Publicising Food: Big Data, Precision Agriculture, and Co‐Experimental Techniques of Addition

Abstract

This article draws upon data taken from the following: 18 interviews of Iowa farmers who utilise big data when making farm management decisions; 14 interviews of those engaged within big data industry, those involved in the sale and promotion of large‐scale data acquisition, predictive analytic software, and/or precision agriculture technologies for conventional agriculture applications; and 19 interviews of regional food system entrepreneurs, those looking to create and encourage the adoption of technological platforms that enhance the capacities of regional food systems. A central aim of this article is to help reshape the debate around agro food‐based technologies, from one that asks what technology is to one that looks at what these socio‐technical forms engender. As described, alternative foodscapes are not looking for alternatives to technology but rather to technologies that engender specific effects. The empirical findings are organised around three themes that emerged out of the qualitative interviews. The technological assemblages investigated all exhibited the following three engendering qualities, which are (1) anticipatory, (2) moralising, and (3) a movement that multiplies absent presences. Precisely how these qualities were expressed, however, varied greatly across foodscapes.

Smart Farming: Including Rights Holders for Responsible Agricultural Innovation

“…The World Economic Forum has extrapolated from the automotive sector to predict wide-scale "technological unemployment" resulting from the application of automation in sectors such as agriculture (WEF, 2016). Changes in rural work populations could have a major impact on social cohesion in many communities and on the livelihoods of many labourers (Carolan, 2016). Studies of the application of smart innovations to the dairy sector in Australia reveal a reshaping of the practice of farming, with less hands-on management and more "data-driven" decisions (Eastwood et al, 2012).…”

Power, Food and Agriculture: Implications for Farmers, Consumers and Communities

“…In the 1980s, for example, Tom Trantham was resigned to selling his beloved high-producing dairy cows before he worked with RAFI to implement a sustainable grazing plan that reduced his costs and allowed him to access new markets for on-farm bottled milk. 16 In Missouri, farmers working through the Missouri Rural Hack, a global community of innovative farmers building and modifying farm implements -and then sharing their "hacks" with others (Carolan 2017). We include these examples to show how farmers embedded within the highly industrialized, capital-intensive systems struggle both to reshape commodity markets while also seeking to create alternatives that can transform food system relationships.…”

“…Of increasing concern is ownership in the digital age, including data, codes and programming upon which commercial farmers have come to rely; even smaller scale row-crop farms use GPS systems to manage soil fertility, irrigation, and especially yield data, while farmers with recently purchased tractors or combines cannot legally fix the machines themselves (Carolan 2017).…”

“…corn acres employ precision agriculture practices (Carolan 2017). Arguably precision agriculture has significant ecological benefits, particularly in the reduction of fertilizer and pesticide use -up to 30-40 percent according to some analysts (Burger 2016).…”

Is big data for big farming or for everyone? Perceptions in the Australian grains industry

“…One of the largest of these challenges is the moral and ethical questions about access, cost, scale and support, which will determine whether it will ever be possible, or indeed desirable, for all farms to be 'big data enabled', or whether it is an inevitable progression of modernisation in agriculture (Carolan 2016b). Another key question in an Australian context is whether big data will help the industry overcome competition from new entrants to the market such as India and China, fluctuations in market demand, increasing niche market opportunities requiring different approaches, and a plateauing of the intensification of the industry (producing more from less by increasing efficiencies).…”