{"id":265465,"date":"2017-09-07T10:31:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/look-twice-at-the-digital-agricultural-revolution\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T21:45:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T01:45:40","slug":"look-twice-at-the-digital-agricultural-revolution","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2017\/09\/look-twice-at-the-digital-agricultural-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Look twice at the digital agricultural revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

A great deal of hope for a secure economic and democratic future for Canada appears to hinge on \u201cinnovation.\u201d The federal government describes innovation as \u201ca path to inclusive growth<\/a>,\u201d<\/p>\n

and agriculture is one of the areas where it plans to invest<\/a> within the new Innovation Superclusters Initiative<\/a>. The agri-food industry is hopeful about such a large investment in a \u201csmart agri-food supercluster<\/a>,\u201d trusting in the power of information and communications technologies (ICTs) \u2014 from big data sets to algorithms for reading them \u2014 to revolutionize food production.<\/p>\n

It is not surprising, then, that the Policy Options <\/em>special feature \u201cCanadian Agriculture at the Cutting Edge<\/a>\u201d included several articles that not only emphasize such agricultural innovations but also position them as key to wider social well-being. Ryan Katz-Rosene\u2019s article, \u201cBeware the Glitz of Neo-industrial Agriculture<\/a>,\u201d stood out in its critical perspective. Katz-Rosene identifies the challenges that have accompanied the successful intensification of agriculture over the last century, including the negative impact of high-input agriculture on environmental sustainability.<\/p>\n

A digital agricultural revolution is certainly afoot. The John Deere company now fits all of its tractors with digital tools for collecting data from farm fields, claiming that this equipment will provide information to \u201csave time, fuel, and money, as well as improving yield<\/a>.\u201d The president of Climate Corporation, which designs digital devices for the collection and analysis of agricultural data, goes so far as to predict a \u201cdata-driven farm of the future<\/a>.\u201d But questions remain about the social implications of these technological changes. For example, does the use of big data sets in agricultural decision-making raise issues of privacy and access, like the concerns that have come with the use of big data in other sectors? To date there has been little critical reflection, among either practitioners or academics, about these social implications.<\/p>\n

We have been exploring this area of research for the past year, trying to understand the landscape of digital farming in Canada<\/a> and seeking to identify who is making decisions in this area of technological development, and who benefits from those decisions. Part of what we hope to do with our research is to help define and measure success in data-driven farming. Our preliminary research \u2014 interviews with people working in industry, in government and on farms using ICTs \u2014 suggests that the role of ICT innovations in Canadian agriculture is complex.<\/p>\n

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) employees have teamed up with McCain Foods to collect large volumes of horticultural data in order to generate markers of \u201cyield success.\u201d However, this project is experimental, and the employees we spoke with admitted they are not certain how they will process these data. One participant was quite explicit about the rush to collect huge volumes of data they \u201cdoubt they will find meaning in.\u201d Of course, the mass accumulation of data in the search for patterns that provide \u201cemergent\u201d insights is not unique to this project; it is the backbone of predictive analytics<\/a>. Since this is at least partly a public sector project, the government presumably has some responsibility to show results.<\/p>\n

In the collection and use of large volumes of agricultural data, the government also carries a great deal of responsibility to protect the privacy of its citizens. In some Canadian provinces where agricultural and rural populations are small, agricultural data \u2014 such as those collected through the Statistics Canada Census of Agriculture<\/a> \u2014 in their original or \u201craw\u201d form could be used to identify individual farms or industries. From our interviews, it appears that federal and provincial actors dealing with large volumes of these data are attentive to the potential privacy concerns. For example, agricultural data from smaller provinces are \u201cprocessed\u201d \u2014 aggregated and anonymized \u2014 at the federal level before being made useful either for the public or for provincial statisticians and policy-makers.<\/p>\n

The processing of government agricultural data confirms what we as social scientists knew all along: that data do not just generate themselves. Even seemingly neutral databases are always partial. While the environmental data collected by satellite and used within the government\u2019s Agroclimate Impact Reporter<\/a> (AIR) appear to provide a window onto unmediated truths about the environment, they actually represent a selection; it was people, after all, who decided which data were to be collected and then analyzed and by what algorithms.<\/p>\n

