Precision Technologies for Agriculture: Digital Farming, Gene-EditedCrops, and the Politics of Sustainability

Jennifer Clapp and Sarah-Louise Ruder

Global Environmental Politics, 2020, vol. 20, issue 3, 49-69

Abstract: This article analyzes the rise of precision technologies foragriculture—specifically digital farming and plant genomeediting—and their implications for the politics of environmentalsustainability in the agrifood sector. We map out opposing views in the emergingdebate over the environmental aspects of these technologies: while proponentssee them as vital tools for environmental sustainability, critics view them asantithetical to their own agroecological vision of sustainable agriculture. Weargue that key insights from the broader literature on the social effects oftechnological change—in particular, technological lock-in, thedouble-edged nature of technology, and uneven power relations—help toexplain the political dynamics of this debate. Our analysis highlights thedivergent perspectives regarding how these technologies interact withenvironmental problems, as well as the risks and opportunities they present.Yet, as we argue in the article, developments so far suggest that these dynamicsare not always straightforward in practice.

Date: 2020
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