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.

摘要

支持者推广了几种农业食品系统的新兴技术，以减轻 COVID-19 的不稳定性，因此越来越必要和不可避免。被迫转向大流行，技术人员将他们的项目与安全、保障和弹性的叙述保持一致。本文重点介绍了这些技术的政治轮廓，认为拟议的创新远不是通往更卫生和更安全的农业食品未来的中立道路。大多数人在破坏种族和地缘政治等级、生态不稳定和粮食系统权力集中的模式或以目前的形式履行大流行救济承诺方面的能力有限。