From our research, the AIR \u2014 which collects and maps agriculturally relevant weather information supplied by volunteers \u2014 seems like a valuable tool that has the potential to help farmers verify insurance claims, for example. But what about those horticultural data being collected by AAFC and McCain: why is this research team collecting data only for the purpose of yield maximization? To put it another way, why are ICTs \u2014 specifically drones and computer programs \u2014 being used in this project to meet agricultural goals that give the highest priority to productivity: growing high-yield staple crops for largely export markets? The productivity approach has marked Canadian agriculture by continuously shrinking numbers of farms and farmers<\/a>, increasing the burden of farm debt<\/a> and widening the inequalities in the sector<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the positive side, it doesn\u2019t appear that people have been displaced yet from the agri-food sector because of digitization \u2014 in contrast to the impact of ICT on other sectors such as the auto industry. As one of our participants told us, more (not fewer) government agronomic experts are being hired under the move toward data-driven farming, because these people are needed to test how well the results drawn from these large data sets match the realities on the ground. Whether all actors in the food system are going to be sustained by digital innovations remains an open question, however. We know that most if not all historic agricultural innovations have alienated farmers<\/a> from the means of production, from their land and from each other. It seems to us that if data-driven farming shapes up exactly as corporate actors currently envision it<\/a>, then ICTs applied to agriculture could end up, like tractors and biotechnological seed systems, giving farmers less, not more, control over their livelihoods.<\/p>\n

From our conversations with farmers, it does appear that particular ICTs are reducing farmers\u2019 agency. The data collected by many digitally equipped tractors, data that farmers are helping to collect in the first place, are accessible to the farmers only after being processed by corporations \u2014 ostensibly to protect the farmers\u2019 privacy. So privacy and access issues are potentially at odds in the agri-food sector, just as they are in, for example, so much of the social media universe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our research on ICT use in agriculture reveals a complex landscape. Now is the time, while investments are being made in the technical framework of a digital agricultural revolution, for careful consideration by regulators and other decision-makers of the ways ICTs could be leveraged to serve a variety of players in the Canadian food system. Digital advancements may help make agriculture more productive, but they should be able to benefit small farmers as much as they benefit large-scale farm businesses. If they don\u2019t, agriculture will continue to be an impenetrable sector for new entrants, and farmers who cannot \u201ckeep up\u201d with innovations will leave. With a farm population that is continuously aging and shrinking, Canadian policy-makers must ensure that digital developments do not unevenly serve already powerful actors, making deeper the disparities in Canada\u2019s agri-food system.<\/p>\n

This article is part of the\u00a0Canadian Agriculture at the Cutting Edge<\/a>\u00a0special feature.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photo: Blackie, Alberta, July 13, 2016. A camera drone surveys canola crops on a farm. By\u00a0Alex JW Robinson<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Do you have something to say about the article you just read? Be part of the\u00a0<\/em>Policy Options\u00a0discussion, and send in your own submission.\u00a0Here is a\u00a0<\/em>link<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on how to do it. <\/em>|\u00a0Souhaitez-vous r\u00e9agir \u00e0 cet article ? <\/em>Joignez-vous aux d\u00e9bats d\u2019<\/em>Options politiques\u00a0et soumettez-nous votre texte en suivant ces\u00a0<\/em>directives<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great deal of hope for a secure economic and democratic future for Canada appears to hinge on \u201cinnovation.\u201d The federal government describes innovation as \u201ca path to inclusive growth,\u201d and agriculture is one of the areas where it plans to invest within the new Innovation Superclusters Initiative. The agri-food industry is hopeful about such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":254499,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-08-30T06:25:34Z","apple_news_api_id":"8a2b9dd3-7cb3-4fa5-84fc-06ca55bbc620","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-08-30T06:25:34Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Aiiud03yzT6WE_AbKVbvGIA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9361,9372,9383],"tags":[8521],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4261,4337],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7077],"class_list":["post-265465","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environnement","category-recent-stories-fr","category-sciences-et-technologies","tag-agrifood-fr","irpp-category-environnement","irpp-category-science-et-technologie","irpp-tag-agroalimentaire"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nLook twice at the digital agricultural revolution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2017\/09\/look-twice-at-the-digital-agricultural-revolution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Look twice at the digital agricultural revolution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A great deal of hope for a secure economic and democratic future for Canada appears to hinge on \u201cinnovation.\u201d The federal government describes innovation as \u201ca path to inclusive growth,\u201d and agriculture is one of the areas where it plans to invest within the new Innovation Superclusters Initiative. 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