Food created with Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology in food: more than a question of taste

Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at London s City University

Tim Lang: 'Do you really want to eat these ingredients?'

Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at London s City University. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

I am troubled by the rise of nanotechnology in the food industry. It's being developed far in advance of public awareness. We've been here before: additives, irradiation, and genetic modification were all fixes promoted by industry which came unstuck on public opinion.

Advocates tout nanotechnology as a way to improve food, with technology in control. A different path is what I call "food democracy", where people are engaged in advance. The future is about realigning food with planetary sustainability.

While evidence of current unsustainability has grown, global corporations have been getting more control over food supplies. They say that they are accountable to us at the checkout, but consumers are barely aware of who these companies are, how they work or the scale of their market share. It's some of these companies who will be adding nanoparticles to your food and defining progress in your name.

This tension between food control and food democracy is not new. In the late 18th century, British economist and demographer Thomas Malthus painted a pessimistic picture of the future, where agriculture could not feed a growing population. In doing so, he posed an important question: what is the relationship between people, the planet, and our food supply?

That question is back. Today's European consumer feeds as if we had two or three planets at our disposal; an American eats as if there were four or five. Food is now a major factor in our footprint on the planet.

We waste and consume too much food in developed countries for multiple reasons, including massive oversupply, apparently "cheap" food and a runaway "choice culture". The result is a mismatch between people, food and planet. Politicians are nervous about it, but for decades they've ceded control to the private sector.

We must see nanotechnology for what it is: a technical cul-de-sac. It's another way to ratchet up hidden control in the food system. It's the nanny corporation controlling our mouths – the technology tail wagging the food dog.

Progressive Management 21st Century Complete Guide to Nanotechnology Risks to Safety, Health, and the Environment: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug ... National Nanotechnology Initiative (CD-ROM)
Book (Progressive Management)

Nope, not in the least.computational

by JiminyCrickets

Advancement is not science fiction. Nanotechnology is no science fiction.
Database supercomputers are not science fiction.
The scale of quantum computing is not science fiction.
10 years ago Stephen Hawking wrote
"At the moment, computers show no sign of intelligence. This is not surprising, because our present computers are less complex than the brain of an earthworm. But it seems to me that if very complicated chemical molecules can operate in humans to make them intelligent, then equally complicated electronic circuits can also make computers act in an intelligent way

You haven't done enough investigating

by JiminyCrickets

We have no idea what consciousness is or when it takes place. The mega computer centers will be as large as New York City and be stationed out in space performing multiple quintillion computation per millisecond.
Dwarfing human computation - in fact dwarfing the entire human population of computation by many trillion fold.
Humans are a threatened species and we are unwittingly creating the predator.
Once nanotechnology starts building the nano components you will see a drastic rise in computational quota.

Nanotubes Increase Solar PV Conductivity 100 Million-Fold  — Sourceable
Carbon-based nanostructures are already being used as materials in solar cells with increasing frequency, yet their ability to enhance electrical performance has thus far been hampered by limited ability to assemble orderly networks using the materials.

William Andrew Nanotechnology Environmental Health and Safety, Second Edition: Risks, Regulation, and Management (Micro and Nano Technologies)
Book (William Andrew)
Progressive Management Nanotechnology Risk Encyclopedia: Medical, Environmental, Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications of Nanomaterials
eBooks (Progressive Management)
BiblioGov House Hearing, 109th Congress: Research on Environmental and Safety Impacts of Nanotechnology: What are the Federal Agencies Doing
Book (BiblioGov)
Related Posts