Digital technologies used for agricultural production, often referred to as AgTech, is a burgeoning industry currently valued at $17 billion and expected to grow exponentially. With all this excitement around technological growth, there has been virtually no exploration of how AgTech will impact the millions of farmworkers in the US, the majority of whom are immigrants. This project will explore the impact of the emerging AgTech industry on farm labor, and how the industry can be held accountable to support farmworker communities rather than harming them. 

Bio:
Samir L. Doshi, Ph.D. is the Network Manager for the San Mateo Food System Alliance, a public-private alliance spanning the SF Bay Peninsula that seeks to improve the vibrant and interdependent food system to be more environmentally sustainable, economically resilient and socially just across urban and rural communities.

Samir has worked for the World Wildlife Fund helping to design their international technology and innovation strategy. He also worked for Obama Administration as a Senior Scientist and Deputy Division Chief for the USAID’s Global Development Lab, where he led programming on agile development, responsible data and disaster/emergency feedback systems so programming could be more responsive and adaptive to needs on the ground. Samir has also held teaching and research appointments at the University of Cambridge, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Santa Fe Institute and as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University. His Ph.D. research specialized in Systems Ecology, and his MS and BS focus was in Development Economics and Computer Systems Engineering, respectively. Prior to his academic career, Samir worked as an environmental engineer and humanitarian responder for local organizations and indigenous communities around the world. He has also worked and facilitated extensively on issues of racial, gender and intersectional justice for communities pushing for a Just Transition. Samir sits on the board of the Center for Whole Communities, as well as the Humanitarian Innovation Fund.