Sippel Sarah Ruth, Dolinga Moritz
Westfälische-Wilhems-Universität Münster, Institute of Geography, Heisenbergstr. 2, 48149 Münster, Germany.
SFB 1199, Leipzig University, Nikolaistr. 6-10, 04109 Leipzig, Germany.
Agric Human Values. 2023;40(2):475-488. doi: 10.1007/s10460-022-10383-6. Epub 2022 Oct 31.
Over the past decade, investments in agricultural and food technology startups have grown to previously unknown dimensions. Mushrooming agri-food tech startups that promise to solve critical issues in the agri-food system through technological innovation are increasingly perceived as an attractive new investment opportunity for venture capitalists and investors. This paper investigates how digital agri-food technologies are narrated, constructed, and promoted for financial investment. Through qualitative content analysis of agri-food tech industry reports, articles, and commentaries we trace the logic, rationales, and narratives of this most recent investment rush, and reveal its immanent techno-finance fixes. We conceptualize the agri-food imaginaries produced within the agri-food tech discourse as imaginaries, and argue that they are specifically tailored to construct, incentivize, and legitimize this new agri-food tech space for financial investment. In their attempt to raise money from investors, venture capital firms further fuel this development by discursively creating an 'agri-food tech investment rush'-similar to the land and gold rushes of the past. Investments in agri-food tech startups, however, are presented to investors as both a profitable investment opportunity as well as a moral obligation, allowing for food production to cope with neo-malthusian and environmental threats. This paper contributes to our understanding of digitization as a socio-technical project, which includes the active envisioning and promotion of desirable agri-food futures.
在过去十年中，对农业和食品科技初创企业的投资规模已增长到前所未有的程度。如雨后春笋般涌现的农业食品科技初创企业承诺通过技术创新解决农业食品系统中的关键问题，它们越来越被视为风险投资家和投资者有吸引力的新投资机会。本文研究了数字农业食品技术如何被描述、构建和推广以吸引金融投资。通过对农业食品科技行业报告、文章和评论进行定性内容分析，我们追溯了这一最新投资热潮的逻辑、基本原理和叙事，并揭示了其内在的技术金融解决方案。我们将农业食品科技话语中产生的农业食品想象概念化为想象，并认为它们是专门为构建、激励和使这个新的农业食品科技金融投资空间合法化而量身定制的。在试图从投资者那里筹集资金时，风险投资公司通过话语创造一种“农业食品科技投资热潮”（类似于过去的土地和淘金热）进一步推动了这一发展。然而，对农业食品科技初创企业的投资向投资者展示为既是一个有利可图的投资机会，也是一项道德义务，以使粮食生产能够应对新马尔萨斯主义和环境威胁。本文有助于我们将数字化理解为一个社会技术项目，其中包括对理想农业食品未来的积极设想和推广。
