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.
Laflin, Michael (author / Editor, Reading Rural Development Communications (RRDC) Bulletin) and Editor, Reading Rural Development Communications (RRDC) Bulletin
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1982-03
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 79 Document Number: C04489
Mexico: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Participation Programme
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 135 Document Number: C20631
Notes:
Burton Swanson Collection, 116 pages, Partcipation, Report no. 85.2, Translated from the original Spanish text "Estado y Ejido en Mexico : el caso del Credito Rural en La Laguna"
USA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 71 Document Number: D10767
Notes:
Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, Preliminary draft for discussion purposes. 30 pages., Contains materials to be used in meetings to be held by USDA and other officials during meetings with small farmers.
