This paper presents an exploration of public discourse surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture, specifically related to precision agriculture techniques. (1) Advancements in the use of AI have increased its implementation in the agricultural sector, often framed as a sustainable solution for feeding a growing global population. However, lessons learned from previous agricultural innovations indicate that new technologies may face public scrutiny and suspicion, limiting the dissemination of the innovation. Using systems thinking approaches can help to improve the development and dissemination of agricultural innovations and limit the unintended consequences of innovations within society. (2) To analyze the current discourse surrounding AI in agriculture, a content analysis was conducted on Twitter using Meltwater to select tweets with specific reach and engagement. (3) Seven themes resulted from the analysis: precision agriculture and digital technology innovation; transformation and the future of agriculture; accelerate solutions, solve challenges; data management and accessibility; transforming crop management, prioritizing adoption; and AI and sustainability. (4) The discourse on AI in agriculture on Twitter was overwhelmingly positive, failing to account for the potential drawbacks or limits of the innovation. This paper examines the limits of the current communication and outreach across environmental, economic, social, cultural, political, and behavioral contexts.

Global food security requires sustainable and resource-efficient agricultural production. Precision agriculture may provide the tools needed to intensify agricultural production while prioritizing sustainability; however, there are barriers such as initial investments, knowledge gaps, and broadband access that may hinder adoption. Many rural areas in the United States lack the appropriate infrastructure for broadband access needed for precision agriculture, indicating government policies are needed to expand broadband access. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to develop a conceptualization of the current frames used by the Biden administration in communications related to rural broadband and precision agriculture. The methodological framework used was frame analysis. Data were initially analyzed inductively for overall gestalt and subsequently analyzed with abductive coding. Five overarching frames were identified during the data analysis process: broadband access and economic issues, garnering support for broadband expansion, urgency and equity surrounding broadband, expanding beyond the rural, and broadband infrastructure and the agricultural sector. The findings revealed broadband access associated with the Biden administration expanded beyond rural areas, recognizing that cities also face broadband access and affordability issues. There was a lack of discourse, however, surrounding rural broadband policy and precision agriculture, which may downplay its importance in agricultural sustainability.

Increasing the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices can help maintain sufficient food production while reducing its environmental impact. To ensure this adoption, it is important to assess the research and training needs of those helping farmers and producers adopt sustainable agricultural practices. However, there is a gap in the literature related to the training needs of producers in the Western United States for sustainable agriculture. Needs assessments help organizations, such as the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and Cooperative Extension, to address the demonstrated needs of intended audiences. This study presents the results of a needs assessment with the objective of examining training needs and barriers to adoption to help direct extension programming for sustainable agricultural practices in the western region of the United States, to identify gaps, and to inform sustainable agriculture outreach programs. Using a modified Borich method with an inferential statistical method, the discrepancies between the level at which sustainable agricultural practice training competencies “should be addressed” and the level at which they were “currently being addressed” were examined. Competencies with the largest gaps included financial disparity, food waste, and policy/communicating with decision makers. The top three barriers to adopting sustainable agricultural practices included the potential for financial loss, perceived risk of adoption, and time investment associated with adoption. Results indicated that training needs varied and that these were not all on-farm training needs. The results imply that future funding from Western SARE and other groups looking to support sustainable agricultural food system efforts, may wish to focus on requesting proposals for programs that address these competency gaps and barriers in novel and supplementary ways in combination with existing programmatic efforts.

Background: The ability to solve complex challenges facing the food system is an increasingly important skill for undergraduate students entering into the global workforce. However, the curriculum tools to enhance systems thinking in the undergraduate agricultural and natural resource classroom are limited, specifically related to food systems education. Methods: The current study explored the use of hypothetical case scenarios in a teaching curriculum related to the seafood industry, in order to determine the use of these tools as a mechanism for increasing undergraduate students’ systems-thinking capacity. The mixed-method study used a survey and focus groups. Results indicated that participants’ understanding of, and capacity for, using systems thinking to reason through complex scenarios increased during the mixed-method educational intervention. Participants stated the experience helped them learn more about their own patterns of thinking, created transformational learning moments through dissonance, helped them learn about the unintended consequences of decision-making, and increased their understanding of system complexity. Conclusions: The implications of using hypothetical case scenarios in the food system education classroom are explored.

Cooperatives in the international coffee sector can help build farmer capacity, increase coffee productivity, and improve farmer welfare. The purpose of this research was to examine Guatemalan coffee cooperatives to determine unique attributes, social capital perspectives, and social impacts on small holder farmers. Four perspectives on social capital and economic development were examined across cases: (a) the communitarian view, (b) the networks view, (c) the institutional view, and (d) the synergy view. The research design was mini-ethnographic case study with cross-case synthesis. The emerging themes were (a) economic impacts, (b) multiple generation farmers, (c) capacity building trainings to improve crop management, (d) use of shade trees and organic matter for soil amendments, (e) service learning/agritourism, and (f) use of microloans to enhance economic development. Based upon the exploratory cases, each community had similar and unique internal and external interactions that could be triangulated with social capital perspectives. Networks were formed between members of the co-ops (intracommunity) giving a sense of community and purpose (i.e. agritourism, service learning) and external sources (i.e. workshops/trainings and a USAID research plot). The concept of social capital perspective gives insight into an explanation of economic development.