a population of more than 1 billion. Instead, we should be looking at ways of minimizing the population, the underlying issue that no one talks about. Most other issues we face are related to this.
kambi47 2 years ago 3
You're making the same point she is. We cannot hope to feed the current and projected population without high yield agriculture.
Current trends indicate global population could stabilize somewhere around 9 or 10 billion by 2050. Feeding that many humans is a tough challenge, but not the impossible challenge we once thought we faced, back when the trend looked like it was going nowhere but up.
Helping the population stabilize at the projected levels may be the best hope we have right now.
kevintype 2 years ago 4
We should start spreading dead people and people's crap all over those farms! Recycling is so popular these days, so why not?!
Then we'll never run out of food! ;P
(I'm not being serious about this..)
fuunguus 2 years ago
george carlin is right, gathering all the dead people into one part of town and burying them under rocks IS a silly idea.
325982668 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
I bet she has never seen in real life what is poverty?
seyoumeye 2 years ago
Did you not watch the video? She said she had lived and worked with farmers in Africa. Yeah, theyre real big ballers...
MarkuswithanM 2 years ago
she grew up in Africa actually and worked there for a while...google her and see for yourself
guidauz 2 years ago 2
White bread produced by the industry according to Dan Winter as he said: " the poison monoculture wheat, corn, and soy is like a mucous making - poison bullet to the immune system- the DNA says DEAD RADIO INSIDE!!!
And still the corporate make profit out of it as long as the borg go to bed with full stomach.
seyoumeye 2 years ago
A very round about way of saying that modern agriculture isn't quite the industrial monster we thought, it can be used for good.
But Wonder bread still tastes like crap, and she hands out the hand-made loaf. We don't like home-made bread better because of its history, it's just over all better.
theseanze 2 years ago
she wants cities to became sustentable systems in order to make less big the making- consuming cycle that gets corrupt in the middle but at the same time keep the social order intact...mmmh.....
Chavalierdeon 2 years ago
isnt it just malthus here. population rises geometrically, food production arithmetically. so famine is inevitable.
i think even if you manage to double the output of food, population will just rise accordingly
xinlo 2 years ago
"population rises geometrically, food production arithmetically. so famine is inevitable."
That's not true. Crop yields grow geometrically as well as technology advances. Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Prize winning agriculturalist, has been credited with saving a billion lives from starvation through his innovations in creating hardier wheat varieties. Penn and Teller have a video here on YT about him.
nine9s 2 years ago 2
oh no way, i had no idea. i guess things have changed since malthus
xinlo 2 years ago
"Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Prize winning agriculturalist, has been credited with saving a billion lives from starvation through his innovations in creating hardier wheat varieties."
I LOVE Borlaug. He is my hero. But, his techniques have created unintended consequences such a the polution from chemical fertlizers and pesticides, plus his wheat varieties require much more water than their predessors & many regions that are planted with them are experiencing dropping water tables & salinization.
MisterGibs 2 years ago
Yeah, I think Gandhi pwned everybody for all time with that last quote. X-)
geodesicks 2 years ago 2
This comment has received too many negative votes show
13:18...Robots "who" can recognise weeds....wth?
14:51 ...The rural areas to house the chronically sick? I wonder why they are chronically sick.
15:44....Doing everything by hand is not morally justified?
I wonder why she thinks she can save the world? Or why the world needs saving in the first place? Everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves. Wonder what her agenda is...
NyRamsey 2 years ago
her agenda seems to be that she'd like to the world to be better, she'd like more people to have more plentiful food.
it seems like a pretty normal agenda, isn't this everyone's agenda? isn't it your agenda too?
roidroid 2 years ago 4
This has been flagged as spam show
Of course we'd bloody keep the tractors and farther develop technology. But support the local resources, not to allow exploitation and pollution of lands by the greedy deeds of unregulated Global Corporations.
What an unfocused, superficial and short- sighted lecture - unusually low standards for TED
virtual3Spirit 2 years ago 2
Of course we'd bloody keep the tractors and farther develop technology. But support the local resources, not to allow exploitation and pollution of lands by the greedy deeds of unregulated Global Corporations.
