Episode 15: The Impact of Agricultural Tech on The World & Its People
With Jenny Melo
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Episode Description:
In this episode of Technically Spiritual, we discuss how tech affects people and the world through the lens of agriculture, food systems, and the power that comes from access to data. Jenny Melo, Fulbright scholar & PhD student, joins us this week to share her expertise on the socio-ethical impacts of agricultural technologies. Tune in to learn how our current agricultural/food production system perpetuates deep inequality in our neighborhoods and all over the world. And lastly, learn how spirituality, science, and curiosity intersect to help us become better citizens, with an opportunity to make a better world.
Guest Bio:
Jenny is an applied scholar from Colombia with training in business, social sciences, and sociology. She had devoted her professional life to better understand the social implications of business, particularly in rural settings. Currently and through a Fulbright Scholarship, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri - Columbia, where is researching the socio-ethical implications that digital agricultural technologies pose for small farmers in the Latin American context.
She has 8+ years of experience as a consultant for business and nongovernmental organizations leading knowledge management initiatives related to inclusive business, social innovation, and corporate social responsibility. In early 2021, she co-founded Huella Delta, a Colombian-based organization serving rural organizations looking to develop market relationships that are fair, profitable, inclusive, and sustainable.
Website: https://jennymelo.com
Twitter: @labuenaempresa
Show Notes:
Categories of analysis: ownership & access of data, and the distribution of power that comes from that knowledge
Not all farmers get the benefit of the technology, widening the gap between corporate-owned operations and other farmers all over the world
Need more transparency, accountability, and we need to ask more questions
We are all consumers, we are all involved in this exchange, we have an impact
Need better policy-making from the government too, systemic change and accountability
We are still under the idea that these technologies are inherently good, and we have to challenge that assumption and look at the conditions under which they’re being used
Technology is not inherently good or helpful, even if it seems like it at the surface
Environmental impact of agricultural technology - can it HELP climate change?
Implications of each crop - new technologies like production IoT can help us become more aware of the positive and negative impacts along the way - and how many resources are invested in the production of food. Whether or not this becomes good for the environment depends on who has power over the information & how they use it (& how we demand accountability)
It has the potential to inform us, reduce waste, and promote sustainability in production because we can finally really measure it
We are under the narrative “Feed the World” and that we need more and more food -- but there has always been enough food, it’s a matter of the distribution of food by the actors/power holders
Solutions - Likely no perfect solution, not black and white
Everything will have unintended consequences, so we have to operate from a perspective of what is fair, responsible, good, for the big AND small actors -- we get there by working on accountability and access to observations/tech/data
Complexity/Feedback loop example: There could be a crop that is a great source of income for small farmers and therefore good for them & the economy, but it is also detrimental to the environment. So promoting this crop can help small farmers but hurt the environment.
Quinoa - superfood, benefits small farmers, BUT became so popular in North America and Europe that everything coming mainly from Ecuador, Colombia, The Andes, & Latin America was only exports - the small farmers themselves and their people don’t have access to it for their own consumption. So promoting it for health reasons helps the farmers economically, but hurts them holistically, and others are healthier only via exploiting the small farmers’ access to it. North and South inequality.
The impact of the pandemic on food security (and the difference between availability and accessibility)- Read Jenny’s research
Spiritual practices that have impacted her life - teachings of the Baháʼí faith - need both the spiritual “eye” and scientific “eye” - need balance, scholars must balance/know how spiritual practices can help us conduct better research and be better citizens
Jenny’s words of advice: “Question the underlying structures and systems of everything - your consumer choices, your relationships, your life. Approach with curiosity, and we will be able to learn, expand our view of reality, become better citizens, and make a better world. Seek more truth.”