Keywords
Data power; Agri-food data governance; Digital agriculture; Human Rights in Agriculture; Human Rights in Data
Document Type
Article
English Abstract
This article builds on the analytical framework I co-developed in “Power Contestations in the Use of Agri-food Data: Towards a Sustainability Governance Approach” by expanding its application and demonstrating its relevance to human rights concerns. Drawing on sectoral examples, the article examines five interrelated dimensions of power—agenda-setting, technology development and deployment, politics of knowledge and evidence, hegemonic alliances, and harvesting data and value—and shows how these dynamics produce structural inequities and violations of rights to food, participation, non-discrimination, privacy, and cultural integrity. While the human rights system has limitations, as most treaties predate the emergence of big data and lack specific provisions for addressing technology-related harms, it nevertheless offers a valuable normative and legal framework for accountability. By embedding human rights as a core accountability mechanism, the article refines the framework’s analytical value and enhances its accessibility for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to advance equity and accountability in agri-food governance.
Citation Information
Ezirigwe, Jane. "From Framework to the Field: How ‘Data Power’ in Agri-Food Systems Violates Human Rights." The Transnational Human Rights Review 11. (2024) : 1-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2563-4631.1109 https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/thr/vol11/iss1/2
References
1 Maria V Ciasullo et al, "When Digitalization Meets Omnichannel in International Markets: A Case Study from the Agri-food Industry" (2022) 12:2 Administrative Sciences 68. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci12020068
2 Louisa Prause, Sarah Hackfort & Margit Lindgren, "Digitalization and the Third Food Regime" (2021) 38 Agriculture & Human Values, 641 at 645. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10161-2
3 Ibid.
4 Kateryna Schroeder, Julian Lampietti & Ghada Elabed, What's Cooking: Digital Transformation of the Agrifood System, (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2021) at 2. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1657-4
5 Charlie Mitchell, "How an AG Company Most People Have Never Heard of Could Prove Itself More Disruptive than Netflix or Airbnb" (30 April 2019), online (article): .
6 Mike Vanderroost et al, "The Digitization of a Food Package's Life Cycle: Existing and Emerging Computer Systems in the Pre-Logistics Phase" (2017) 87 Computers in Industry 15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2017.01.004
7 Prause, supra note 2.
8 Alistair Fraser, "Land Grab/Data Grab: Precision Agriculture and its New Horizons" (2019) 46:5 J Peasant Studies 893. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2017.1415887
9 Michael Carolan, "Big Data and Food Retail: Nudging Out Citizens by Creating Dependent Consumers" (2018) 90 Geoforum 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.02.006
10 Rambod Abiri et al, "Application of Digital Technologies for Ensuring Agricultural Productivity" (2023) 9:12 Heliyon e22601 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22601 ; Haya R Hasan et al, "Smart Agriculture Assurance: IoT and Blockchain for Trusted Sustainable Produce" (2024) 224 Computers & Electronics in Agriculture 109184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2024.109184
11 Jane Ezirigwe, Jeremy De Beer & Chidi Oguamanam, "Power Contestations in the Use of Agri-Food Data: Towards a Sustainability Governance Approach" (2024) 6:3 L Technology & Humans 102. https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.3357
12 Penney W Jonathon, "AI and Legal Scholarship: Reflections on Evolution and Influences" in Giuseppina D'Agostino, Aviv Gaon & Carole Piovesan, eds, Leading Legal Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and a Toolkit for Lawyers and the Law (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2021); Salvatore Caserta, "Digitalization of the Legal Field and the Future of Large Law Firms" (2020) 9:2 Laws 1 https://doi.org/10.3390/laws9020014 ; Andrew M Perlman, "Generative AI and the Future of Legal Scholarship" (2024), online (research paper): https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5072765 ; Hafiz Gaffar, "Implications of Digitalization and AI in the Justice System: A Glance at the Socio-legal Angle" (2024) 10:3 L & World 154 https://doi.org/10.36475/10.3.14 ; Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich, "Exploring the Dark and Unexpected Sides of Digitalization: Toward a Critical Agenda" (2021) 28:1 Organization 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508420968184
