"Unlocking the Potential of Smallholder Farming through Agricultural Intelligence: The Impact of AI on Agriculture": However, numerous variables must be simultaneously taken into account, encompassing soil nutrients, seed bed preparation, germination rate, irrigation, cultivation, minerals, microorganisms, pests, and diseases. The data is not only extensive in terms of volume but also in the multitude of variables that need to be interconnected and layered to accurately simulate the intricate system of a farm.
The CGIAR Platform is already demonstrating promising outcomes with potential benefits for smallholder farmers, as seen with the Colombian Rice Farmers Federation. Faced with multiple seasons of challenging rain patterns, rice farmers in Colombia encountered difficulties in determining the optimal planting time for their crops. This uncertainty was compounded by variations in anticipated rainfall.
Jarvis and Daniel Jiménez, a researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and a key figure on the CGIAR Platform, outline the potential development of these models: "By characterizing a crop production system in terms of both management and environmental conditions, and collecting information on the management, environment, and resulting harvest, it becomes feasible to construct data-driven models that accurately depict the production system." The groundbreaking aspect of Big Data lies in enriching these models with data from thousands of plantings conducted under diverse management and environmental conditions. Subsequent analysis of the corresponding harvests allows for the derivation of insights into the intricate relationship between agricultural practices, environmental factors, and the resulting harvest.
Andy Jarvis, a researcher at the CGIAR Research Program for Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) and a co-founder of the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, suggests that one way to employ these tools for smallholder farmers is by creating probabilistic models for seasonal forecasting. When executed effectively, this approach enables a forward-looking perspective of six months, offering farmers straightforward information such as suitable crop varieties for the upcoming season, optimal planting times, and farm management strategies to optimize outcomes based on anticipated weather patterns during the season.
Smallholder farmers, cultivating on farms of less than one
hectare, play a pivotal role in producing approximately 70 percent of the
world's food supply, making them indispensable to the global food system. The
CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture is particularly poised to provide
substantial benefits to these farmers in the developing world.
AI is making its mark on agriculture in Silicon Valley as well, with a predominant emphasis on technological rather than agricultural aspects. These advancements encompass innovations such as indoor farms and robotic harvesters, requiring substantial investment and resources. While much of CGIAR's efforts target smallholder farmers in developing regions, many of whom lack access to basic technologies like irrigation, collaborations between CGIAR and the private sector present a potent avenue to align the mission of eradicating world hunger with the resources and incentives of high-tech enterprises. A recent report from the George Washington University Food Institute outlines effective strategies for deploying indoor farming technology to benefit smallholder farmers, particularly those in conflict zones.
The CGIAR Platform's concept revolves around initially establishing an improved method for researchers to handle and exchange agricultural data. While this is a substantial project on its own, the Platform aspires to transcend being merely a repository of research data. Its overarching objective is to seamlessly incorporate real-world data from farms globally into algorithms that produce essential insights, subsequently shared back with farmers.
The CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture envisions farming as the next frontier for effectively addressing intricate challenges through artificial intelligence (AI). This interdisciplinary team, comprising biologists, agronomists, nutritionists, and policy analysts collaborating with data scientists, harnesses Big Data tools to develop AI systems capable of forecasting potential outcomes in future scenarios for farmers. Through the utilization of vast datasets and cutting-edge computational analysis, the CGIAR Platform strives to enhance farmers' efficiency and mitigate inherent risks in agricultural practices.
Picture a century ago, when farmers had ready access to comprehensive data on their crop varieties, soil composition, and local climate variations. Armed with such information, they could have averted environmental disasters akin to the Dust Bowl in the American Midwest during the 1920s. However, merely a decade ago, the notion of farmers having access to such extensive information was inconceivable.
Farmers would have to choose between planting later in the season or sooner if there was less rainfall than usual. They might choose not to plant at all that season if there was expected to be an excessive amount of rain.
These choices carry a great deal of risk and trade-offs. For
instance, when a farmer allocates resources to cultivate a crop, an
unsuccessful harvest can significantly jeopardize the financial stability of
their business. Nevertheless, the challenge arises: how can a farmer accurately
predict the quantity of rainfall for optimal planning?
By combining regional rice production data with local weather information, CGIAR researchers were able to assist rice farmers in a pilot project for the Platform for Big Data in Agriculture. Using a climate model that could forecast the region's overall rainfall pattern and assess the viability of a rice crop under different rainfall conditions, they processed a sizable amount of data. The researchers advised the farmers to postpone planting until the following season for that particular one.
