Modeling Agricultural Systems to Support Sustainable Agricultural Development

Systems Conversation with Kristan Foster Reed, Cornell University

Many challenges face agriculture production including rising demand due to increasing population, climate change, limited and degrading resources, and political and economic volatility. Although there are large research communities to support advances in agriculture, questions surrounding whole farm production efficiency, environmental impact, and long-term sustainability cannot practically be investigated by physical experimentation alone. To overcome these challenges, the National Academies of Science have called for a systems approach, and, in particular, systems modeling to advance our understanding of these complex systems that supply our society with essential food and fiber products and are composed of a mix of biological, engineered, and human processes. In this talk, Kristan will discuss challenges related to agricultural system modeling as they relate to the dairy industry and their plan to develop a dairy farm system model that advances the field through interdisciplinary collaboration. In particular, Kristan will highlight challenges associated with the inherent system variation that exists at telescopic levels of organization and exploiting the increasing number and types of data collected on farms.