Every new tractor now contains built-in sensors that collect data and stream it to cloud-based infrastructure. Seed and chemical companies are using these data, and these agribusinesses are a form of big tech alongside firms like Google and Facebook.

The Immaculate Conception of Data peeks behind the secretive legal agreements surrounding agricultural big data to trace how it is used and with what consequences. Agribusinesses are among the oldest oligopoly corporations in the world, and their concentration gives them an advantage over other food system actors. Kelly Bronson explores what happens when big data get caught up in pre-existing arrangements of power. Her richly ethnographic account details the work of corporate scientists, farmers using the data, and activist “hackers” building open-source data platforms. Actors working in private and public contexts have divergent views on whom new technology is for, how it should be developed, and what kinds of agriculture it should support. Surprisingly, despite their differences, these groups share a way of speaking about data and its value for the future. Bronson calls this the immaculate conception of data, arguing that this phenomenon is a dangerous framework for imagining big data and what it might do for society.

Drawing our attention to agriculture as an important new site for big tech criticism, The Immaculate Conception of Data uniquely bridges science and technology studies, critical data studies, and food studies, bringing to light salient issues related to data justice and a sustainable food system.

Kelly Bronson is Canada Research Chair in Science and Society at the University of Ottawa.

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“In The Immaculate Conception of Data, Kelly Bronson plunges into an increasingly intricate web of precision farming, agribusiness, computerized models, data accumulation, and the current (d)evolution of modern food production. The ongoing attempt to marry traditional crop cultivation with computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) is a perplexing fusion of two very different worlds, which Bronson does an excellent job of critically analyzing. For anyone interested in gaining a critical perspective on the accelerated digitalization of the planet, as well as a better understanding of why farming is increasingly spoken of with a language and jargon that previously belonged to computer scientists and programmers, [this book] is an exceptional starting point.” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development

“The Immaculate Conception of Data shines in its ability to speak meaningfully to a variety of audiences from those interested in data privacy, the future of agriculture and science studies. The book also importantly reminds us that, despite their prominence, agricultural technologies and the data they collect are not immaculate. They are produced, trained and contained by agronomists and even activists. While I have been left contemplating these critical, nuanced arguments, I walked away with a practical point: Despite all the hype, data did not grow the wheat in my breakfast cereal.” Journal of Agrarian Change

“Kelly Bronson’s concise and reader-friendly book constitutes a necessary warning about the risks of putting a blind faith in the promise of digitisation. Behind the book’s message lies a powerful futuristic imaginary that reproduces capitalism and its consequences—but also diminishes the critical reflectiveness of practitioners and scholars and compromises their emphasis on food justice. The prophetic, positivist aim to empower ‘raw data’ to shape reality serves economic interests eager to modify and capitalise on conventional farmers’ practices. Her call for politicising our perceptions of data is therefore salutary.” Sociologia Ruralis