Agriculture is undergoing a revolution: robots and AI are making work easier, more precise and more respectful of living organisms, but most technologies and distribution networks need large, standardized farms to be profitable. The future of small-scale producers looks very different.
One of the fundamental factors limiting human growth has always been the availability and sharing of food. While food production is becoming less and less of a problem, its economic detour limits its accessibility and increases its cost, as it is often more profitable in certain contexts to produce meat, biofuel or export crops than food for the local population. And if prices are set by a globalized market, many players forfeit. Producing food is vital, and is therefore one of the primary considerations of all states: first and foremost, to feed their population. But this issue is subject to political and economic choices that often have nothing to do with the farmer.
Between small-scale production and agtech (AGriculture and digital TECHnologies), a gulf is widening, with consequences that are as much social as environmental. An army of robots to serve whom and what kind of production? The most profitable or the best for the environment, health or social peace? Producing corn or vegetable oil for biofuel is just one of the aberrations arising from purely economic logic. Add to this cat and dog food, patented GMOs and irrigated monocultures, and we come to question this industry in the hands of major shareholders, including pension funds - ultimately us. But we're not asked for our opinion, other than to buy. In principle, it's all about producing more cheaply, but given the situation, we wonder where the system is going wrong.
The subject is often only touched on technically and superficially at school: a school garden, a greenhouse, cooking, canning... but how is it that food is less accessible and so many people are reduced to frequenting food support organizations? This dossier addresses the question.
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
Illustration: Shutterstock - 267661217
