[lumost]

It does make one wonder how long the supply chain can get before people forget what's on the other side of it. The Roman's only had a vague concept of how silk was made and where it came from. The Chinese a vague idea of daqin, the opposite of the Qin empire.

A farmer be forgiven for believing that their fertilizer is made from manure and not petrochemicals made thousands of miles away?

[seabird]

Farmers know absurd amounts about the fertilizer they're using. Frankly, they probably know more about any given facet of the modern world than the average person. Having to pull multi-million dollar lines of credit and constantly staying up-to-date with any technology that touches your business will do funny things to people. That extends to most people that make things; they know who it goes to and how it gets there, but the person who gets it doesn't know where it came from and how it got to them.

[philwelch]

Yeah there was a viral video awhile back where this young woman on a family farm was sitting in her tractor talking about how everything worked. The tractor has more computer screens than my desk ever had and a GIS system.

> That extends to most people that make things; they know who it goes to and how it gets there, but the person who gets it doesn't know where it came from and how it got to them.

People who make things seriously, at least. People who think groceries come from the store and haven’t thought past that will still be able to cook a meal while a more serious home cook or a good professional chef knows more about where their ingredients come from. But this only goes a couple levels deep at most. The chef might know where the farmer’s fertilizer comes from (I think that’s part of what’s implied by “organic food”) but the farmer will definitely know. But for petrochemical fertilizer, there’s a whole petrochemical supply chain before that which the fertilizer manufacturer will understand even better than the farmer.