Re[2]: Relevance of Spatial Information Technologies
D. Eric Hanson (hansonde@ccmail.orst.edu)
Thu, 29 Aug 1996 11:03:18 -0700
I suspect that this technology is most useful to the defense contractors who
make the equipment and to those who would manipulate agriculture for the greater
profit of large trading and processing corporations. On the scale we must farm
to be sustainable (soil, ecosystems and culture), this equipment is irrelevent.
The farmer in direct contact with her/his soil, plants and animals cannot be
improved upon from space despite the claims of those who've wasted our taxes on
this extravegent technology.
Bill Duesing
While it is true that there is no substitute for direct contact
between the farmer and the agro-ecosystem, there is also a valuable
perspective to be gained from looking at higher levels of
organization. Remeber the reality shift when the first photos of the
Earth from space were published. For many that was the defining
moment when they realized the planet--and its resources--were finite.
There are similar benefits to be realized from landscape level views
of agriculture and forestry systems.
TTFN - Eric Hanson