Briefly describe your work with agtech and explain what motivates you to invest your time in this work.

I am an anthropologist studying the development and commercialization processes of agriculture 4.0 technologies. I do so by focusing on the networks of relations around early-stage food and agtech startups in the Dutch innovation ecosystem ‘Foodvalley’ around Wageningen University & Research. During my ethnographic fieldwork in the Foodvalley, I learned that innovation in the agri-food sector is the outcome of collaborations between multiple actors, including scientists-turned-founders, innovation intermediaries, incumbent companies, farmers, knowledge institutes, venture capital fund manager firms, as well as governmental support programs. In my work I am interested to better understand these processes from the perspective of the people involved. Given the multiple crisis associated with our food systems, I believe that to develop a critical understanding of the way innovation is organized and practiced is a prerequisite to change these processes where necessary in order to tackle these challenges. My motivation to study agrifood technology development thus comes from the hope that providing reflexive knowledge about agrifood technology innovation can contribute to the development of solutions that have a positive impact on the lives of the people impacted by them as well as to advance sustainability.

Briefly describe the way(s) in which you assess/measure social and environmental impact in your work on agtech innovation.

In my research I am not assessing nor measure social or environmental impact myself. Instead, I am interested how the diverse people and organizations involved in agtech innovation think about the social and environmental impact of their work as well as how and to what extend these categories animate their practices (or not).

Our research and this workshop aim to investigate tensions between the demands/imperatives of the tech-finance industry and the demands/imperatives of social-environmental problem solving. Please comment on this problem frame in general, and in relation to specific examples from your own experience.

In the scientific literature about agtech innovation this tension between financial imperatives and social-environmental impact is well-recognized and discussed. In general, I think this tension needs to be at the core of every critical analysis of food and agtech innovation. In many conversations with founders, innovation intermediaries, as well as staff from agri-food incumbents I learned that promising food and agtech startups are very likely to eventually be acquired by incumbent companies. These incumbents function as attractive exit opportunities as they over the last 30 years have outsourced big parts of their own research and development departments to startups. Instead of disrupting the sector and unsustainable business practices, I therefore think there is a danger that agtech innovation eventually caters to the interests of already powerful actors in the food system. To understand the tension between financial incentives and social-environmental considerations I therefore think that it is necessary to also consider the larger network involved in the coproduction of agtech innovation and how the interests of these actors shape the way these technological solutions are eventually being used.

To investigate the tensions suggested above, we rely on the concept of “mission drift”. We understand mission drift as a tendency for social and environmental impact commitments of individuals and organizations to leak out over time due to pressures and opportunities to expand revenue, valuation and capital gains. Our project aims to investigate mission drift applied to entrepreneurial ventures as well as to organizations dedicated to supporting innovation. Please comment on this thesis in general, and in relation to specific things you have experienced where possible. To the extent you find this thesis useful, what strategies can you identify to defend against mission drift?

As mentioned above, I think the danger of mission-drift is very real among the different organizations and actors involved in the innovation process around food and agtech startups. In line with the goals of the workshop, I therefore think that to better understand how, where, and why mission-drift is likely to occur is key to advance the capability of innovation systems to produce innovations that have a positive social and environmental impact.

Please share something you would like to take away from the workshop.

I would be happy to leave the workshop with a better understanding of how practitioners, innovation intermediaries, and investors think about their role in advancing the sustainable transition in agri-food systems in relation to the danger of mission-drift. As mission-drift also is a theme that is present in my data, I would like to take away more tools to better grasp this phenomenon in my research. I think that the concept of mission-drift is very useful to analyze this tendency of agtech innovation systems and enables a more critical understanding that goes beyond reproducing the hegemonic discourse of mainstream actors of the innovation system.
Furthermore, what I would like to take away are new contacts within the scientific community studying agtech innovation as well as within the US-innovation ecosystem around food and agtech startups.