Agriculture by Algorithm: Big Data, Digitalization, and Biotechnology Under Climate Change

Based on textual analysis of publicly available documents published by the Food and Agriculture Organization, Bayer, and its partner delivery start-ups, this paper provides insight into the data-driven processes and technologies that are transforming agriculture into digitally standardized precision farming. Digitalization and biotechnology are intertwined within an “agriculture by algorithm” directed toward eliminating site-specific variations on the farm and optimizing efficiency for increasing yield. This new agriculture, through measurable indicators, calculative metrics, and algorithmic modeling, relies on a commensuration process that converts agroecologically and experientially diverse ways of knowing into standard data units within Big Data. Supported by multistakeholder platforms, blended cofinancing, and venture capital, “agriculture by algorithm” is expanding the epistemic dominance of quantification into village farming, rendering local farming knowledges and assessments invisible and/or irrelevant.