Proceedings of a Workshop

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This activity was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (AB0767199) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (59-0204-0-003). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-71570-6
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-71570-9
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/27478

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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. The role of advanced computation, predictive technologies, and big data analytics in food and nutrition research: Proceedings of a workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27478.

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PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR A WORKSHOP ON THE ROLE OF ADVANCED COMPUTATION, PREDICTIVE TECHNOLOGIES, AND BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN FOOD AND NUTRITION RESEARCH¹

RODOLPHE BARRANGOU (Cochair), Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professor, North Carolina State University

SHARON I. KIRKPATRICK (Cochair), Associate Professor, University of Waterloo

BECCA B. R. JABLONSKI, Codirector, Food Systems Institute, and Associate Professor, Colorado State University

ANANT MADABHUSHI, Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Research Career Scientist, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University

CARMEN D. TEKWE, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Indiana University at Bloomington

DIANA M. THOMAS, Professor, U.S. Military Academy at West Point

Staff

ALICE VOROSMARTI, Associate Program Officer

MELANIE ARTHUR, Senior Program Assistant

ANN L. YAKTINE, Director, Food and Nutrition Board

Consultant

JOE ALPER, writer

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¹ The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s planning committees are solely responsible for organizing the workshop, identifying topics, and choosing speakers. The responsibility for the published Proceedings of a Workshop rests with the workshop rapporteurs and the institution.

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Reviewers

This Proceedings of a Workshop was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published proceedings as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.

We thank the following individuals for their review of this proceedings:

Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the proceedings nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this proceedings was overseen by CATHIE WOTEKI, Iowa State University. She was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this proceedings was carried out in accordance with standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the rapporteurs and the National Academies.

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Contents

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

1 INTRODUCTION

Introductory Remarks

Organization of the Proceedings

2 SETTING THE STAGE

Highlights from the Presentations of Individual Speakers

AI and Health

Ethics, Privacy, Bias, and Trust in the Application of AI

The Promises and Challenges of AI in Nutrition and Food Sciences

Moderated Discussion

3 APPLICATIONS AND LESSONS LEARED

Highlights from the Presentations of Individual Speakers

Wearables: Sensors, Images, and AI for Food Intake Monitoring

Microbiome and Diet

Quantitative Analysis of Metabolomics Data to Inform Precision Health

Applications of AI in Nutrition Research

Designing Nutrition Studies for AI Data Analysis

AI and the Big Challenges in Agriculture and Food

Nourish or Perish: A Research Journey through Food Supply Chains

Reaction to the Presentations on Applications and Lessons Learned

Moderated Discussion

4 CAPACITY BUILDING

Highlights from the Presentations of Individual Speakers

Training Program in AI and Precision Nutrition

Building Inclusive Teams for Food and Nutrition Research

Moderated Discussion

5 POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS OF AI TO LARGE-SCALE FOOD AND NUTRITION INITIATIVES

Highlights from the Presentations of Individual Speakers

Advancing AI and ML in Biomedical Research and Health Care at NIH

The NIH NPH Program

Ethics, Access, Legal Frameworks, and Fairness in AI

Moderated Discussion

6 FINAL DISCUSSION AND SYNTHESIS

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

A Workshop Agenda

B Biographical Sketches of Speakers and Moderators

Box and Figures

BOX

1-1 Workshop Statement of Task

FIGURES

2-1 A fairness tree

3-1 Examples of wearable sensors

3-2 Distribution of known and unknown bioactive molecules in rosemary

3-3 Analytic methods to characterize dietary patterns

3-4 A food network to understand meal patterns

3-5 Natural language processing of tweets reveals geographic differences in food consumption patterns

3-6 Solving the challenges of using AI to enable precision nutrition requires a multiscale, multisystem approach

3-7 The layers that would make up a geographic information system of a human being

3-8 The environmental impacts of food and agriculture

3-9 The widespread effects of food malnutrition

3-10 Negative feedback loops make fruits and vegetables expensive to eat and hard to purchase for low-income populations

3-11 The current food supply chain is primarily inventory pushed and depends on a large number of intermediaries

4-1 Factors associated with the variability between individuals in response to diet

4-2 The overlap of DEI and belonging

4-3 Prevalence of food insecurity by selected household characteristics, 2021

4-4 Bringing the perspective of African American researchers to the problem of excess obesity in African American populations

4-5 Move toward inclusive excellence by promoting and supporting women in science

5-1 The complex nature of farm decisions

Acronyms and Abbreviations