Journal:Why do we need food systems informatics? Introduction to this special collection on smart and connected regional food systems
| Full article title | Why do we need food systems informatics? Introduction to this special collection on smart and connected regional food systems |
|---|---|
| Journal | Sustainability |
| Author(s) | Tomich, Thomas P.; Hoy, Casey; Dimock, Michael R.; Hollander, Allan D.; Huber, Patrick R.; Hyder, Ayaz; Lange, Matthew C.; Riggle, Courtney M.; Roberts, Michael, T.; Quinn, James F. |
| Author affiliation(s) | University of California; Ohio State University; Public Health Institute; International Center for Food Ontology Operability Data and Semantics; University of California, Los Angeles |
| Primary contact | tptomich at ucdavis dot edu |
| Editors | Brewster, Christopher |
| Year published | 2023 |
| Volume and issue | 15(8) |
| Article # | 6556 |
| DOI | 10.3390/su15086556 |
| ISSN | 2071-1050 |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6556 |
| Download | https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6556/pdf?version=1681698750 (PDF) |
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This article should be considered a work in progress and incomplete. Consider this article incomplete until this notice is removed. |
Abstract
Public interest in where food comes from and how it is produced, processed, and distributed has increased over the last few decades, with even greater focus emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mounting evidence and experience point to disturbing weaknesses in our food systems’ abilities to support human livelihoods and wellbeing, and alarming long-term trends regarding both the environmental footprint of food systems and mounting vulnerabilities to shocks and stressors. How can we tackle the “wicked problems” embedded in a food system? More specifically, how can convergent research programs be designed and resulting knowledge implemented to increase inclusion, sustainability, and resilience within these complex systems, support widespread contributions to and acceptance of solutions to these challenges, and provide concrete benchmarks to measure progress and understand tradeoffs among strategies along multiple dimensions?
This article introduces and defines food systems informatics (FSI) as a tool to enhance equity, sustainability, and resilience of food systems through collaborative, user-driven interaction, negotiation, experimentation, and innovation within food systems. Specific benefits we foresee in further development of FSI platforms include the creation of capacity-enabling verifiable claims of sustainability, food safety, and human health benefits relevant to particular locations and products; the creation of better incentives for the adoption of more sustainable land use practices and for the creation of more diverse agro-ecosystems; the widespread use of improved and verifiable metrics of sustainability, resilience, and health benefits; and improved human health through better diets.
Keywords: assessment workflow, informatics, ontology, knowledge graph, semantic web of food (SWoF), internet of food (IoF), food justice, resilience, democratization, sustainability
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This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation and updates to spelling and grammar. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added. The URL to the Deloitte paper was broken; an archived version of the document was used for this version.