13 See Wendy H Wong, We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2023).
14 Datafication refers to the process by which subjects, objects, and practices are transformed into digital data (see Clare Southerton, "Datafication" in Laurie A Schintler & Connie L McNeely, eds, Encyclopedia of Big Data (New York: Springer, 2022)
15 Ezirigwe, Beer & Oguamanam, supra note 11.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Jeremy de Beer, Chidi Oguamanam, & Éliane Ubalijoro, Ownership, Control, and Governance of the Benefits of Data for Food and Agriculture: A Conceptual Analysis and Strategic Framework for Governance Global Open Data for Agriculture & Nutrition (Global Open Data for Agriculture & Nutrition; Future Earth Canada Hub; Sustainability in the Digital Age, 2023); Sarah-Louise Ruder & Hannah Wittman, "Agricultural Data Governance from the Ground Up: Exploring Data Justice with Agri-food Movements" (2025) 12:1 Big Data & Society 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251330182
19 Ezirigwe, Beer & Oguamanam, supra note 11.
20 Oona A Hathaway, "Do Human Rights Treaties Make a Difference?" (2002) 111:8 Yale LJ 1935; Andrew Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors (Oxford University Press, 2006); Makau W Mutua, "Savages, Victims, and Saviors: The Metaphor of Human Rights" (2001) 42:1 Harvard Intl LJ 201; Jane Ezirigwe, "Double Standards in International Law: Critical Reflections for an Academic Lens for Teaching and Research" (21 July 2025), online: . https://doi.org/10.2307/797642
21 Linnet Taylor, "What is Data Justice? The Case for Connecting Digital Rights and Freedoms Globally" (2017) 4:2 Big Data & Society 1; Alessandro Mantelero, "AI and Big Data: A Blueprint for a Human Rights, Social and Ethical Impact Assessment" (2018) 34:4 Computer L & Security Rev 754; Nick Couldry & Ulises A Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating it for Capitalism (Standford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019); Frederike Kaltheuner & Elettra Bietti, "Data is Power: Towards Additional Guidance on Profiling and Automated Decision-making in the GDPR" (2018) 2:2 J Information Rights, Policy & Practice 1.
22 Rainer Grote, Mariela M Antoniazzi & Davide Paris, "Compliance in International Human Rights Law: Issues, Concept, Methodology" in Rainer Grote, Mariela M Antoniazzi & Davide Paris, eds, Research Handbook on Compliance in International Human Rights Law, (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021). https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788971126.00007
23 Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights, 1st ed, (Oxford University Press, 2001); General Comment No. 36: Right to Life, CCPR, UN Doc CCPR/C/GC/36 (2018); Philip Alston, "The Populist Challenge to Human Rights" (2017) 9:1 J Human Rights Practice 1.
24 Mantelero, supra note 21; Government of Canada, "Strengthening Privacy for the Digital Age: Proposals to Modernize the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act" (21 May 2019), online: ; Kayte Spector-Bagdady et al, "Principles for Health Information Collection, Sharing, and Use: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association" (2023) 148:13 Circulation 1061; Atlan, "Data Ethics in 2025: Principles, Frameworks & Key Challenges" (7 December 2024), online: .
25 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, A Human Rights-Based Approach to Data Leaving No One Behind in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2018) at 2.
26 Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, "Privacy as a Fundamental Right in the Digital Age: Keynote remarks at the 25th Annual Vancouver International Privacy & Security Summit (VIPSS)" (24 February, 2023), online: .
27 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 December 1996, 993 UNTS 3 (entered into force 23 March 1976, accession by Canada 19 May 1976).
28 EU, Regulation 2016/679 General Data Protection Regulation, [2016] OJ, L119/1. https://doi.org/10.69554/EGKD1191
29 Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 (Afr).
