Between Moonshots and Grandma’s Kitchen: Strategic Balancing of Disruption and Continuity in Agri-food Tech

• In Event: Feeding the Anthropocene: The Promises of Agro-Food Tech and the Difference Of Food - II

Abstract

The agri-food tech sector describes itself through ubiquitous periodizations—Ag 4.0, Soil 3.0, Food System 6—which acknowledge a long history of technological change while nonetheless claiming the mantle of disruption. This paper dissects the multiple temporal framings deployed by the food- and ag-tech industries as they balance competing demands for disruption and continuity. Drawing from industry reports, participant observation at tech events, and interviews with industry actors, we ask: in what contexts and for which audiences is the present moment framed as a meaningful break with past technological developments? How, why and to what end are the frames of continuity and discontinuity deployed? On the one hand, claims of disruption are necessary for startups looking to attract venture capital, complete a successful exit, and achieve “spectacular accumulation” (Tsing 2000). On the other hand, claims of a decisive break from the past may harm innovations in the eyes of their ultimate customer base; consumers have a notoriously low threshold for novelty, preferring products that mimic those produced in “grandma’s kitchen,” while farmers familiar with the material challenges of agriculture greet claims of a technological revolution with skepticism. Overall, despite the mantra of “disruption,” most agri-food technologies may be more continuous with the past than agri-food tech innovators, or investors, believe. Ultimately, research points to temporality as a structuring tension within agri-food tech, and therefore as an important site for the analysis of this emerging sector and its future food promises.

Authors

• Madeleine Fairbairn, University of California, Santa Cruz

• Charlotte Biltekoff, UC Davis