11 pages., Via online article, A “digital revolution” in agriculture is underway. Advanced technologies like sensors, artificial intelligence, and robotics are increasingly being promoted as a means to increase food production efficiency while minimizing resource use. In the process, agricultural digitalization raises critical social questions about the implications for diverse agricultural labourers and rural spaces as digitalization evolves. In this paper, we use literature and field data to outline some key trends being observed at the nexus of agricultural production, technology, and labour in North America, with a particular focus on the Canadian context. Using the data, we highlight three key tensions observed: rising land costs and automation; the development of a high-skill/low-skilled bifurcated labour market; and issues around the control of digital data. With these tensions in mind, we use a social justice lens to consider the potential implications of digital agricultural technologies for farm labour and rural communities, which directs our attention to racial exploitation in agricultural labour specifically. In exploring these tensions, we argue that policy and research must further examine how to shift the trajectory of digitalization in ways that support food production as well as marginalized agricultural labourers, while pointing to key areas for future research—which is lacking to date. We emphasize that the current enthusiasm for digital agriculture should not blind us to the specific ways that new technologies intensify exploitation and deepen both labour and spatial marginalization.
Langa, Zakes (author), Conradie, Pieter (author), and Roberts, Benjamin (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2006-03
Published:
South Africa
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 154 Document Number: C25054
Notes:
Retrieved December 9, 2006, Chapter 7 in Udesh Pillay, Benjamin Roberts and Stephen Rule (eds.), South African social attitudes: changing times, diverse voices. Human Sciences Research Council, HSRC Press, Cape Town, South Africa. 400 pages., "the digital divide is likely to remain with us in the medium to long term, thus reinforcing the gap between the included and the excluded." Authors examine the divide and the socio-economic factors related to it.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 153 Document Number: D07406
Notes:
Online from Free Press, Florence, Massachusetts. 2 pages., Provides links to stories and video case examples of the experiences and circumstances of those who lack access to broadband information services for a variety of reasons.
