Digital Technology in Agriculture

Digital Agriculture

Technology is rapidly transforming agriculture — but who benefits from that transformation matters.

Today, a handful of powerful agribusiness and pesticide corporations are driving the development of digital agriculture tools, from artificial intelligence and farm data platforms to automated machinery. 

Many digital agriculture tools are integrated into a broader corporate, industrial farming system that steers farmers toward costly, input-intensive practices, including continued dependence on toxic pesticides and genetically engineered crops designed to withstand harmful herbicides.

Rather than supporting a transition to more resilient farming, these corporate-owned tools deepen dependence on systems that contribute to climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental contamination, and threats to human health. Corporate-driven technologies in agriculture increase farmers’ dependence on proprietary products and services while outpacing government oversight that should protect people and the environment. 

This pattern is not new. Earlier waves of corporate-driven agricultural technologies — including synthetic pesticides and genetically engineered crops — were promoted as innovations that would benefit farmers and “feed the world.” In practice, they increased farmers’ dependence on patented products, concentrated corporate power, and outpaced regulatory safeguards, contributing to pesticide-related health harms, biodiversity loss, herbicide-resistant weeds, and widespread environmental contamination. As with digital agriculture today, the key question is not whether technology advances, but who controls it, who profits from it, and who bears the risks. 

Friends of the Earth is working to ensure that innovation serves the public interest—not corporate profits. We challenge agricultural technologies that concentrate power and deepen inequality while advocating for strong safeguards, transparent oversight, and protections for farmers’ rights and data sovereignty.