[Korimyr the Rat]

I know that Technocracy traditionally disregards trade issues, since the Technate, to avoid scarcity, must be self-sufficient. (I will disregard oil/other energy resources for the moment, as I am certain they are adequately addressed in articles I simply haven't gotten to yet.)

However, I am curious about one new, brilliant aquacultural technology that Technocracy's "economy" would handle awkwardly, if at all-- it was described in a recent issue of Wired-- an automated, mobile fish farm. The idea is, it's a more-or-less predator-proof mesh net over a cage, filled with fingerlings at the beginning of a season and set adrift (with a small diesel motor for course corrections) to ride the tidal currents to the opposite shore, where the adult fish will be harvested and new fingerlings loaded for the return trip.

This system avoids the land space and nitrate pollution issues of traditional fish farming, allowing far higher yields, healthier fishmeat, and a more positive ecological impact-- nitrates that would be toxic at traditional fishfarm levels are terrific fertilizer if spread across the entire ocean. It's a practical and elegant way of deriving nutrition from the oceans.

However, what I'm concerned with is, this system would obviously be easily implementable in a traditional price system economy, as a single international business or a pair of international trading partners could easily operate the back-and-forth exchange of the fish farm. In a more-or-less trade-free Technate, how would such a system be implemented? Could it be done between a technocratic society and a non-technocratic society? Could two Technates cooperate in such an endeavor?

[Korimyr the Rat]

So in the end, the question is not whether we can use this technique or not, but rather can we adequately feed our citizens and maintain an abundance.

Certainly so. The reason I brought up this specific technique is that it would, if heavily implemented, represent a very large increase in the amount of animal protein available for consumption. Since the diets of people in many developing countries are rapidly increasing in protein, this is a concern.

[Korimyr the Rat]

I was thinking more in terms of their increasing demand possibly recreating natural scarcity, which this program would hopefully prevent.

But, of course, any program which is entirely win-win should be pursued. That's just logical. It would seem to me that a society that was resource-rich and technologically advanced enough to operate as a technate would have a moral obligation towards the assistance of its less-fortunate neighbors.