tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9309715.post114961014154890000..comments2020-08-26T04:40:17.215-05:00Comments on Swirling Planet Times: Energy Cost of EverythingBart Gottschalkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01340294551139838665noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9309715.post-1151512723730389592006-06-28T11:38:00.000-05:002006-06-28T11:38:00.000-05:00Also, check out Bruce Sterling's book-length essay...Also, check out Bruce Sterling's book-length essay <A HREF="http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/mediawork/titles/shaping/shaping_book.html" REL="nofollow">Shaping Things</A> (a really fun read). In it, he suggests that RFID chips will give objects not just identity, but a detailed history of their trajectory through space and time. He even coined a term for such objects: spimes. <BR/><BR/>One piece of data that could easily be stored in an object's RFID is the energy cost of every step in its life cycle. Interesting, too, isn't it, how the World Trade Organization has been moving in recent years to eliminate things like country-of-origin labeling. They call such regs non-tariff barriers to trade. If Sterling is right, such regs soon won't be necessary, because RFIDs will make that info totally transparent -- quite the opposite of what the WTO has in mind.<BR/><BR/>-leif utne <BR/>(FYI, I'm the one who posted the Anonymous comment above, too)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9309715.post-1151512010038759362006-06-28T11:26:00.000-05:002006-06-28T11:26:00.000-05:00Interesting that you bring up the food coops' prac...Interesting that you bring up the food coops' practice of using geographic labeling here. You're about to start seeing them push local food (even if it's conventionally grown) over organic pretty heavily. The energy cost of an organic apple from Chile is a hell of a lot more than one that's grown with conventional methods in the St. Croix Valley. The Organic Consumers Association already has a campaign on this called <A HREF="http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc.htm" REL="nofollow">Breaking the Chains</A>. Slogan: "Buy Local, Organic, Fair Made."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com