Algorithmic Food Justice: Co-Designing More-than-Human Blockchain Futures for the Food Commons

Title of the Paper

Algorithmic Food Justice: Co-Designing More-than-Human Blockchain Futures for the Food Commons

Paper Information

• Subject Area: Blockchain technology and food justice, multi-species design, and sustainability
• Keywords: Food justice, commons, shared blockchain, multi-species design, sustainability, algorithmic governance, posthuman

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  1. The current globalized industrial food system is based on two core values:
     • Anthropocentrism, which places humans above other species on Earth.
     • Viewing food as a commodity, prioritizing economic value maximization, with profits concentrated among a few shareholders.
  2. This value system has led to unequal food distribution and exacerbated ecological crises, such as species extinction and soil degradation.
  3. While blockchain technology offers advantages in food supply chain management, existing applications primarily serve industrial agriculture, potentially furthering inequitable profit distribution and accelerating ecological damage.

• Significance:

  • Addressing social and ecological injustices within food systems is crucial for the sustainable survival of humans and multiple species.
  • Reimagining value distribution in food systems is vital for achieving multi-species coexistence, collaborative governance, and sustainable commons management.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  1. Exploring how blockchain's "decentralized" characteristics can extend benefits from a few individuals to multiple species.
  2. Delving into the concept of "commons," incorporating Elinor Ostrom's principles of commons design to introduce multi-species value systems.

Solution

• Methods and Approach:

  • The authors developed a project called "Algorithmic Food Justice," combining blockchain technology and multi-species collaborative design. Through a series of co-creative workshops, they explored the future of food systems.
  • Collaborating with the urban agriculture community at Spitalfields City Farm in London, they brought together growers, technologists, artists, and other stakeholders to co-design blockchain-driven food commons prototypes.

• Innovative Contributions:

  1. Introducing the perspective of "multi-species design," expanding food system governance to include non-human species (e.g., plants, animals, soil).
  2. Utilizing "blockchain smart contracts" as a technological medium, enabling non-human species to become decision-making agents in food governance.
  3. Innovatively embedding Ostrom's principles of commons design into blockchain systems.

• Implementation Steps and Technological Applications:

  1. Phase One: Mapping and Needs Analysis
     • Identifying multi-species (e.g., insects, plants, soil) and human stakeholders within the urban farm, analyzing their resource contributions and needs.
  2. Phase Two: Case Role-Playing
     • Simulating multi-species governance through live-action role-playing (LARP), where participants represent both humans and selected species, discussing fair resource distribution and sharing.
  3. Phase Three: Smart Contract Prototype Design
     • Designing and prototyping blockchain-driven decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) based on generated cases and discussions, embedding fair distribution rules and multi-species incentive mechanisms.
     • Tools like syntax cards were used to simplify the smart contract design process, considering technical implementation details (e.g., "healthy soil" proof protocols).

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:

  • Three blockchain prototype DAO designs were introduced:
    1. DAO’n to Earth: Determines community currency value based on soil health data (measured by sensors and AI), incentivizing positive soil practices.
    2. Fellowshit of Dark Matter: Uses smart contracts to redistribute waste materials to places where they can be reused, rewarding participants.
    3. Corn Council: Creates opportunities for human-plant interaction, where humans earn tokens by caring for plants and use "reputation points" to vote on commons proposals.

• Advantages:

  • Compared to traditional blockchain applications in food supply chains (e.g., traceability), these DAO prototypes focus more on reconfiguring values within food systems.
  • Provides a novel data-driven governance approach, encouraging ecological restoration and multi-species collaboration.

• Experimental and Evaluation Results:

  • Workshop activities created an open and inclusive participatory space, allowing diverse participants (e.g., growers, technology developers) to share multiple perspectives during discussions.
  • "Stress testing" analyses revealed potential risks, such as resource allocation inequities and misuse of value systems.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. Limitations:
     • Blockchain technology remains predominantly human-driven, with non-human species' interests represented largely through human assumptions.
     • Potential introduction of new social inequalities, such as biases embedded in code development.
  2. Future Directions:
     • Exploring ways to directly incorporate multi-species voices into decentralized autonomous organization decision-making.
     • Conducting in-depth research on inequality risks and energy consumption issues within existing systems.
     • Expanding research to other fields, such as urban commons management and digital resource commons.

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