A means to an end? The role of technology in growth and post-growth futures of agrifood work in a European context

This chapter examines the role of technology across the European ‘agrifood’ system, where agrifood serves as an umbrella term for the agriculture, horticulture, food and drink sectors. It starts with a description of the current conditions of the agrifood system, which are placed in a broader, historical context of food regimes in order to highlight the dysfunctional consequences of making economic growth the driver for organising food systems. The chapter employs Hans Jonas’ ‘imperative of responsibility’ as a caution that agrifood technologies are not an ethically neutral measure of progress, but rather transform relationships between workers and nature in different ways. Deployed as an engine of efficiency, unbridled growth and profit maximisation, technology vastly improves productivity through worker quantification such as time, motion and output tracking. We illustrate this through a case study of a daffodil farm in the South West of England. By contrast, when used for radically different purposes, which prioritise non-exploitative practices and collaborative relationships, technology can support sustainable well-being, conviviality, ecological production and meaningful work. We illustrate such uses and wider, post-growth possibilities through three case studies of alternative food networks – two in the UK: a community garden, a community-supported agriculture scheme and a network of social agricultural cooperatives in Italy. The chapter thus shows that agrifood technologies, as a means, are determined by the ends that drive their development. As a result, those ends should be consciously chosen according to their impact on humans and nature.