Social Implications of Emerging Technologies in Agriculture

Welcome to the website for the Social Implications of Emerging Technologies in Agriculture workshop!  

We will periodically be updating this space with information regarding the workshop, including schedule details and resources. This workshop is funded by National Institute of Food and Agriculture, NIFA, USDA (Award #2020-67023-31365). The Co-PIs are: Wenda Bauchspies, Catherine Kendig, and Kurt Richter at Michigan State University. 

About the Workshop 

This proposal is to host an interdisciplinary three half-day workshop on the social dimensions of emerging agricultural technologies such as gene drive, genome editing technologies and related emerging bio-technologies. Scholars and researchers working in the biological and physical sciences as well as the social sciences and humanities will be invited to participate in the workshop focused on ethical uses, social impacts, cultural issues and intended and un-intended consequences of emerging bio-technologies in agriculture. The workshop will provide a participant focused approach to nurture, facilitate and expand conversations across, through and within disciplines such as:  Agriculture; Agronomy; BioEthics; Biosciences; Communication Studies; Philosophy of Science; Science and Technology Studies (STS); Sociology; and Sustainability Studies.  

The workshop aims to bring interdisciplinary researchers who are interested in collaborating on research focusing on the social implications of emerging technology in agriculture either in their research or in their teaching. The immediate objective of the workshop is to develop a blueprint with which to consider challenges and issues surrounding a research agenda that engages with the scientific, ethical, regulatory, and social consequences of developing agricultural use of genome editing technologies in general, and various specific emerging bio-technologies in particular that will include but not be limited to the development and release of gene-drive modified organisms.  

It aims to provide an incubator for exploratory research in these areas through a series of discussions from participating faculty that will represent new work in agriculture, biosciences, and STS intermixed with small and large group discussions designed to delve into the complexity of the issue through open and structured interdisciplinary dialogues. The workshop will equip participating faculty with conceptual and methodological tools with which to consider social and ethical implications of emerging technologies in agriculture, provide structured interdisciplinary exchanges that will facilitate collaborative thinking  and enable them to consider an invaluable opportunity to incubate ideas during the workshop that might lead to the submission of grant proposals, development of new interdisciplinary curricula, or the planning for community engaged projects. In this way, the workshop will have a substantial multiplier effect as each faculty participant will be able to engage in several interdisciplinary projects focusing on the social implications of emerging technology in agriculture in future research, and in modeling this kind of research for their students in their own respective universities, and communities.