tech Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Planning for Food Commons in a Post-COVID World

January 25, 2021 ARC

How can we learn from Covid-19 to make our food systems work better? Broadly, there are two strands, argue Stephen Leitheiser and Lummina Horlings. One, an eco-modernist tech utopianism, which sees an increased use of digital and technological tools which will increase the power of corporations. The other is a food commons approach. This values-based approach needs to be nourished by more holistic, decentralised policy making for a truly resilient response to current and future crises. […]

Italy – Digitalisation, Diverse Farms and Rural Resilience

July 30, 2020 Matteo Metta

Digital tools that suit the complexity of diversified farms and meet their specific needs, can bring new challenges but, once these are overcome, they can contribute to farm resilience and viability. Meet two Italian farm enterprises and see how their stories and narratives show that digitalisation means not only access to connectivity, but also capacity to use, manage and control technologies. […]

Europe’s Agroecology Movement – Stepping up in Times of Covid19

June 22, 2020 Alison Brogan

Four innovative and committed agroecology initiatives showed how they stepped up in times of Covid19 at a webinar organised by Forum Synergies and ARC2020 last week. And dozens, from all over Europe and beyond, got involved in the conversation. Alison Brogan tells us about this event which provided a moment to reflect, some key contemporary learnings, and which sowed the seeds of further action. […]

Webinar | Growing Food Resilience in Covid19 times – New Tools and Approaches for Agroecology

June 11, 2020 ARC

At this Webinar we will learn about new tools and approaches agroecological communities have developed since Covid-19. In the face of an extra, massive challenge, communities all over Europe have stepped up and developed creative responses for distributing good food. A number of examples will be presented and discussed with the practitioners themselves, while there will be a real focus on co-learning and next steps for deepening our collective food resilience. […]

Ireland | Remote Work Could Rejuvenate Rural Communities

May 22, 2020 Luke Kent

We don’t know yet what the “new normal” will look like, but we do know that remote work can work – with the right supports. In Ireland, the pull of jobs in the city and abroad has hollowed out rural areas, and young graduates have little incentive to return home after completing their studies in Dublin. Many young graduates from rural areas would jump at the chance to stay put and pursue their careers remotely, rather than facing crippling rents in Dublin, or a crippling commute. Now is the time for a paradigm shift in working life to rejuvenate rural communities, argues Luke Kent. […]

Coping with Covid19 – the Open Food Network and the New Digital Order(s)

March 25, 2020 Oliver Moore

With Covid19, aka the coronavirus, come restrictions on people’s outdoor movements and gathering. This means that, while supermarkets are considered essential, it seems to be case by case for other food markets: instantly, farmers markets are shutting all over Europe with serious consequences for small producers. Digital food platforms have never been more urgent. Open Food Network is perhaps the best example of a good food network that’s digitised, cooperative, open source, not for profit and ready for your community. […]

Rural Dialogues | The Three Conditions of Sustainable Rural Digitalisation

October 24, 2019 Gianluca Brunori

Gianluca Brunori argues that access, design and complexity are three conditions that define how rural digitalisation is unfolding, and if rural digitalisation is in line with the sustainable development goals. Building on this base, through Responsible Research and Innovation the DESIRA project will help society and political bodies respond to the challenges digitalisation generates in rural areas, agriculture and forestry. […]

Rural Dialogues | What are the 3 A’s of Feeding Ourselves in Ireland?

May 19, 2019 EditorialARC2020

ARC2020 was involved in the Feeding Ourselves gathering in Ireland. This event focused on some important aspects to this idea – how do we better feed ourselves. So what are the A’s of better food systems? […]

Digitization in Romanian Agriculture – Three Appropriate Solutions

May 14, 2019 ARC

Supposed digital and technological solutions abound in agriculture, and are strongly emphasised in the EU Commission’s CAP proposals. What are the consequences of the increasing focus on these solutions – and can they really work for rural Romania? Are there other more appropriate approaches? […]

AgtechTakeback | Farm Technology Can Work For All

December 20, 2018 Oliver Moore

Our agtech series – agtechtakeback – saw a troubling story of corporate takeover and of disempowered, indebted farmers. But we also encountered empowering and inspiring examples of farmers embracing the best, most appropriate, of technologies to grow agroecologically. […]

AgtechTakeback: Tech Revolutions, Retro-Innovations and Humus Farming

December 12, 2018 Stuart Meikle

Stuart Meikle takes us back to the future, to the poorly named green revolution aka the origins of industrial farming, to the humus farming of just before that, and up to today with the huge challenges farming faces. Agtechtakeback: Tech Revolutions, Retro-Innovations and Humus Farming. […]

AgtechTakeback | Show me the Money – Debt, Technology and Path Dependence

November 11, 2018 Laura Skove

New technological advances in digital agriculture are poised to further transform the business and science of growing crops. But technology comes at a cost, and it is worth considering the impact of farm debt on farmers’ ability to innovate and to transition towards agroecological practices.With Laura Skove in Paris. […]

AgtechTakeback – Technical Sovereignty and L’Atelier Paysan’s Tooled up French Farmers

October 18, 2018 ARC

A farm hack movement has emerged to really take the power back on the land in rural areas. In France this is especially developed, with L’Atelier Paysan empower farmers, using participatory methods, to devleop appropriate, affordable open sourced tools of the trade, machines and even buildings. Plus they throw great parties. Julien Reynier tells us more. […]

AgtechTakeback | Digital Consolidation – Entrenching Agrichemical Companies & Industrial Ag?

September 26, 2018 ARC

Digital agriculture, broadly defined as the use of mass amounts of data to influence decision-making on farms, has incredible potential to make farms more economically and ecologically sustainable. However, it also poses risks to the privacy, profitability and independence of farmers. Jason Davidson is the Food and Agriculture Campaign Associate at Friends of the Earth (US). […]

AgTechTakeback | Neither neoLuddism nor Corporate Ag – Towards a Holistic Agroecology

September 23, 2018 ARC

Will hi-tech save agriculture from its otherwise intractable problems? Certainly technological stakeholders want it to appear so, as digitisation increases both in the fields and in the policy documents and future plans for the sector. So what is the peer to peer and agroecological response to this? […]