Moderator: Diane Bailey, Communication, Cornell University

Guest Speakers: David Lobell, Professor of Earth System Science, Stanford University/ Gloria and Richard Kushel Director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment

Agricultural systems are always evolving and adopting new practices. Yet climate change has accelerated the need to change practices, both to (i) adapt to ongoing climate changes and (ii) sequester carbon and offset greenhouse gas emissions. As farmers venture outside their comfort zones, they can benefit from relying not only on their own experiences, but also on the aggregated experience of thousands of similar farmers. Satellite monitoring of agronomic practices and the resulting yield outcomes provide valuable and transparent data for this goal. New causal inference techniques, such as causal forests, can then derive valuable insights from this data. This talk will provide some examples of this approach applied to practices such as no-till and cover cropping and argue that it will soon be plausible for a wide suite of practices throughout the world.  

Thought for food...

Our global agriculture and food systems require a radical transformation relying on expertise in multiple areas and research collaborations across disciplines that include agriculture, food safety, engineering, information and computer science, biology, business and the social sciences.

More than 100 faculty from across Cornell’s colleges – Agriculture and Life Sciences, Engineering, Computing and Information Science, Arts and Sciences, Veterinary Medicine and Business – have come together to develop a robust research agenda for CIDA, weaving unmatched excellence into holistic solutions for food and agriculture. CIDA’s mission is to inspire learning, catalyze innovation, and integrate fundamental discoveries to achieve new levels of sustainability in agri-food systems and new food for thought.