Lim Li Ching is co-chair of IPES-Food, a global thinktank that advocates for sustainable global food systems, and lead author of the report, titled Head In The Cloud. She says so-called “Big Tech” and “Big Ag” are redefining innovation on their own terms.
This “unholy alliance” is dominating agriculture, funding, research, and policy with expensive and proprietary technologies, says Ching, while farmer-led, open-source, and ecological innovations, often more relevant to smallholders, are sidelined.
“This alliance creates technological lock-ins,” warned Ching, who is also a senior researcher at Third World Network, a network of global development organisations.
