Towards Sustainable Food Security: An Interdisciplinary Approach

As urbanization moves towards globalization in the next century, the evolution of smart city technologies has also brought new approaches to traditional public wellbeing problems such as food accessibility at both global and local scales. Technology implemented using the Internet of Things and data analytics offers unique advantages and challenges to address issues related to food access. In addition, interdisciplinary efforts are necessary to effectively utilize emerging technologies to address the issue of food insecurity while considering the underlying complex social, economic, and environmental dimensions. In this paper, we discuss the multi-dimensional nature of the food accessibility problem in U.S. metropolitan regions and explore the connection between the fields of engineering, social science, agriculture, education, and life sciences, with respect to their collective impact on addressing the food accessibility problem. We also present our team’s ongoing efforts to identify and address food insecurity problems in Richmond, Virginia through interdisciplinary research.