30 Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, SC 2000, c 5.
31 The principle of "data minimization" requires that data controllers collect only the personal information that is strictly necessary for achieving a clearly defined purpose. Additionally, they must retain this data only for as long as needed to fulfill that purpose. Simply put, data controllers should neither gather excessive personal data nor hold onto it longer than necessary. This principle is enshrined in Article 5(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Article 4(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, which provide that personal data must be "adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed". See European Data Protection Supervisor, "Glossary" (last visited 21 October 2025), online: .
32 The principle of purpose limitation requires that personal data be collected solely for clearly defined, specific, and legitimate objectives. Furthermore, it must not be processed in ways that are incompatible with those original purposes. See Data Protection Commission, "Principles of Data Protection" (last visited 21 October 2025), online: .
33 Data security involves safeguarding digital information against unauthorized access, corruption, or theft throughout its entire lifecycle. See Tom Krantz & Alexandra Jonker, "What is Data Security?" (last visited 21 October 2025), online: .
34 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, supra note 27.
35 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, GA Res 73/165, UNGAOR, 73rd Sess, Supp No 53A, UN Doc A/73/589/Add.2 (2018) art 2.
36 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, GA Res 61/295, UNGAOR, 61st Sess, Supp No 53, UN Doc A/61/53 (2007) art 17.
37 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, A Human Rights-Based Approach to Data Leaving No One Behind in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2018) at 3.
38 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, GA Res 2106 (XX), UNGAOR (1965).
39 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, GA Res 35/180 (1979).
40 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, supra note 27.
41 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, supra note 35.
42 Mark Ryan, Paula Gürtler & Artur Bogucki, "Will the Real Data Sovereign Please Stand Up? An EU Policy Response to Sovereignty in Data Spaces" (2024) 32 Intl JL & IT 1. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijlit/eaae006
43 Rosa M Gil, Mark Ryan & Roberto García, "Sovereignty by Design and Human Values in Agriculture Data Spaces" (2025) 42 Agriculture & Human Values 1413. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-024-10674-0
44 "Honouring the 'Free' in Free, Prior and Informed Consent" (4 October 2022), online: .
45 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, supra note 35 at art 19.
46 Convention on Biological Diversity, "Article 8(j) - Traditional Knowledge, Innovations and Practices" (last updated9 October 2025), online: .
47 Ben C Cheong, "Transparency and Accountability in AI Systems: Safeguarding Wellbeing in the Age of Algorithmic Decision-Making" (2024) 6 Frontiers in Human Dynamics 1. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2024.1421273
48 Ag Data, "Core Principles" (last visited 21 October 2025), online: .
49 Claudio Novelli, Mariarosaria Taddeo & Luciano Floridi, "Accountability in Artificial Intelligence: What it is and How it Works" (2023) 39:4 AI & Society 1971. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01635-y
50 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (United Nations, 2011).
51 Ezirigwe, Beer & Oguamanam, supra note 11.
52 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNGA, 3rd Sess, UN Doc A/810 (1948) GA Res 217A (III).
53 Sandra L Resodihardjo, "The Agenda-Setting Process and Crises: Toward a Conceptual Framework" in Eric K Stern, ed, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Crisis Analysis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780190610623.001.0001
54 Nikolaoas Zahariadis, ed, Handbook of Public Policy Agenda Setting (Cheltenham, UK: Elgar Publishers, 2016). https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784715922
55 Flor Avelino, "Theories of Power and Social Change. Power Contestations and their Implications for Research on Social Change and Innovation" (2021) 14:3 J Political Power 425 at 426. https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2021.1875307
56 Anne Trafton, "How Expectation Influences Perception: Neuroscientists Find Brain Activity Patterns that Encode our Beliefs and Affect how we Interpret the World Around Us" (15 July 2019), online: .
