28pgs, Technological advancement is seen as one way of sustainably intensifying agriculture. Scholars argue that innovation needs to be responsible, but it is difficult to anticipate the consequences of the ‘fourth agricultural revolution’ without a clear sense of which technologies are included and excluded. The major aims of this article were to investigate which technologies are being associated with the fourth agricultural revolution, as well as to understand how this revolution is being perceived, whether positive or negative consequences are given equal attention, and what type of impacts are anticipated. To this end, we undertook a content analysis of UK media and policy documents alongside interviews of farmers and advisers. We found that the fourth agricultural revolution is associated with emergent, game-changing technologies, at least in media and policy documents. In these sources, the benefits to productivity and the environment were prioritised with less attention to social consequences, but impacts were overwhelmingly presented positively. Farmers and advisers experienced many benefits of technologies and some predicted higher-tech futures. It was clear, however, that technologies create a number of negative consequences. We reflect on these findings and provide advice to policy-makers about how to interrogate the benefits, opportunities, and risks afforded by agricultural technologies.
Author suggests that it may be time to drop the term "precision agriculture" because farmers are much more precise than ever before. "When does a technology become mainstream?"
Joint Economic Committee, United States Congress (author)
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
1991
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 92 Document Number: C06858
Notes:
AGRICOLA CAT 92961000; Contains Table of contents only, Washington [D.C.] : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, 1991. iii, 41 p. : ill. (United States. Congress. Senate. S. hrg. , 102-160.)
Fiorentino, R. (author), Pineiro, M. (author), Trigo, E. (author), Balcazar, Alvaro (author), and Martinez, Astrid (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1983
Published:
Colombia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C18395
Notes:
Pages 47-69 in Martin Pineiro and Eduardo Trigo (eds.), Technical change and social conflict in agriculture: Latin American perspectives. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. 248 pages.