'Matriark Foods Aims to Establish Upcycled Products as Standard, Not an Anomaly'
The social impact enterprise, Matriark Foods, is dedicated to expanding access to nutritious foods that benefit both individuals and the environment through the production of upcycled products. The company, under the leadership of Founder and CEO Anna Hammond, transforms surplus foods and produce scraps, referred to as "remnants," into food items for foodservice retail and emergency food aid. Currently specializing in Upcycled Certified sauces, broth, soups, and stews, Matriark aims to address the adverse environmental impact of food waste on global warming. Hammond emphasizes the dual mission of mitigating such negative effects and creating broader access to healthy food, while also generating additional revenue streams for farmers, as she shared with Food Tank.
In its initial stages, Matriark forged partnerships with manufacturing facilities producing items like carrot and celery sticks, where the entire vegetable wasn't utilized. These collaborators recognized a lucrative business opportunity, allowing them to recover value from previously spent resources. According to Hammond, this collaboration also contributed to a notable environmental impact by diverting these remnants away from landfills.
Since its inception, the upcycled food movement has seen continuous growth, partially attributed to the efforts of the Upcycled Food Association, in which Matriark holds a founding membership. Comprising over 250 companies, the Association actively promotes upcycling as a vital solution to combat both food waste and the climate crisis.
Beyond raising awareness and fostering increased investments in the upcycled industry, the Association has introduced the Upcycled Certified Program. This groundbreaking initiative represents the world's first third-party certification program specifically designed for upcycled food ingredients and products.
“There's unfortunately always greenwashing, and it's easy to claim something is climate-friendly,” Hammond informs Food Tank. However, she emphasizes, “it must genuinely be climate-friendly to achieve the collective goals we all aspire to.”
The certification label on approved products guides consumers in directing their spending toward items with a reduced environmental footprint.
Looking ahead, Hammond envisions a scenario where companies instinctively choose upcycled ingredients. “Ideally, this becomes the standard, and we eliminate waste from the system,” she envisions.
While there's ongoing progress needed for consumers to fully grasp and embrace upcycled products, Hammond suggests that fostering this shift is feasible through meaningful connections with consumers. “It's about engaging people on the platforms they genuinely care about.”
For a comprehensive discussion with Anna Hammond, listen to the entire conversation on Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg [LINK], where she delves into the advantages of the Upcycled Certified program, Matriark's recent collaborations with food banks, and the evolving landscape of the food business.
Within New York City, the Choosing Healthy and Active
Lifestyles for Kids (CHALK) initiative seeks to reshape the contribution of
healthcare to community well-being, adopting a food-as-medicine strategy. To
advance this vision, CHALK offers a training program crafted to augment the
comprehension of social determinants of health and the importance of
interdisciplinary intervention specifically among pediatric residents.
CHALK operates as an obesity prevention program in
conjunction with the Division of Community and Population Health at
NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC).
According to Kyle Murray, the Community Program Lead at CHALK, the workshop
serves as an entry point for residents to engage in CHALK's extensive community
initiatives.
Conducted monthly and spanning 2.5 hours, the workshop, led by Murray and Dr. Ileana Vargas, an endocrinologist from the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, includes a cooking demonstration. Importantly, every class of pediatric residents at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center attends this insightful program.
The workshop centers on educational strategies in nutrition, offering pediatricians support in motivational interviewing—a problem-solving, client-centered counseling approach—coupled with culinary medicine and culturally competent medical nutrition therapy. By challenging the conventional nutrition education model and highlighting the concept of "food as medicine," this training aims to enhance the effectiveness of clinical care plans and interventions.
Kyle Murray underscores the impact of social determinants of health, encompassing factors like lengthy commutes, low income, and limited access to nutritious food. These challenges often drive families toward convenient yet unhealthy, ultra-processed foods. The workshop addresses these social determinants alongside individual behaviors, advocating for sustainable dietary changes that promote health. Murray emphasizes the bridging of community and clinical efforts, training pediatricians to address social drivers of health and employ interdisciplinary interventions, making "food as medicine" more than just a slogan.
CHALK's training underscores that dietary improvement doesn't necessitate radical lifestyle changes. Given that less than 0.5 percent of pediatric patients in the United States meet the USDA-recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, even small adjustments can have a positive impact. Murray advocates for incremental, positive shifts, such as incorporating more vegetables into traditional meals, which can yield significant health benefits.
Acknowledging the considerable hurdles presented by social determinants of health, CHALK's impact transcends the confines of the clinical setting. Kyle Murray expresses, “We establish connections to resources aimed at alleviating their social and material challenges. Our role is to equip individuals with the necessary tools to address their needs, ensuring that when the moment arrives for the patient to take action, they can utilize the resources we've provided."
