Upcoming Workshop: Earth observations, agriculture, food systems and national security: A roadmap for US federal agencies
The Jahn Research group is hosting a virtual workshop on November 16, 2020, discussing how Earth observations, agriculture and food systems impact US national security. The workshop will be held in collaboration with NASA, the University of Illinois Center for Digital Agriculture/National Center for Supercomputing Applications, The USDA National Institutes for Food and Agriculture, the Atlantic Council Geotech Center, US Farmers and Ranchers in Action and Thomson Reuters Special Services. The goal of the workshop is to produce specific recommendations for federal use on how to improve agricultural and food system security. Panelists and workshop attendees will review draft findings of the use of civilian earth observations for agriculture in the context of US national security, and identify opportunities for enhanced coordination and partnership among US federal agencies where this data can be utilized for food security and food systems analysis. The workshop will be held in two parts, each with their own panel.
Panel 1: Guiding research investments to fully leverage existing assets including civilian earth imagery toward food system security
In this panel, we will discuss how to leverage civilian earth observations for real-time monitoring of US and global food systems for US national security, and discuss development/structure of these systems in the context of cooperative research.
Panelists (Confirmed):
Chris Justice, Chief Scientist, NASA Harvest
Vince Breneman, Chief Geographer, Office of the Chief Economist, USDA
Megan O’Rourke, NPL, USDA National Institutes of Food and Agriculture
Mark Flood, PM, I2O, DARPA
Megan Dailey, UI Metropolitan Food and Environmental Systems
Panel 2: Architecture of Solutions
During the second panel, we will discuss development of a program that can detect and assess potential food systems shocks, and identify important gaps in taking steps towards this capability. We will talk about implementation steps and operation of this kind of program.
Panelists (Confirmed):
Kevin Kephart, NIFA
COL (USAF Ret) Mike Gremillion, U AL
Pete Richards, USAID Policy and Planning Bureau/DOS
MAJ Matthew A Rose, 75th Innovation Command, US Army
Sally Rockey, Executive Director, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
David Bray, Founding Director, GeoTech Center, Atlantic Council
Moderator: Dr. Peter Brooks, Institute of Defense Analyses
Invited participants can register for this workshop here.