Abstract

The global food systems are facing the challenge of providing healthy and adequate nutrition to the world’s growing population in a sustainable way. Food systems are one of the major causes of environmental change contributing to approximately 25% of the total anthrophonic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. Climate change is also affecting agricultural production as extreme weather events, such as heat waves, heavy rain periods, storms and floods, are becoming more frequent. Novel food production technologies, such as vertical farming, cell-culturing based food production (i.e. cellular agriculture) and meat substitutes made of plants, algae and fungi have gained wide interest in the past years as potential solutions for improving the sustainability of food systems. However, the consequences of wider scale adoption of those technologies are not known. This talk will present the current understanding of the environmental impacts of novel food production technologies, and outline ideas for further research to estimate the global potential of novel food production technologies to help with reaching climate targets and adapting to climate change. The aim of the talk is to initiate discussion (and possible research collaboration) about the possibilities of using artificial intelligence and/or machine learning in the modeling study outlined in the talk.

Bio

Hanna Tuomisto is an associate professor in sustainable food systems at the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) and Department of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Helsinki. She leads the Future Sustainable Food Systems -research group. Her research interests are focused on estimating the potential of novel food production technologies and dietary changes to improve the sustainability of food systems. She has a strong experience in the development and use of environmental sustainability assessment methods, such as life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting.

Tuomisto holds an MSc degree in Agroecology from the University of Helsinki and a doctoral degree from the University of Oxford. In her doctoral degree, she compared environmental impacts of organic, conventional and integrated farming systems. After finishing her doctoral degree, she worked four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) where she was involved in projects that developed carbon footprint and environmental footprint methods for agriculture and food sector. In 2016-2017, Tuomisto worked as postdoctoral researcher at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) where her work focused on the links between environmental change, nutrition and health.

Machine Learning Coffee Seminar is organized weekly by the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI. The location alternates between Aalto University and the University of Helsinki.