Conference Agenda

This paper investigates the potential drone technology, to enhance the sustainability of wild berry foraging in Finland. Wild berries represent a vital forest product in Nordic countries, but less than 10% of the annual crop is harvested [1]. With domestic reluctance toward commercial berry picking due to low economic incentives, reliance on foreign seasonal workers has grown significantly [2,3,4]. We adopt a multidisciplinary lens, engaging with philosophical and ethical reflections on the implications of introducing drones into natural foraging ecosystems. The analysis spans the three pillars of sustainability—economic, environmental, and social—while probing the tensions between technological advancements and their unintended consequences.

Economically, autonomous drones can enhance wild berry picking operations, leading to increased profits and viability. Drones equipped with advanced sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) offer transformative potential in this context. By building 3D forest models and precisely locating berry clusters, drones can optimise harvest operations, increase yields by 50%, and improve working conditions through navigation aids and support tools. These innovations could attract local and recreational foragers, reducing dependence on migrant labour. The paper also considers the interplay between commercial scalability and preserving access rights under Finland's "Everyone's Right" framework [5].

Environmentally, drone technologies provide tools for geospatial analysis, enabling sustainable resource management. By determining berry ripeness and productivity, drones facilitate harvesting at ideal times, minimising environmental impact. Real-time monitoring helps prevent overharvesting in vulnerable areas, supporting ecosystem health by guiding pickers to optimal areas while leaving sufficient resources for regeneration and wildlife. Additionally, empirical data gathered by drones and analysed with AI can be provided to governmental institutions to support evidence-based policymaking. This data-driven approach may inform temporary foraging restrictions when specific foraging areas are identified as vulnerable. However, risks such as wildlife disturbances [6], noise pollution [7,8], drone debris [9], and the environmental footprint of drone manufacturing and operation necessitate mitigation measures, including quieter designs, responsible waste management practices, and sustainable power solutions [10].

From a social perspective, wild berry foraging is deeply embedded in cultural traditions and recreational practices in Finland [11,12]. Drones can enhance this experience by improving efficiency and safety, encouraging local participation, and offering new opportunities for small-scale entrepreneurship. However, public concerns regarding privacy, noise, and the perceived encroachment of technology into traditional foraging practices must be addressed. The philosophical critique extends to autonomy, exploring whether technologies designed to "assist" foragers could inadvertently infantilise or alienate them. Moreover, public acceptance hinges on the perceived trade-off between technological benefits and the preservation of personal and cultural values. Transparent communication, community engagement, and ethical safeguards will be essential for societal buy-in.

This paper advocates for a nuanced approach to integrating drone technology into wild foraging, emphasizing the importance of ethical guidelines, regulatory oversight, and active stakeholder engagement. It challenges us to consider how innovations in robotics and AI intersect with longstanding human-environment relationships, urging a future where technological progress aligns with cultural respect and ecological stewardship.

By foregrounding these philosophical reflections, the paper seeks to contribute to broader discourses on sustainable technology in natural resource industries, providing a template for ethically responsible innovation.

References

[1] Steensig, S.L. (2021), Did Finland do enough to protect its foreign berry pickers from Covid? Euronews, 16/09/2021. https://www.euronews.com/2021/09/16/did-finland-do-enough-to-protect-its-foreign-berry-pickers-from-covid

[2] Ruokavirasto (2023). Luonnonmarjojen ja -sienten kauppaantulomäärät vuonna 2023. Marsi 2022. https://www.ruokavirasto.fi/globalassets/viljelijat/tuet-ja-rahoitus/marsi-2022-raportti.pdf

[3] Piha, E.A. (2022). Seasonal Labour Migration and Sustainable Development in the Finnish Wild Berry Industry. Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability. Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.

[4] Lacuna-Richman, C. (2021). The Seasonal Migration of Thai Berry Pickers in Finland: Non-wood Forest Products for Poverty Alleviation or Source of Imminent Conflict? In Social-Ecological Diversity and Traditional Food Systems (pp. 91-105). CRC Press.

[5] Ministry of the Environment. (2016). Everyman’s Right. Legislation and Practice.

[6] Frąckiewicz, M. (2023) The Role of Drones in Wildlife Research and Conservation. Accessed online (11/5/2023) https://ts2.space/en/the-role-of-drones-in-wildlife-research-and-conservation/

[7] Christie, K. S., Gilbert, S. L., Brown, C. L., Hatfield, M., & Hanson, L. (2016). Unmanned aircraft systems in wildlife research: current and future applications of a transformative technology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 14(5), 241-251.

[8] Mulero-Pázmány, M., Jenni-Eiermann, S., Strebel, N., Sattler, T., Negro, J. J., & Tablado, Z. (2017). Unmanned aircraft systems as a new source of disturbance for wildlife: A systematic review. PloS one, 12(6), e0178448.

[9] Nentwich, M., & Horváth, D. M. (2018). The vision of delivery drones: Call for a technology assessment perspective. TATuP-Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis/Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice, 27(2), 46-52.

[10] Chamberlain, A., & Griffiths, C. (2013). Wild food practices: understanding the wider implications for design and HCI. Green Food Technology: Ubicomp opportunities for reducing the environmental impacts of food, Ubicomp.

[11] Giraud, N. J., Kool, A., Karlsen, P., Annes, A., & Teixidor-Toneu, I. (2021). From trend to threat? Assessing the sustainability of wild edible plant foraging by linking local perception to ecological inference. bioRxiv.

[12] Hall, C. M. (2013). Why forage when you don't have to? Personal and cultural meaning in recreational foraging: a New Zealand study. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 8(2-3), 224-233.

