Location: Food Systems Research Unit
2024 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1. Improving Production Systems: Develop data-informed small-farm strategies to improve the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of crop production systems based on research that considers feedback from value-added processors, informed consumers, and potential impact on nutritional/health outcomes. [NP 216 components 1c, 2a, 3b, 3c]
Objective 2. Enhancing Value Added Processing: Develop innovative solutions for specialty value-added processes and products to improve consumer health outcomes as well as economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the food system, while informing consumer choice and diversified production system management. [NP 216 components 2b, 2c]
Objective 3. Optimizing Consumer Outcomes: Production systems and value-added processing will be tied to consumer preferences, product nutrition, food safety and potential impacts on public health, thus enabling consumers to make safe, healthy, and informed food choices and facilitating targeted research for the improvement of production systems, food processing, and development and delivery of new products. [NP 216 component 3c]
Objective 4. Data Integration: Develop appropriate linkages and cooperation within and between the USDA-ARS and the University of Vermont, for the purpose of forming an integrated Food Systems program, including integrated data systems, comprehensive models, and submitting a proposal for becoming part of the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network. [NP 216 components 1d, 2b, 3b, 3c]
Objective 5: Develop strategies for agricultural producers and other actors in the food system to improve soil health within the agricultural systems of the Northeast.
Approach
Food systems are interconnected sets of elements that work together to produce, process, distribute, store, sell, and prepare food. They include the upstream activities that support production, such as the creation of farm inputs. They also include downstream activities, such as the disposal or recycling of food waste. This project will contribute towards improving human nutrition, ecological sustainability and economic viability of plant-based food systems in the New England States. To this end, the project scientists will work together with the University of Vermont, and other collaborators, to explore how the region can simultaneously improve diets through delivery of satisfying, culturally-appropriate, plant-based foods that are simultaneously affordable, sustainable, and support viable farms and food businesses. Research activities will focus at a range of scales, from individual actors, such as farmers and consumers, to larger geographic areas, such as watersheds or foodsheds. In addition, the unit will explore how systems change over time. Three overarching questions will guide the Unit’s research on plant-based food systems. First, how can different components across sectors of the food system encourage intake of healthy foods, such as whole grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables, while also improving the overall quality of the diet and associated health outcomes? Second, how can plant-based food systems increase biological productivity and economic viability while also leveraging opportunities for reduced environmental impact, such as exploiting ecological synergies from integrated crop-livestock systems? And third, how can plant based farming systems interact with animal-production based systems, to improve sustainability and reduce environmental impacts? To create effective collaborations with the University of Vermont and stakeholder partners, the Research Unit will identify on-going efforts to understand and improve the ecological, economic, and social sustainability of New England food systems. This process will help ARS staff to design strategic research that answers key questions or integrates data in new ways that lead to transformative improvements. In addition, the Unit will develop a state-of-the-art facility for computational modeling and data visualization with the ability to link to other data sources and computing resources.
Progress Report
Recruitment progress:
A Social Science Technician was hired in October 2023 to support the project’s Research Social Scientist. Three additional recruitments are ongoing: A Biological Science Technician, a Research Agricultural Engineer/Biologist, and one postdoctoral Research Social Scientist.
Facilities progress:
The University of Vermont (UVM) completed renovation of the Hills Agricultural Science Building, now renamed the Patrick Leahy Building. Upon completion of the renovations, ARS scientists and staff moved from temporary spaces in other locations on campus into the ARS leased space in the Patrick Leahy Building in September 2023. The new space provides approximately 12,000 square feet of offices, laboratories, and meeting rooms, sufficient to support the expected growth in personnel at the Food Systems Research Unit (FSRU).
Research progress:
The current project received new objectives in preparation for a project plan to be submitted for review. A new project plan with objectives for 2.5 FTE was fully drafted and is under ad-hoc peer review by the Office of Scientific Quality Review.
Because the new project plan is not a continuation of ongoing research, preparation for proposed projects began. Substantial administrative groundwork was established for successfully conducting research. These include establishing the first research support agreement between ARS and the UVM to conduct field research on UVM facilities; collaborating with UVM stakeholders to collaboratively identify and meet outstanding facilities needs for agricultural research; hiring undergraduate student interns; joining UVM graduate student committees; coordinating with ARS and UVM to establish safety protocols for lab, field, vehicle, and general facilities; and establishing access to UVM’s institutional review board for human subjects research.
