Sanitizing agri-food tech: COVID-19 and the politics of expectation
Emily Reisman
Abstract
Several emerging technologies for agri-food systems are promoted by supporters as alleviating the instabilities of COVID-19 and thus increasingly necessary and inevitable. Compelled to pivot towards the pandemic, technologists align their projects with narratives of safety, security and resilience. This paper highlights the political contours of these technologies, arguing that proposed innovations are far from neutral paths toward a more sanitary and secure agri-food future. Most are limited in their capacity to disrupt patterns of racial and geopolitical hierarchy, ecological precarity, and concentrated power in the food system, or to fulfill pandemic relief promises in their current form.
Topics & Concepts
PrecarityGeopoliticsPoliticsResilience (materials science)Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Food securityPandemicBiopowerPolitical science2019-20 coronavirus outbreakPolitical economyPsychological resiliencePower (physics)BusinessEconomic systemSociologyEconomicsAgricultureBiologyEcologyLawMedicineQuantum mechanicsOutbreakThermodynamicsPsychologyPhysicsInfectious disease (medical specialty)DiseaseVirologyPathologyPsychotherapistAgriculture, Land Use, Rural DevelopmentFood Waste Reduction and Sustainability