Applications of systems science in projecting alternative food and agriculture futures

Public and private policy decisions, program planning and management, and expenditures of limited federal and state funds affect food production capacity, commodity supply-demand, resource development and use, the environment, economic development and the world food situation. Providing a reasonable balance between production capacity and the need for food and fiber is the implied national goal. In dealing with the long-run aspects of these problems, public decisionmakers are increasingly turning to projections and analyses of alternative futures. Whereas we have traditionally studied the past to understand the present, we need to study the future to better manage the present and to better plan the future. Confronted with a multitude of unprecedented and inter-related global problems in population, the environment, food, and energy, decisionmakers need more and better information about alternatives, trade-offs, and impacts on social value functions.