57 Institut national de santé publique du Québec, "Understanding Public Policy Agenda Setting Using the 4 P's Model: Power, Perception, Potency and Proximity" (December 2020), online: at 4.
58 Ibid.
59 IPES Food, Unravelling the Food-Health Nexus: Addressing Practices, Political Economy, and Power Relations to Build Healthier Food Systems (IPES-Food, 2017).
60 Jennifer Clapp & Doris Fuchs, "Agri-food Corporations, Global Governance, and Sustainability: A Framework for Analysis" in Clapp Jennifer & Doris A Fuchs, eds, Corporate Power in Global Agri-food Governance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009) 1 at 8. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262012751.003.0004
61 Food and Agriculture Organization & International Telecommunication Union, Status of Digital Agriculture in 47 Sub-Saharan African Countries (Rome: FAO & ITU, 2022).
62 World Bank Group, "Future of Food: Harnessing Digital Technologies to Improve Food System Outcomes" (23 April 2019), online: .
63 Xinyi Lim, "How Technology Can Help Address Challenges in Agriculture" (22 March 2022), online:
64 NARO, "Achievement of SDGs Through "Society 5.0" in Agriculture and Food Industry" (2020) online: .
65 Nathan Quigley, "Xarvio Digital Farming Solutions and John Deere Collaborate to Help European Farmers Optimize Crop Production and Reduce Environmental Impacts this Season" (13 December 2021), online: .
66 Trishan Panch, Heather Mattie & Rifat Atun, "Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Bias: Implications for Health Systems" (2019) 9:2 J Global Health 1. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.09.020318
67 Global Issues, "Digital Technology New Source of Discrimination Against Women" (13 March 2023), online: .
68 Joanna J Bryson, Susan Etlinger, Os Keyes & Joy L Rankin, "Gender Bias in Technology: How Far Have We Come and What Comes Next?" (19 March 2020), online: .
69 Amadou Sidibé et al, "Barriers and Enablers of the Use of Digital Technologies for Sustainable Agricultural Development and Food Security: Learning from Cases in Mali" (2021) 9:1 Elementa: Science Anthropocene 1. https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2020.00106
70 Xarvio, "About Us" (last visited 16 November 2025), online: .
71 Bayer, "Statutory Targets for the Proportion of Women in Senior Management Positions" (last updated 26 March 2025), online: .
72 Farzana Afridi et al, "Gender and Mechanization: Evidence from Indian Agriculture" (2023) 105:1 American J Agricultural Economics 52. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12315
73 Sarah Rotz et al, "Automated Pastures and the Digital Divide: How Agricultural Technologies are Shaping Labour and Rural Communities" (2019) 68 J Rural Studies 112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.01.023
74 Ibid.
75 National Black Farmers Association, "Black Farmers' Boycott Against John Deere Will Continue, NBFA President John Boyd Announces" (17 September 2020), online: .
76 Taylor, supra note 21 at 1-14.
77 Sarah Rotz et al, "The Politics of Digital Agricultural Technologies: A Preliminary Review" (2019) 59:2 Sociologia Ruralis 203 at 212-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12233
78 Herring J Ronald, "How is Food Political? Market, State, and Knowledge" in Ronald J Herring, ed, The Oxford Handbook of Food, Politics, and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) 3 at 14. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195397772.013.35
79 Sheldon Krimsky, "Do Financial Conflicts of Interest Bias Research? An Inquiry into the "Funding Effect" Hypothesis" (2013) 38:4 Science, Technology & Human Values 566. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243912456271
80 Dean Schillinger et al, "Do Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Cause Obesity and Diabetes? Industry and the Manufacture of Scientific Controversy" (2016) 165:12 Annals Internal Medicine 895. https://doi.org/10.7326/L16-0534
81 Anita Rao, "Industry-Funded Research and Bias in Food Science" (2022) 20:1 Quantitative Marketing & Economics 39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09244-z
82 Jennifer Clapp et al, "An 'IPCC for Food'? How the UN Food Systems Summit is Being Used to Advance a Problematic New Science-Policy Agenda" (July 2021), online: at 2.
