IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/iprjir/214010.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The ethics of big data in big agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Carbonell, Isabelle M.

Abstract

This paper examines the ethics of big data in agriculture, focusing on the power asymmetry between farmers and large agribusinesses like Monsanto. Following the recent purchase of Climate Corp., Monsanto is currently the most prominent biotech agribusiness to buy into big data. With wireless sensors on tractors monitoring or dictating every decision a farmer makes, Monsanto can now aggregate large quantities of previously proprietary farming data, enabling a privileged position with unique insights on a field-by-field basis into a third or more of the US farmland. This power asymmetry may be rebalanced through open-sourced data, and publicly-funded data analytic tools which rival Climate Corp. in complexity and innovation for use in the public domain.

Suggested Citation

  • Carbonell, Isabelle M., 2016. "The ethics of big data in big agriculture," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:iprjir:214010
    DOI: 10.14763/2016.1.405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/214010/1/IntPolRev-2016-1-405.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.14763/2016.1.405?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pretty, J.N. & Ball, A.S. & Lang, T. & Morison, J.I.L., 2005. "Farm costs and food miles: An assessment of the full cost of the UK weekly food basket," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-19, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simone Blanc & Stefano Massaglia & Filippo Brun & Cristiana Peano & Angela Mosso & Nicole Roberta Giuggioli, 2019. "Use of Bio-Based Plastics in the Fruit Supply Chain: An Integrated Approach to Assess Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Jongeneel, Roel & Polman, Nico & van der Ham, Corinda, 2014. "Costs and benefits associated with the externalities generated by Dutch agriculture," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182705, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Martina Schäfer & Melanie Jaeger-Erben & Aguinaldo Santos, 2011. "Leapfrogging to Sustainable Consumption? An Explorative Survey of Consumption Habits and Orientations in Southern Brazil," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 175-196, March.
    4. Saunders, Caroline M. & Barber, Andrew & Sorenson, Lars-Christian, 2009. "Food Miles, Carbon Footprinting and their potential impact on trade," 2009 Conference (53rd), February 11-13, 2009, Cairns, Australia 48051, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    5. Anna-Mara Schön & Marita Böhringer, 2023. "Land Consumption for Current Diets Compared with That for the Planetary Health Diet—How Many People Can Our Land Feed?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-35, May.
    6. Stéphane De Cara & Anne Fournier & Carl Gaigné, 2011. "Feeding the cities and greenhouse gas emissions: a new economic geography approach," Working Papers 1109, Chaire Economie du climat.
    7. Risku-Norja, Helmi & Maenpaa, Ilmo, 2007. "MFA model to assess economic and environmental consequences of food production and consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 700-711, February.
    8. Bougherara, Douadia & Grolleau, Gilles & Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2009. "Buy local, pollute less: What drives households to join a community supported farm?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1488-1495, March.
    9. Thyberg, Krista L. & Tonjes, David J., 2016. "Drivers of food waste and their implications for sustainable policy development," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 110-123.
    10. Enthoven, Laura & Van den Broeck, Goedele, 2021. "Local food systems: Reviewing two decades of research," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    11. Frits K. Van Evert & Daniel Gaitán-Cremaschi & Spyros Fountas & Corné Kempenaar, 2017. "Can Precision Agriculture Increase the Profitability and Sustainability of the Production of Potatoes and Olives?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-24, October.
    12. Carrie Furman & Carla Roncoli & Donald Nelson & Gerrit Hoogenboom, 2014. "Growing food, growing a movement: climate adaptation and civic agriculture in the southeastern United States," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(1), pages 69-82, March.
    13. de Boer, Joop & Helms, Martine & Aiking, Harry, 2006. "Protein consumption and sustainability: Diet diversity in EU-15," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 267-274, September.
    14. Vincenzina Caputo & Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr & Riccardo Scarpa, 2013. "Food miles or carbon emissions? Exploring labelling preference for food transport footprint with a stated choice study," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 57(4), pages 465-482, October.
    15. Elisa Giampietri & Dieter B. A. Koemle & Xiaohua Yu & Adele Finco, 2016. "Consumers’ Sense of Farmers’ Markets: Tasting Sustainability or Just Purchasing Food?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-14, November.
    16. Rosario Michel-Villarreal & Martin Hingley & Maurizio Canavari & Ilenia Bregoli, 2019. "Sustainability in Alternative Food Networks: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, February.
    17. Shears, Peter, 2013. "The Groceries Supply Code of Practice: Fairness for Farmers?," International Journal of Agricultural Management, Institute of Agricultural Management, vol. 3(1), pages 1-7, October.
    18. Terneus Páez, Carlos Francisco & Viteri Salazar, Oswaldo, 2020. "Analysis of agro-food transport in Ecuador faced with a possible reduction in the subsidy of diesel," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    19. Argiles, Josep M. & Brown, Nestor Duch, 2011. "A comparison of the economic and environmental performances of conventional and organic farming: evidence from financial statements," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, January.
    20. Biancamaria Torquati & Lucio Cecchini & Chiara Paffarini & Massimo Chiorri, 2021. "The economic and environmental sustainability of extra virgin olive oil supply chains: An analysis based on food miles and value chains," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 23(1), pages 1-28.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:iprjir:214010. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://policyreview.info/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.