Precision Farming Article

[Marc Safley <Marc.Safley@usda.gov>]

The following is for your information:


Wolf, Steven A. and Spencer D. Wood.  "Precision Farming: 
Environmental Legitimation, Commodification of Information, and Industrial
Coordination".  RURAL SOCIOLOGY, 62(2) 1997, pp. 180-206.


ABSTRACT:   Precision farming--use of digital geographically referenced
data in farming operations--is the leading example of a cluster of
emerging information technologies in agriculture.  To date, the vast
majority of academic and promotional literature addressing precision
farming has focused on the field and farm-level economic and
environmental benefits of site-specific allocation of crop inputs (fertilizer,
pesticides, and seeds.)  In this paper, (the authors) question popular
perceptions of the technology and pursue a sociological analysis through
identification of consistencies between precision farming and the political
and economic requirements of an industrializing agriculture.  Through
promotion of a public commitment and a technical mechanism to mitigate
farm chemical pollution, precision farming legitimates chemically-based
agriculture in an era of rising environmentalism.  Further, precision
farming is based on, and will advance, the commodification of agricultural
information--appropriation of field and farm-level deicision processes
through substitution of capital for local knowledge.  By automating
farm-level data collection and information management and by reducing
agriculturalists' reliance on public sector agricultural research and
extension, precision farming supports further integration of on-farm
activity into a coordinated system of industrial manufacture.

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