On farm, in research labs, at universities, and in centers of business, a new future for agriculture is being imagined and built. In this future, sensors, satellites, robots, drones, data clouds, and algorithms will be networked to automatically harvest vast quantities of data, process that data to predict what could happen and inform farm decision-making, and engage in everyday farm work such as milking cows and weeding plants. This assemblage of information tools and agricultural practices is called “digital agriculture” or “data-driven farming.” Those building this future hope it will enable farms to be more productive, cause less environmental harm, and allow new forms of transparency and accountability between farm stakeholders and the general public by sharing data about where our food comes from.

This vision is highly attractive. But the outcomes of technologies are rarely limited to the dreams of those who build them. On the one hand, there may be positive possibilities outside the scope of our current imagination: possibilities to use digital technologies to empower rural communities, to celebrate and pass on core vocational values, or to build mutual understanding across the rural-urban divide. On the other, the positive visions currently driving digital agriculture may come with unexpected costs in regards to employment opportunities, surveillance, and eliminating craft knowledge. No one relishes such outcomes, but the history of technological change in agrifood systems suggests they are real possibilities.

In this project, we are integrating social-scientific analysis with technical development of cutting-edge farm networking research to understand and improve the societal outcomes of high-bandwidth farm networking. This work is led by Phoebe Sengers, associate professor of Information Science and Science & Technology Studies,  Hakim Weatherspoon, associate professor of Computer Science, and Steven Wolf, associate professor of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

This project is part of the Cornell Initiative for Digital Agriculture. It is supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant 1955125. All opinions expressed are those of the researchers, not CIDA or the NSF.