New Technologies in International Law / Tymofeyeva, Crhák et al.

As it will be shown below, one of the possible avenues in taking a proactive approach would be the encouragement of responsible research and innovation. The latter has received growing attention, with business ethics professor and consultant Michael A. Santoro warning technology companies that if they don’t stay ahead of responsible innovation, ‘they risk losing their competitive edge’. 781 2. The application of Responsible Research and Innovation to digital agriculture The current model of innovation has been based on technological and commercialized innovation. 782 Within this model, the knowledge of farmers and the exchange of this knowledge amongst themselves has been underestimated. 783 Specifically, the model of transfer-of-technology which entails the creation of knowledge and its dissemination by experts has increasingly been criticized for the impacts it has had, but also for ignoring the importance of farmer knowledge and their peer-to-peer transfer of that knowledge. 784 In contrast, the UN Secretary General in a Report in 2021, underlined that the national assessments of technology interventions should identify the “needs and demands of small-scale producers and vulnerable groups and incorporate them into the design and application of agricultural technologies”. 785 He also recommended an active involvement in “decision-making on research, development and innovation” for small scale producers, including women, young people and indigenous peoples. 786 However, currently there is a prevalence of private development of agricultural innovations. To illustrate, in a 2023 Report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it was found that private investments in research and development for agriculture are increasing faster than public sector investments. The same report underlined the need to increase public research investments, because they can prioritize goals and needs such as environmental protection and sustainability over economic profit, which is not necessarily the case for private investments. 787 In light of the above, it is important for digital agriculture technology to be designed while taking the needs and priorities of the groups affected into consideration and also in an attempt to serve society at large. The need for designing technology while having in mind the needs of the society is reflected in the discourse on Responsible 781 Santoro M, ‘A Regulatory Tsunami is Coming to Silicon Valley: Tech Companies Must Adopt Responsible Innovation or Risk Losing Their Competitive Edge’ ( Cambridge Core Blog , 9 June 2023) accessed 29 October 2023. 782 El Bilali H, ‘Relation between Innovation and Sustainability in the Agro-Food System’ (2018) 30 Italian Journal of Food Science 200, p. 212. 783 Ibid. 784 Jackson-Smith D and Veisi H, ‘A Typology to Guide Design and Assessment of Participatory Farming Research Projects’ (2023) 5 Socio-Ecological Practice Research 159, p. 159. 785 UNGA, ‘Report of the Secretary General on Agriculture technology for sustainable development: leaving no one behind’, UN Doc A/76/227 (2021), para 80. 786 Ibid. 787 Ruane J and Ramasamy S, ‘Global investments in agricultural research: Where are we and where are we going?’ ( FAO , 2023) accessed 29 October 2023.

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