The initiatives undertaken by CHALK have been instrumental
in creating a network of resources that spans across families, schools,
healthcare institutions, and community-based organizations. This comprehensive
strategy, demonstrated through activities like providing fresh produce to
families dealing with food insecurity and organizing health classes in public
schools, contributes significantly to the cultivation of a sustainable
environment that promotes healthy living.
Narrating the Tale of the Seed
Ira Wallace, a co-owner of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in Virginia, serves as a writer, educator, and seed saver with a dedicated commitment to narrating the stories behind the seeds we cultivate. Her goal is to protect historical seeds while making sure that our food systems continue to function sustainably.
The cooperative seed enterprise Southern Exposure Seed
Exchange promotes agricultural independence. To promote the practice of saving
and exchanging seeds among gardeners and farmers, they prioritize
open-pollinated seed varieties—naturally bred by insects, bats, or wind.
Additionally, they underscore the importance of heirloom cultivars, especially
those developed before 1940, aiming to foster the tradition of saving and
sharing seeds within gardening communities.
Wallace claims that historically, farmers were crucial in
choosing cultivars that flourished in their farms' gardens. But this dynamic
changed about a century ago when businesses started manufacturing seeds in
large quantities.
Presently, the ETC Group approximates that more than half of global seed sales are controlled by four companies. As corporate consolidation persisted, Wallace notes a shift from prioritizing regional adaptability to prioritizing profit, a change she believes has negatively impacted resilience.
According to Wallace, maintaining a diversity of genetic materials within the seed system is crucial for navigating new challenges. She emphasizes the cultural significance of seeds, asserting that behind them lie stories and a means of preserving the past.
Participating in the Heirloom Collard Project, Wallace focuses on preserving not just the seeds but also the culinary traditions and history associated with collard greens. She highlights the unique significance of collards, being the only Brassica oleracea selected in the southeastern United States—initially by enslaved individuals and later continued by both Black and white individuals, particularly those in the South. For Wallace, collards serve as more than just a vegetable; they are a symbol of home.
By uniting seed savers, researchers, farmers, and chefs, the Project honors the rich diversity of collard varieties. Wallace emphasizes the vitality of seeds, stating, "Seeds are living things; you can't simply stow them away."
WHO advocates for mandatory policies that protect children
of all ages, utilizing a nutrient profile model to determine which foods
necessitate restrictions. The guidelines underscore the importance of
comprehensive policies to minimize the risk of marketing in other media.
Ailan Li, Assistant Director-General of the Division of Universal Health Coverage-Healthier Populations at WHO, emphasizes, “This set of guidelines encompasses all elements needed to devise healthy diets.”
Thirteen years have passed since WHO initially released recommendations on policies to restrict the marketing of HFSS foods to children. The new guidelines build upon the 2010 recommendations, addressing advancements in marketing media, emerging techniques, the effectiveness of policies, various policy approaches, and the insufficient efforts by countries to prioritize implementation.
The overarching goal of these guidelines is to assist governments in creating environments conducive to healthy food choices, fostering lifelong healthy eating habits, improving dietary quality, and reducing the global risk of noncommunicable diseases, as per a press release from WHO. The WHO's report underscores the pivotal role of a healthy diet early in life, forming a foundation for overall well-being. The report reveals that frequently marketed foods with low nutritional value include sugar-sweetened beverages, salty/savory snacks, sweet bakery items and snacks, breakfast cereals, dairy products, and desserts. The promotion of unhealthy foods can influence children's requests to adults for such products and shape societal norms related to food consumption.
Lynnette Neufeld, Director of the Food and Nutrition Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), emphasizes, “Healthy diets are shaped by factors such as availability, affordability, preferences, values, culture, traditions, religion, and various motivations related to social considerations in food production.”
Contrarily, Jennifer Harris, Senior Research Advisor for Marketing Initiatives at the Rudd Center, points out, “Companies are not focused on selling healthy foods but rather on selling ultra-processed foods. Even when healthy messages are conveyed, they often get overshadowed by unhealthy ones.”
Food marketing holds substantial sway over younger audiences through tactics that resonate with children, influencing their food preferences and dietary decisions. Harris stresses the importance of parents understanding that marketing is a psychological process creating strong associations between unhealthy products and perceptions of them being fun, cool, and more appealing compared to healthier alternatives.
To ensure the adoption of these recommendations, Jennifer Harris emphasizes the importance of parents and children actively demanding change and holding food companies accountable. Harris advocates for parents to express frustration and discontent with companies exploiting their children, stating, "Parents need to voice their concerns and challenge companies for taking advantage of their kids." She also encourages adolescents to assume significant advocacy roles, challenging companies on the promotion of foods detrimental to their health.
