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From farm to fork, what AI means for your next meal—and the people behind it.
Automated greenhouses, voice recognition in fast-food ordering, wearable technology for livestock, dynamic pricing in grocery stores, and autonomous machinery in farm fields—the applications of AI are rapidly transforming the food supply chain.
In a timely examination of these applications, Sarah-Louise Ruder and Kelly Bronson reveal how the risks and benefits of AI in food cannot be separated from one another, nor from the fundamental and structural issues in global food systems. From labor and corporate power to sustainability and food security, the uses of AI have profound implications for food production and consumption. But this trajectory is neither inevitable nor predetermined. AI at the Table helps us understand the technologies behind our meals and offers concrete strategies for both individual and collective intervention.
Sarah-Louise Ruder is a Research Associate at the University of the Fraser Valley and an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University. Her food systems research examines the social and environmental impacts of novel technologies.
Kelly Bronson is the Canada Research Chair in Science and Society at the University of Ottawa. Her previous books include The Smartification of Everything and The Immaculate Conception of Data.
"A concise yet comprehensive tour of how new automation technology and digital surveillance shapes the way we plant, grow, and eat."—Alex Hanna, coauthor of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
"AI as a technology raises profound issues of sustainability, and those tensions show up nowhere better than in the food system. Sarah-Louise Ruder and Kelly Bronson's fluent, expertly written book exposes the structural injustices raised by AI in food production and encourages us all to join the debate. A must-read."—Nick Couldry, author of Predatory AI: How We Can Resist Corporate Capture of the Human Mind