83 Ibid at 15.
84 Ibid at 16.
85 Melissa Leach,"Food Politics and Development" (2020) 134 World Development 1 at 8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105024
86 Steven R McGreevy et al, "Sustainable Agri-Food Systems for a Post-Growth World" (2022) 5 Nature Sustainability 1011 at 1011.
87 Behrooz Morvaridi, "Capitalist Philanthropy and Hegemonic Partnerships" (2012) 33:7 Third World Quarterly, 1191 at 1196. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2012.691827
88 Million Belay & Bridget Mugambe, "Bill Gates Should Stop Telling Africans What Kind of Agriculture Africans Need: Among Other Things, We Might Simply Not Agree" (6 July 2021), online: .
89 Ibid.
90 William F Engdahl, "Gates Foundation is also Destroying Africa's Food Economy" (9 Sep 2020), online: .
91 Ibid.
92 Philip Bereano, "Philanthrocapitalism: The Gates Foundation's African Programmes are not Charity" (24 August 2018), online: .
93 Pat Mooney, Too Big to Feed (Belgium: IPES-Food, 2017).
94 European Commission, "Mergers: Commission Clears Bayer's Acquisition of Monsanto, Subject to Conditions" (21 March 2018), online:
95 Dow Corporate, "DowDuPont Merger Successfully Completed" (1 September 2017), online: .
96 European Commission, supra note 94.
97 Kraft Heinz, "H.J. Heinz Company and Kraft Foods Group Sign Definitive Merger Agreement to Form The Kraft Heinz Company" (25 March 2015), online: .
98 Maurice E Stucke & Allen P Grunes, "An Updated Antitrust Review of the Bayer-Monsanto Merger: The Konkurrenz Group White Paper" (2018), online: .
99 Can Atik, "Towards Comprehensive European Agricultural Data Governance: Moving Beyond the "Data Ownership" Debate" (2022) 53 IIC 701 at 706. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40319-022-01191-w
100 Jason Davidson, "Bayer, Monsanto and Big Data: Who Will Control our Food System in the Era of Digital Agriculture and Mega-Mergers?" (last visited 21 October 2025), online: .
101 Ibid.
102 BASF, "John Deere and BASF Partner to Develop Sustainable Yield Enhancement Solutions" (17 December 2013) online: .
103 AGRI-FOOD ATLAS, Facts and Figures About the Corporations that Control What We Eat (Berlin, Germany: Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2017) at 16.
104 GRAIN, "Digital Control: How Big Tech Moves into Food and Farming (and What it Means)" (21 January 2021), online: .
105 Ibid.
106 Ibid.
107 Atik, supra note 99 at 707.
108 Herica Huang, "Antitrust: A Case Study on the Bayer-Monsanto Merger" (2020), online:
Ioannis Lianos & Dmitry Katalevsky, "Merger Activity in the Factors of Production Segments of the Food Value Chain: A Critical Assessment of the Bayer/Monsanto Merger" (2017) 1 Centre for L, Economics & Society, Policy Paper Series 1.
109 Marie-Agnes Jouanjean et al, "Issues Around Data Governance in the Digital Transformation of Agriculture: The Farmer 'Perspective" (2020) 146 OECD Food, Agriculture & Fisheries Papers 1 at 13.
110 Ibid.
111 Atik, supra note 99 at 708.
112 Ibid at 705.
113 Jouanjean, supra note 109 at 8.
114 Juliet B Rylah, "John Deere vs. Farmers, Explained" (15 February 2023), online: .
115 Leanne Wiseman, "Do Australian Farmers Need a Right to Repair?" (23 November 2018), online: .
116 Jouanjean, supra note 109 at 9.
117 Ibid at 19.
118 Atik, supra note 99 at 711.
119 Ibid at 712.