Hi Tech Hi Touch – Julie Guthman

Farm To Table Talk

'High Tech High Touch' is an early Silicon Valley term that implies a dynamic paradox. It is still a paradox in today's agriculture where "faster/bigger" and "slower/smaller" each have a wave. In the wake of this wave, Social Scientists like Dr. Julie Guthman of the University of California in Santa Cruz are asking "how do you bring digital products to a biological production system?" The tried and true Silicon Valley ways don't always work for the split personalities of today and tomorrow's farms. Dr. Guthman is a geographer and professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she conducts research on the conditions of possibility for food system transformation in the US. [e-mail]