Funded in 2021 by the University of California Office of the President Multi-Campus Research Program Initiative, the Labor and Automation in California Agriculture (LACA) assembles interdisciplinary researchers to solve food system resilience and human-centered agriculture technology to transform the workforce and environment of the future. This MRPI includes researchers from University of California Merced, Berkeley, Davis, and Riverside.

Click here to visit the project team’s website.

Relevant Publications:

Harmon, T., M.A. Visser, and A. Hill (2026). California Agricultural Technology and the Bioeconomy. In D. Zilverman and J. Zysman Building the Bioeconomy: The Case for California. 

Sauvagerd, M., M.A. Visser, and M. Kenney. (2026) The Economics and Governance of (Digital) Data in AgriFood Informatics  The Economics and Governance of (Digital) Data in Agrifood Informatics. (forthcoming).In Lange, M., E. Stellotes, and B. German (eds). AgriFood Informatics. Royal Society of Chemistry. 

Kenney, Martin and Visser, M. Anne and Zysman, John, COVID-19’s Impact Upon Labor and Value Chains in the Agrifood System (October 24, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3949042 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3949042
Kenny, M., M.A. Visser, and J. Zysman. (2021). The Challenge of the Digital Agricultural Revolution: A Comparison Between Advanced Economies and Developing Countries. https://brie.berkeley.edu/publications/challenge-digital-agricultural-revolution-comparison-between-advanced-economies-and