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Constructing agri-food for finance: startups, venture capital and food future imaginaries

Author

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  • Sarah Ruth Sippel

    (Westfälische-Wilhems-Universität Münster, Institute of Geography
    SFB 1199, Leipzig University)

  • Moritz Dolinga

    (SFB 1199, Leipzig University)

Abstract

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 financialized 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Ruth Sippel & Moritz Dolinga, 2023. "Constructing agri-food for finance: startups, venture capital and food future imaginaries," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(2), pages 475-488, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:40:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s10460-022-10383-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-022-10383-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mascha Gugganig & Karly Ann Burch & Julie Guthman & Kelly Bronson, 2023. "Contested agri-food futures: Introduction to the Special Issue," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 787-798, September.
    2. Julie Guthman & Madeleine Fairbairn, 2024. "Speculating on collapse: Unrealized socioecological fixes of agri-food tech," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(8), pages 2055-2069, November.
    3. Haifeng Wang & Guangsi Li & Yunzhi Hu, 2023. "The Impact of the Digital Economy on Food System Resilience: Insights from a Study across 190 Chinese Towns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-19, December.

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