“The rice-farming calendar” plays a very important role in rice farming in Japan. It is a manual for rice cultivation that is provided to farmers by regional agricultural cooperatives. It began in the 1950s and continues today. The calendar indicates what farmers need to do and when they need to do it in order to successfully cultivate rice. It contains wisdom based on the experience of local farmers and research results by agronomists and includes information on what agrochemicals and fertilizers to use and when to use them. Since agrochemical and fertilizer suppliers were also involved in the preparation of the calendar, farmers can order pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers semi-automatically by using the calendar.

Farmers can now achieve a semi-automated rice harvest with the rice farming calendar, making rice production, which used to require expertise, accessible to everyone. In this sense, the rice-farming calendar has certainly played an important role in the stable production of rice in Japan.

At the same time, however, it is also true that the rice-farming calendar has weakened the connection between humans and the rice paddies. Farmers no longer need to worry about the condition of their rice paddies, since following the rice-farming calendar automatically produces a harvest. The major problem ahead of this trend is that farmers will no longer have the opportunity to engage in ethical reflection on the condition of their farmland.

For example, the amount of agrochemicals used to control pests and weeds is set slightly higher than necessary when it is mentioned in the rice farming calendar, to ensure that there is no damage. Farmers apply the prescribed amount of agrochemicals without knowing much about the situation in their rice fields, such as what kind of insects are present or what kind of weeds are growing.

What can we do about it? Here, I would like to introduce the “pesticide reduction movement” that took place in Japan in the 1970s. While the movement's goal was to reduce the use of pesticides, the emphasis in the movement was to have farmers face every rice paddy one by one.

For example, various “devices,” such as “insect-watching boards”, appeared in the movement. These devices were intended to establish a relationship between the farmer (human) and the insects in the farmland, and between the farmer and the farmland.

The rice farming calendar is still in use today. While recognizing its merits, we need to rethink how we can build a relationship between the farmer and the farmland today.

In this paper, I explore what it means to prepare the field for AI and data intensive agroecological projects. Conducting research in the field demands choosing or modifying natural places to tailor them to machines and quantitative measurements, ensuring the production of reliable, consistent data while navigating the myriad challenges inherent in unpredictable environments where unexpected occurrences are commonplace (Kohler, 2002). This process involves the preparation of the field and the meticulous construction of objects that can be investigated. Although not always acknowledged as scientific labor, such activity plays a pivotal role in laying the foundation for meaningful research outcomes. Drawing parallels with scholarly insights into fossil construction, focusing particularly on the work of Wylie (2015), this presentation unravels the complexities of this essential yet often overlooked task. I ground my reflections on six months of ethnographic work and collaborations with an agroecological interdisciplinary project dealing with a plethora of objects such as data, insects, and fruits: Haly.Id. Haly.Id is a Horizon based in Northern Italy that develops innovative technologies like drones and camera traps for a targeted monitoring of the presence in crop fields of the brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha Halys (H. halys) – a highly invasive pest that feeds on fruits and seriously harms production in southern Europe, the United States, and eastern Asia (Bariselli, Bugiani and Maistrello, 2016; Ferrari et al., 2023; Giannetti et al., 2024).

The discussion is centered around three key dimensions that significantly influence the process. The first one pertains to the intricate tapestry of social relations. This includes how the division and integration of labor and expertise, along with the resulting dynamics, shape the direction of object construction and field preparation. In Haly.Id, for instance, decisions are fragmented across disciplines and skills, often resulting in the loss of farmers’ input by the time engineers design monitoring technologies. The second axe revolves around the environment. The preparation and construction of field and objects for automated agroecological research are shaped by factors such as unpredictable weather patterns and complex environmental interactions. Being concerned with natural fields rather than controlled lab environments, researchers have limited control over parameters such as temperature, humidity, and light exposure (Knorr-Cetina, 1992; De Bont, 2015). In Haly.Id, freezing and local floodings significantly influenced the development of pears as objects of study in plant-pest interactions. The third dimension I consider is the methods employed. Decisions regarding which aspects to monitor and how to integrate technologies with field elements such as territory, species composition, ecology, and climate greatly influence the preparation of the field and the construction of the objects involved. In Haly.Id, for example, these were shaped by the need to create a system that was not only technically achievable but also useful given pest control methods already on the ground.

Bibliography

Bariselli, M., Bugiani, R. and Maistrello, L. (2016) ‘Distribution and damage caused by Halyomorpha halys in Italy’, EPPO Bulletin, 46(2), pp. 332–334. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/epp.12289.

De Bont, R. (2015) Stations in the Field: A History of Place-Based Animal Research, 1870-1930. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Available at: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo18991041.html (Accessed: 24 February 2024).

Ferrari, V. et al. (2023) ‘Evaluation of the potential of Near Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging for monitoring the invasive brown marmorated stink bug’, Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 234, p. 104751.

Giannetti, D. et al. (2024) ‘First use of unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor Halyomorpha halys and recognize it using artificial intelligence’, Pest Management Science, n/a(n/a). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.8115.

Knorr-Cetina, K. (1992) ‘The Couch, the Cathedral, and the Laboratory: On the Relationship Between Experiment and Laboratory in Science’, in A. Pickering (ed.) Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Available at: https://philarchive.org/rec/CETTCT (Accessed: 29 January 2024).

Kohler, R.E. (2002) Landscapes and Labscapes: Exploring the Lab-Field Border in Biology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Available at: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3640043.html (Accessed: 18 January 2024).

Wylie, C.D. (2015) ‘“The artist’s piece is already in the stone”: Constructing creativity in paleontology laboratories’, Social Studies of Science, 45(1), pp. 31–55. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312714549794.