Digital Agriculture: (Un)responsible Innovation for Sustainable Food Futures

Agriculture is undergoing rapid transformation. Digital Ag, Agriculture 4.0, or Smart Farming variously describe the application of digital sensing, machine learning, automation and other digital technologies on farms. Big Tech and Big Ag promise that digitalisation will deliver food security and food sustainability. But should the fourth agricultural revolution be digital? In this talk, Sebastian will discuss current trends of digitalisation and their potential impacts on the ecological transition, power, sovereignty and resilience. It will then present findings from ongoing participatory design research with UK smallholder farmers to develop design principles for digital agriculture that is appropriate and responsible.

About the speaker:

Sebastian Prost is a Lecturer in HCID. They are an interdisciplinary design and technology researcher. They are developing a critical research agenda at the intersection of food and technology, exploring responsible socio-digital innovations with local food networks and smallholder farms. More broadly, they are interested in questions of sustainability and social justice in design and technology and building long-term community relationships through participatory design.