The Research Agronomist continued research in support of Objectives 1 and 2. A manuscript was submitted for peer review based on a pilot study of novel, regionally relevant grain production systems, and a follow-up study established at three ARS and university sites across the U.S. to investigate productivity and weather resilience of this system. Two peer-reviewed manuscripts were published that provide a theoretical basis for developing regionally relevant grain and forage production systems: one on strategies for designing diverse, productive, and stable crop rotations; and one highlighting the importance of adapting crop varieties to local conditions. Additionally, ARS is consulting with UVM to establish a soil health testing laboratory to serve small- and medium-sized farmers in New England. A fully drafted manuscript that studies regional agriculturalists’ perceptions of soil health is undergoing pre-submission editing by coauthors, which a Research Social Scientist is leading. An abstract related to proposed Objective 1 has been accepted for presentation at two international scientific conferences.
In pursuit of Objectives 1 and 2, the ARS PI continued research on current and potential regional self-reliance of the New England states. A spreadsheet model for estimating land requirements of different scenarios of regional self-reliance was published on Ag Data Commons and made publicly available. This is the same model used in the final report of the New England Feeding New England project, released in May 2023. A manuscript on the structure of the model and its applicability for estimating scenarios of self-reliance is underway.
In pursuit of Objectives 1 and 2, the ARS PI established a Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement with Cornell University to estimate the economic costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and trade-offs of greater regional self-reliance in supply chains for highly perishable fruits and vegetables. To this end, the ARS PI is collaborating with Cornell economists to develop a supply chain model for the U.S. with higher resolution in the Northeastern states for exploring scenarios of increased regional self-reliance. Cornell economists collected baseline data for the model and are developing the model structure.
In pursuit of Objective 3, FSRU scientists and UVM scientists held virtual meetings with colleagues at other ARS locations to learn more about the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network and the process of establishing an LTAR site. FSRU scientists and UVM collaborators also held a virtual meeting with a colleague from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to learn more about Agroecosystem Living Laboratories, an approach for conducting research on agricultural innovations.
In pursuit of Objective 1, the Research Social Scientist and the American Farmland Trust, through work on a Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement, have begun fielding the paired social science and soil testing survey amongst Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut farmers. As of July 2024, after the initial spring of recruitment with conservation districts, there are 50 survey respondents with 150 corresponding soil samples (three per participating farmer). The sample goal is 200 farmer participants and 600 soil tests. Recruitment will continue for the social/soil survey into the fall and next year.
Additionally, the Research Social Scientist is collaborating with a team of scientists at the University of Vermont on Soil Health Sustainability Metrics. Under this project, the Research Social Scientist has two ARS 115 submitted, with manuscripts in final preparation for journal submission on 1) Vermont farmer perceptions of soil health definitions and measurement metrics and 2) an estimated map of soil organic carbon stored in Vermont’s agricultural soils. A third manuscript is underway on this project looking at the adoption of soil health conservation practices amongst Vermont farmers. The Research Social Scientist presented on the Vermont farmer perceptions of soil health research at a graduate seminar for the University of Vermont Plant and Soil Sciences in April 2024.
In pursuit of Objective 2, the Research Social Scientist is developing an approach for a climate change hydrologic dataset to be developed through a collaboration with the United States Geological Survey. This dataset will model agriculturally-relevant water metrics under climate change at the small watershed scale for six New England states. The dataset will provide the basis for understanding past and future water use for farmers in the region. The Research Social Scientist is also collaborating with the University of Maine to use the dataset as material to develop participatory climate adaptation pathways for New England agriculture.
Accomplishments
Review Publications
Ewing, P.M., Chim, B.K., Lehman, R.M., Osborne, S.L. 2024. Diversified grain rotations can be highly and reliably productive in unstable climates. Field Crops Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2024.109361.
Erlandson, S.R., Ewing, P.M., Osborne, S.L., Lehman, R.M. 2024. Sterile sentinels and MinION sequencing capture active soil microbial communities that differentiate crop rotations. Environmental Microbiome. 19(1):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40793-024-00571-8.