Paste your essay in here..Within our society, it is evident that things are constantly growing and changing at a rapid pace with new innovations and technologies being brought into our world. It seems as though newer and smarter technology is constantly being introduced to our society to overtake the last set of technology that was present. It is a competitive system on how we can constantly improve different aspects and industries within society. An example of this is the concept of vertical farming, which is a new practice of growing produce and crops in indoor building settings, vertically stacked and with controlled temperatures and LED lighting. Vertical farming is a current green technology that is growing as a new innovative eco-friendly idea that has high hopes to revolutionize society, the future of agriculture as well as its economic growth. Huesemann and Huesemann’s ideas of the impact in which humans, technology and the environment have on the overall economic system stem a debate on whether or not new green technologies, such as vertical farming will actually create a negative impact on unsustainable growth rather then a positive one. Evidence from both sides of the debate have strong points as to why these new technologies may or may not make it within our future society. Both points of view on how one side may say, society constantly pushes new technology to try and fix all of societies problems, versus Huesemann and Huesemann’s ideas and critiques against this idea, proves to be two compelling debates, although in my opinion in the terms of vertical farming I believe that Huesemann and Huesemann’s arguments bring forward solid ideas and information that could change the opinions that people may have on innovative technology, it makes you think twice about our future and how constantly looking toward technology first may seem like the best idea, it may not be the best option for our society.
Within the reading “Techno-fix, Why Technology Wont save Us or the Environment”, the authors discuss their overall ideas and critiques which include the concept that a humane and sustainable world will be a challenge to achieve because our current society focuses on science and technology to fix issues rather then employing people as well as the environment to make changes to fix our world. Ultimately the authors believe if we continue on this path technological innovations will continue to promote an unsustainable growth in the economy and eventually lead to a collapse of the environment and our society. The first idea that these authors bring forward within the reading is the idea that people view science in a way in which they may not understand the potential consequences that may be involved within it, and that technology has limitations within it. When looking at the concept of vertical farming we see that there is a strong need for a change and growth within the agricultural industry, as things seem to be getting worse as time goes on. Farming is hurting the environment and people are in desperate need to find a new idea to try and find a new alternative, Within the article “ Scientific American, The Rise of Vertical Farms”, it explains the length of these conditions stating, “Farming is ruining the environment, and not enough arable land remains to feed a projected 9.5 billion people by 2050”(Editors 80). Although a new innovative technology for farming may seem like the best idea for this situation, it is crucial that we take a step back and understand the technology behind it and think of other solutions that could help farming. From the technology standpoint of vertical farming there are many limitations, as well as setbacks within technology for example, the consumption of electricity may not be the best option for the environment, as there is only so much sunlight that can be produced, there would have to be a lot of electricity consumption involved. Not to mention the cost of manufacturing and running a vertical farm may be economically damaging in itself. This first idea that the authors bring forward seem to be relevant to a lot of new technologies once you look into the science behind them, and it seems that us as innovative human beings seem to have ignorance to this concept to look into the harmful aspects within the technology in which we are quick to turn to for a fix to our economic problems.
The second idea that the authors bring forward is the political and corporate power and influence that they have on us to insure that we continue to associate new technologies into our society, as we believe it will have a positive effect on the survival of our society as well as our personal happiness as individuals. Although vertical farming is a strong and innovative idea for the future, that has a potential to help agriculture, it is critical to understand the underlying flaws that may remain within the idea. Vertical farming is part of this idea of the influence of political and corporate power and the effects in which it may have on our decision to make vertical farming a global reality. There is a sort of fear of the future that is imbedded into the idea of farming as they explain how it is killing our environment and that there will not be enough land in the future to feed the people of our world. This helps us to push new technologies forward as we want what’s best for our society, and our future for food consumption, we want to be happy as Huesemann and Huesemann discuss within their critique. This idea of fear of what is to come of the future, and ideas of new eco-friendly technologies push us as individuals to want to invest in this idea of vertical farming without even thinking about other options or even looking into what might be wrong with vertical farming, like energy consumption, and technology for example. This idea of political and corporate power and the influence that they have within our decisions to push forward new technology is a hard concept to grasp as we as individuals may not even notice the influence that they have on our overall decisions about technology, as a society we are innovative individuals new concepts, ideas and technologies are constantly being brought up within our society so it acts as second nature to us.
The third critique that Huesemann and Huesemann bring forward is a tricky concept as it critiques our worldviews as it states that we are living within a modernist worldview. The authors critique our understanding of science and technology, and may imply that some of the previous ideas made by philosophers and scientists may not be true. That only when we find out problems that remain within new ideas, and concepts of technology is when we will begin to understand them. This last critique goes along with our ideas of technology today, as we look and research more about new innovative technology rather then going along with it because it seems new and “cool” and it may help to fix our problems within our society and our environment it may not be the best option for us in the long run. In terms of this critique and vertical farming, it seems that us as individuals in a society that we want to see thrive in the future, it is hard to turn down new innovative ideas that may help our society in any way shape or form. As well as like I have mentioned previously, the society in which we live in today thrives on new innovative technology, and always coming up with bigger and better ways to improve our society with technological fixes, therefore Heusemann and Huesemann’s ideas and critiques may seem hard and out of reach for our society to grasp but it is important to take these critiques into understanding our world and the technologies in which we are putting into it.
In conclusion I believe that vertical farming is a strong innovative idea that may be able to change the future of agriculture and farming within its new technology, but it does prove to have flaws within the techno-fix ideas and critiques brought forward by Heusemann and Huesemann. Although vertical farming does have a lot of evidence on how it may help within the future and could save the industry it is important for us as individuals within society to understand not only how it may be able to help our society in a positive way but also how it may have technological flaws and could effect our society, and economy in a negative way as well. Heusemann and Huesemann’s ideas are critical for our society today to understand as we are consumed in technology growing and changing constantly, it is important to step back from that idea sometimes and think about how we might be able to not always put the idea of technology first but see how we as individuals may be able to have a positive impact within our society, economically and environmentally without the use of technology.