Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 285, Issue 1891, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.1977
Keywords
citizen science; agriculture; grand challenges; sustainable development goals; extension; food science
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Funding
- NCSU Plant Sciences Initiative
- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 'Big Ideas' grant
- National Science Foundation grant (NSF) [1319293]
- United States Department of Food and Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant
- USDA-NIFA Post Doctoral Fellowships grant [2017-67012-26999]
- Division Of Research On Learning
- Direct For Education and Human Resources [1319293] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The power of citizen science to contribute to both science and society is gaining increased recognition, particularly in physics and biology. Although there is a long history of public engagement in agriculture and food science, the term 'citizen science' has rarely been applied to these efforts. Similarly, in the emerging field of citizen science, most new citizen science projects do not focus on food or agriculture. Here, we convened thought leaders from a broad range of fields related to citizen science, agriculture, and food science to highlight key opportunities for bridging these overlapping yet disconnected communities/fields and identify ways to leverage their respective strengths. Specifically, we show that (i) citizen science projects are addressing many grand challenges facing our food systems, as outlined by the United States National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as well as broader Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations Development Programme, (ii) there exist emerging opportunities and unique challenges for citizen science in agriculture/food research, and (iii) the greatest opportunities for the development of citizen science projects in agriculture and food science will be gained by using the existing infrastructure and tools of Extension programmes and through the engagement of urban communities. Further, we argue there is no better time to foster greater collaboration between these fields given the trend of shrinking Extension programmes, the increasing need to apply innovative solutions to address rising demands on agricultural systems, and the exponential growth of the field of citizen science.
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