As Rudolf Steiner argued so many decades ago, the 20^th century shift towards input intensive agriculture was, and is, troubling in so many ways. According to Steiner, heavy investments in external inputs, like fertilizers and pesticides, are the symptoms of a sick farm system. Just as human beings rely heavily on antibiotics and other medications during times of immune system failure, so too have our agroecosystems degraded into a state of permanent infirmity.

Yet the application of technology towards ecological management does not always result in failure. Technological connectivity has given us the opportunity to replace chemically intensive agriculture with information intensive agricultural systems. Using information as the primary farm system input will allow farmers to develop innovative strategies for soil management, organic pest control, and market penetration with all the efficiency and wisdom of a globalized, human-centered network.

In the realm of IT, there is much talk of the non-hierarchical network as a highly intelligent swarm. But its presence is weak in the marginalized areas of the world. The real challenge is finding ways to leverage the network’s intelligence in rural, Third World agriculture, but also to harness the untapped resources of indigenous knowledge to enhance the global network’s expanding intelligence.

Certainly indigenous and scientific knowledge are not at odds; but while one suffers from a lack of formalism the other suffers from a lack of practical application. Traditional knowledge is in danger of being lost for lack of documentation and active, information-oriented recovery and dissemination, while scientific knowledge is in danger of being irrelevant for want of a method that drives its diffusion in the field.

Already there exists an overwhelming amount of published literature, both digital and on paper that has yet to be disseminated in the field. The real challenge is to find ways to bring verified results across the valley of death, into the fields of innovative farmers and beyond. This can only happen in the presence of real increases in quality of life.

Information intensive agriculture requires leveraging existing networks and creating stronger inter-network linkages. In the absence of heavy investment in rural information technology infrastructure, a matrix of lightweight, new and old technologies must now form the basis for integrated communication pathways. Such an approach is unreasonably cost effective, especially in comparison with old top-down, isolationist models.

Open Source models will be imperative for the free flow of vital information. Our collective knowledge should be considered a resource of the commons, and should be shared and transferred freely and openly. Disruptive technologies like VoIP, SMS, Wikis, and RSS need to be given greater importance in the search to intensify the information oriented nature of the new agriculture.

Decentralized, “tinker-based” technological development at the Third World level has the potential to yield better results in local contexts. Because Third World problems are inherently different than First World, and because the vast majority of high-tech innovations are designed based around First World assumptions, Third World countries must take the lead in adapting existing technologies to meet local needs. Basement and backroom tinkers must be connected into the schema of informational based agriculture since their innovations will certainly have a more immediate impact on the technological challenges.

Information intensive agriculture has the potential to put sustainable practices within reach of millions of rural farmers all over the world. Its application beyond simple theory involves the organization of public and private institutions and community groups towards an intensive agricultural model that is both free of chemicals and locally appropriate.