What an unfocused, superficial and short- sighted lecture - unusually lo standards for TED
virtual3Spirit 2 years ago
I don't know about this Fresco but I do know about Jaques Fresco. Go venus project. Make it happen.
boundarydweller 2 years ago
I think she is a post-modern idealist pitching in the wrong place(is an elite american audience in synergy with a 'small market' nostalgia?)She simplifies and then projects West European resentment against Global food chains onto American audience and then comes up with a superficial notion about appreciatin what we have achieved.Phew!Total stump on diversity,poor nutrition and raging obesity,Africa etc on artificial Aid while keeping them from developing local production-that we have achieved.
virtual3Spirit 2 years ago
What a strange presentation.... Do people in Europe REALLY take this food-and-farm idealism so seriously? She talks about food as if it were some kind of fetish, or a holy relic. I have to give her some credit because she's actually rebelling against the most extreme side of it, but... she's handing out bread to the front row exactly like a priest giving holy communion. Bizarre. At least my religious neighbors worship something that they think is greater than bread.
nine9s 2 years ago
like what? hot dogs?
Patrick1Bateman 2 years ago 2
"like what? hot dogs?"
Is this a serious question? Assuming it is, I'll clarify... At least religious people, though their beliefs are untrue, worship something bigger and grander than basic sustenance.
nine9s 2 years ago
Well, everytime you cross a border, you diet changes; there's lot's of different cuisine's in Europe as opposed to America so it might force us to be more conscious (they use this international image of some foods (baguettes, sausages whatever) to promote that particular food; food that is not accompanied by rural images is NOT SOLD).
(In the end, she get's weird)
Waranoa 2 years ago
She isn't encouraging people to worship bread.
More, a devise, a prop, to help highlight our attitude - as we forget how fortunate we are to have a chain of food distribution - mindful awareness.
beardfreak1969 2 years ago
"She isn't encouraging people to worship bread. More, a devise, a prop, to help highlight our attitude - as we forget how fortunate we are"
Which is exactly what communion is for: "Take this bread and by it remember me."
nine9s 2 years ago
I think you are projecting onto the situation what you want to see.
At other food related seminars a speaker may well hand out 'cookies' or 'wine' etc.
beardfreak1969 2 years ago 2
I don't think Americans have any romantic images of the old-time farmer plowing the field, perhaps because we are fewer generations removed from it. The attitude she speaks of is peculiarly Western European.
Besides that, she was speaking to an elite audience. Everyone said they liked the "whole bread" because there's a class factor involved. No one with a degree wants to admit that generic white bread tastes better than a crusty, French-looking loaf that you have to cut with a special knife.
nine9s 2 years ago
French looking! Special knife! LOL!
Waranoa 2 years ago 2
"French looking! Special knife! LOL!"
"French-looking" -- Most smart people in the US have a massive inferiority complex with regard to everything European, and they are prone to apeing anything that Europeans do. If it looks French or Italian, it's good as gold; if it's stereotypically American, they won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
"Special knife" -- Have you ever tried slicing bread with anything other than a bread knife? It squashes the bread.
nine9s 2 years ago
Yeah well there's no connection to 'French cooking' in the video you see, it's funny that you would call any kind of European cooking 'French'. But I get your explanation.
But don't you use a bread knife to cut any kind of bread that is not sold precut? Like baguettes, kaisersbrödchen, white buns etc.? I don't think a bread knife is a special knife.
Waranoa 2 years ago
Also, I understand the apeing by Americans, because when we, Europeans, are confronted with any kind of American cooking, we instantly reply with 'Oh God, food is SO much better in Europe' so of course there will be a tendency to strive for something you would call 'European quality' even though in Europe, next to the quality food, there's also a lot of junkfood.
Waranoa 2 years ago
why just western...?
tyrion02 2 years ago
"why just western...?"
Maybe I've just missed it, but I've never heard a Pole or a Romanian wax poetic about the virtues of land plows. Maybe I just don't hear as much about Eastern Europe.
nine9s 2 years ago
The concept of "Eastern Europe" that includes geographically Central European catholic countries like Poland, Hungary etc was only made up when the Soviets decided not to leave after WW2. But all this is beside the point, even in traditionally eastern "orthodox" countries, the feudal life of a peasant was more or less the same as everywhere else.
tyrion02 2 years ago
Food is about respect - when you eat, understand that many people are still struggling for their daily food. TO think that doing everything by hand is going to be the the solution is not really morally justified. We need to make people proud to be a farmer. Like I said before, never before has the responsibility of the production of food been left to so few.
