On 24th of March, we discussed Technology assessment for agroecology, confronting diverse attempts to assess the positive and negative effective or possible impacts of a technology on our communities. Listen to the recording on EcoAgTube.
(image credit: Jenni Ottilie Keppler)
Peer-to-peer Encounter on technology assessment for agroecology (by Katie Whiddon)
On 24 March, over 50 participants joined a new GIAA Encounter dedicated to technology assessment for agroecology. NGOs, FAO colleagues, grassroots organisations and training centres came together for a peer-to-peer discussion. The session benefited from the perspective of Tzoumakers, an open lab in Greece where communities cooperatively design and manufacture tools for small-scale agricultural production, and of L’Atelier Paysan, the French cooperative that works with farmers to design and build tools and farm infrastructure adapted to peasant agroecology.
The exchange opened a shared space to reflect on a simple but powerful starting point: knowledge is in the hands of the people — food producers are also knowledge and innovation producers. From this perspective, digital tools should not extract knowledge and power from communities, but support them in organising, sharing and strengthening their food systems.
The exchange highlighted that gaining sovereignty and power at grassroots level is central to agroecology. Food sovereignty is also tech sovereignty. This means building our own digital literacy, critically assessing the tools proposed to our communities, and asking whether they help protect data, preserve knowledge, deepen collaboration and support autonomy.
These GIAA Encounters are spaces for peer-to-peer discussion, where different experiences are brought into conversation and where practical questions can be explored collectively: what digital sovereignty can look like, how technology assessment can be done from below, how data and knowledge can be protected, and how communities can build an informed digital toolbox grounded in their own realities.
This webinar was associated to the Digital Sovereignty praxis course facilitated by Schola Campesina with GIAA and partners and offered through the University of Vermont Institute for Agroecology. You can read more about the course here: https://www.uvm.edu/instituteforagroecology/agroecology-training
#Agroecology #DigitalSovereignty #FoodSovereignty #GrassrootsInnovation #OpenSource #ScholaCampesina #GIAA