How can we facilitate the development of innovations for the future of sustainable agriculture?

我们生活在一个前所未有的粮食生产时代，然而矛盾的是，我们生产粮食的不可持续做法威胁着未来的全球粮食安全[1,2]。随着全球人口在2050年之前继续增长，世界粮食系统将进一步被推向其生产极限。至关重要的是，科学家和工程师现在必须共同努力，创造一个真正可持续的粮食系统，这样我们才能在不久的将来为全球人类维持一个可接受的生活水平。自动化经常被整合到工业中，以提高流程的效率。在粮食系统中，这有可能提高各种做法的可持续性。目前开发的值得注意的创新仅限于农业行业的实践，如工厂化养殖和精准农业[6,7]。该项目将以提高可持续性的方式，在未来食品系统的广泛范围内确立自动化的潜在作用。这将通过评估现有的和新的研究来完成，以确定可持续自动化技术的切入点。然后将开发满足这些已确定角色之一的概念证明。然后将对这一原型研究进行审查，以确定未来发展和立即实施类似可持续自动化技术必须采取的步骤。

We live in a time of unprecedented food production, yet paradoxically the unsustainable practices in which we produce this food threatens future global food security [1,2]. As the globe's population continues to increase towards 2050, the world's food systems will be pushed further to their limits of production [3]. It is critical that scientists and engineers work together now to produce a truly sustainable food system so that we may maintain an acceptable standard of living for humans acrossthe globe for the near future.Automation has often been incorporated into industries to increase the efficiency of processes [4]. In the food system, this has the potential to improve the sustainability of a variety of practices [5]. Currently developed innovations of note are limited to the agricultural industry in practices such as factory farming and precision agriculture [6,7].This project will establish potential roles for automation in the wide scope of the future food system in a way that will improve sustainability. This will be accomplished through assessment of existing and novel research to identify entry points for sustainable automated technologies. A proof of concept which satisfies one of these identified roles will then be developed. This prototype an research will then be reviewed to determine the steps that must be taken for the future development and immediate implementation of similar sustainable automated technologies.