-- This has been one of my favorite presentations (and TED videos) of all time. Ms. Fresco is passionate about her vision, and delivers A+
redsully 2 years ago 2
13:59 now she is talking like a real freak...
Veg. gardens in cities?!? fermentation for heating houses?!? - insanity!
I want a fusion reactors to replace all these old and inefficient power plants (dirty too).
grraadd 2 years ago
Yeah, hydroponic towers 40 stories tall can feed 100k people, theorized.
redsully 2 years ago
"I want a fusion reactors"
and I want world peace....
pinochet222 2 years ago
Gardens on buildings are being used more and more over here, it's good insulation and it's great cause you can go to the roof and have a private garden, how AWESOME. But she's a bit freaky yes.
Waranoa 2 years ago
Yes her comment on "fermented grains to heat our homes" is certainly not very smart.
The much more efficient option is to harvest the solar directly.
Don't waste that solar energy on incredibly inefficient photosynthesis.
Liquid fuels (eg: from Fermented biological matter) should only ever be used for situations where an easily transported fuel is most nessesary - ie: as fuel for vehicles.
It shouldn't be used for heating homes. There are much more efficient ways to heat homes.
roidroid 2 years ago
8:50 those greedy farmers from thousands years ago! They mutated grass to feed humanity - they made first GMO... bastards ;-)
grraadd 2 years ago
I am confused about this talk. Does she talk about increasing the efficiency of agriculture in the west or does she talk about efficiency of agriculture in third world countries? Is the point that we help third world countries be becoming better farmers in the west?
anotherelvis 2 years ago
I love the creative and original thinking of the TED presenters.
humanist7117 2 years ago
This is such sophistry. Firstly, Wonderbread and its ilk is lower in nutrition and fibre, tastes like crap and is full of preservatives. It's not about nostalgia. Secondly, Wonderbread is representative of mercantilism, which forces third world countries into providing low cost cash crops instead of focusing on domestic needs and autarchy. This sounds like a corporate lobby rant. What a load of bollocks.
flyhead2 2 years ago
you're funny and so very deep. =p
flybybutterflies 2 years ago
Why thank you? My grammar probably stinks too..
flyhead2 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
I like most of the TED talks. But this woman is a category 4 moron. She's insulting my intelligence.
I disagreed with most of her premises as she presented them. Did anyone else think that she mis characherised and over simplified all of the arguments involved?
I wonder if she knows what a straw dummy is?
She probably should have had someone who knows a little about the subject check her notes. That way she could have avoided embarrassing herself infront of a full audience.
ScepticalPenguin 2 years ago
Authentic, traditional, honest... bread?
FlailingJunk 2 years ago
Yes thats how we feel :)
Remember the christmas cola adds ?
plays right on our feelings :)
Thedreamshaperabc 2 years ago
omg, nerdiest looking group of rich ppl at 8:11.
These, people ,with so much thoughtfulness on their faces about topic which would seem boring to most, are the ones who are truly saving our world with their genuine care, curiosity, passion, and... money :).
This may sound elitist, but I truly belive that these people, AS OPPOSED TO THE REST OF THE HIGHER CLASS, with their thoughtfulness and their power of class benefit the world more than any other group of people.
I <3 TED and philanthropy.
JoeWinU235 2 years ago 4
She says that we need to double food output by 2030.
What we really need to do is bring population growth under control. Doubling food output is really just putting air in a tire with a leak in it. Having fewer children fixes the leak.
Now, that being said, it's probably easier to bake more bread than to force people to have fewer children, so we should do all that we can...
But Malthus is starting to look more and more correct.
: (
Prytanus 2 years ago
Do me more correct, we need to bring population under control in small and developing nations. United States has a stable population, Most of Europe is shrinking in population. Russia is catastrophically shrinking. Most industrialized nations are either stable or shrinking.
hellsreach 2 years ago