Automated agrifood futures: robotics, labor and the distributive politics of digital agriculture

Carolan, Michael

doi:10.1080/03066150.2019.1584189

Cited by 129 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Finally, digitalization disrupts agricultural labor. As an intensification of industrialized and automated agriculture more broadly, digital agriculture is anticipated to eliminate the need for farm labor (Carolan 2020), but its effects on labor are broader. Digital agriculture is likely to deskill workers, further bind their fortunes to the global commodity market and potentially turn them into urban migrants.…”

Section: Extensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Bites and Agrarian Bytes: Digital Agriculture and Extended Urbanization

Ravis¹,

Notkin²

2020

Planning Journal

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Capitalist agriculture faces a crisis. Plateauing yields and profits are driving up food prices, and the ability to continue the traditional practice of expanding into new, un-commodified territories appears to be waning. This crisis is due in large part to the accelerating biophysical contradictions of industrial agriculture, which systematically undermine the ecological conditions for its own success in pursuit of profit. We investigate how digital technologies are deployed as a potential data fix that does not solve the crisis but merely staves it off. We situate these technologies within the material context of capitalist urbanization, along the way arguing for bringing information back into the neo-Lefebvrian framework of "extended" or "planetary" urbanization. Digital agriculture technologies continue the centralization of economic knowledge and power as they facilitate the transformation of vast territories into "operational landscapes" that provide the material, energy, and labor for a rapidly expanding urban system.

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Section: Extensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Bites and Agrarian Bytes: Digital Agriculture and Extended Urbanization

Ravis¹,

Notkin²

2020

Planning Journal

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“…Prices of these fresh fruits and vegetables will rise, causing farmers to think twice about abandoning production as wages rise while intensifying pressure on public and private researchers and policy makers to accelerate the development of labor-saving technologies and deploy the necessary digital infrastructure to run it, including in remote rural areas. Society will need to keep an eye out for undue concentration of power in the supply of these new technologies and devise adequate policies to ensure competition (Carolan 2020).…”

Section: Ways Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Migrantsending households in low-income countries benefited through remittances. However, with antiimmigration sentiments flying high in migrant-destination countries, the agricultural transformation unfolding in migrant-source countries, and technology increasingly offering alternatives to hired labor everywhere, opportunities to close income gaps across countries through legal farm labor migration may be closing (Carolan 2020). A shift in policy dialogue away from immigration solutions to farm labor problems coexists with a bifurcating global demographic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Future of Work in Agriculture: Some Reflections

Christiaensen¹,

Rutledge

Taylor

2020

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The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

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“…Migrant-sending households in low-income countries benefited through remittances. However, with anti-immigration sentiments flying high in migrant-destination countries, the structural transformation unfolding in migrant-source countries, and technology increasingly offering alternatives to hired labor everywhere, opportunities to close income gaps across countries through legal farm labor migration may be narrowing ( Carolan, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viewpoint: The future of work in agri-food

Christiaensen

Rutledge²,

Taylor³

2021

Food Policy

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Highlights As countries develop, job creation in agri-food shifts beyond the farm. Jobs in the agri-food system, on and off the farm, remain key for youth in Africa. Agri-food in developed countries relies on migrants. Technology reduces this. COVID-19 fosters automation and reduces agricultural migration and trade. Policies must promote inclusive agricultural chains and social insurance.

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Automated agrifood futures: robotics, labor and the distributive politics of digital agriculture

Cited by 129 publications

References 54 publications

Urban Bites and Agrarian Bytes: Digital Agriculture and Extended Urbanization

Urban Bites and Agrarian Bytes: Digital Agriculture and Extended Urbanization

The Future of Work in Agriculture: Some Reflections

Viewpoint: The future of work in agri-food

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