MSUās President Keenum, Provost Shaw part of FAO panel today in Rome
Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.āĻć½¶Ö±²„ President Mark E. Keenum and Provost and Executive Vice President David Shaw today [June 25] emphasized the critical importance of global partnerships during a panel discussion hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy.
Broadcast as an international webinar, also featuring the FAOās Vincent Martin, director, Office of Innovation, the dialogue focused on artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and data science for agrifood systems.
āGlobal food security is one of our most urgent challengesāand it demands transformative innovation,ā Keenum said. āHigh-performance computing now allows us to simulate crop growth under different climate scenarios, model pest outbreaks and optimize supply chainsāall in hours instead of weeks. Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing predictive analytics, drought forecasting and precision agriculture, helping us produce more food with fewer resources while reducing environmental impact.
āThis kind of innovation is at the heart of MSUās partnership with FAO,ā said Keenum, whose career has maintained a long-term, deep commitment to eradicating global hunger and poverty. In addition to leading MSU, Keenum serves as chair of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, which funds science addressing critical global challenges.
āLand-grant institutions like Ļć½¶Ö±²„have the knowledge, infrastructure and experience to contribute at every step of the food systemāfrom lab to field to table,ā he said.
Shaw remarked that knowledgeāshared globallyāwill help meet the worldās greatest challenges.
āTo truly make a difference, we need the full educational, research and outreach capabilities of global research universities and international partners like FAO working together. We simply cannot adequately address global issues such as food security without these partnerships,ā Shaw said.
The FAO and Ļć½¶Ö±²„have a strong history of partnership developing sustainable solutions for food security and nutrition. The entities have worked jointly for more than a decade on issues related to sustainable aquaculture, biosecurity and antimicrobial resistance. Efforts have expanded to include focus on strengthening informatics and technologies that support sustainable agrifood systems.
In announcing the panel with Keenum and Shaw, the FAO stated, āFAO recognizes and champions big data and artificial intelligence (AI) not only to combat hunger and poverty, but to support broader sustainable development goals (SDGs). While there is a vast amount of agricultural and environmental data available, its full potential remains untapped. Unfortunately, resources for high-performance computing (HPC) are concentrated within a few elite organizations and research institutions, but Ļć½¶Ö±²„is committed to expanding access to global partners. Through the FAO-Ļć½¶Ö±²„partnership, we envision a future in which HPC accelerates climate action and sustainable agricultureāto address pressing food security challenges.ā
A university delegation is traveling in Italy this week, visiting Ļć½¶Ö±²„partners who collaborate on a variety of study-abroad and research opportunities. Keenum and Shaw also met today with World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain, wife of the late Sen. John McCain, who shares in the deep commitment to ending hunger and malnutrition. Earlier this week, Keenum formally signed a partnership with Pontifical University Antonianum establishing the framework for joint academic, research and cultural initiatives. Still on the agenda is a visit to Venice to tour the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, where Ļć½¶Ö±²„has a prominent presence at this yearās event with two showcases featuring work within the College of Architecture, Art and Design.
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