The Use of Systems Thinking to Conceptualize Approaches for Co-managing Produce Production Environments for Food Safety, Conservation, and Profit

Introduction: The Distinction-System-Relationship-Perspective (DSRP) framework for systems thinking enables stakeholders to share multiple analytical perspectives within a unified conceptual environment. Using DSRP, regulations, incentives, and stakeholder practices can be assessed from multiple disciplines, scales of operation, and time-horizons. The utility and flexibility of systems thinking can be best understood through a real-world application of DSRP. This presentation will introduce the concepts underpinning the DSRP approach, using examples from produce safety. Specifically, the talk will focus on how systems-thinking approaches have been used to understand trade-offs between food safety, conservation, and economics in produce production systems.

Purpose: DSRP provides a conceptual framework that is useful for comprehensively approaching wicked problems within food safety, such as comanaging produce production environments.

Methods: We examined the impact of various management decisions on food safety, conservation, and profit within produce production systems over the short- and long-term. We developed telescoping mental models that incorporated fine scale and landscape-level processes. These models incorporated multiple perspectives (e.g., growers, conservationists, food safety specialists), as well as findings from multiple fields (e.g., food safety, ecology, horticulture, economics).

Results: We were able to develop a holistic understanding of the ecological processes, as well as the economic and regulatory forces, that underpin the preharvest environment and drive grower decisions. This understanding allowed for the identification of research gaps (e.g., the impact of noncrop vegetation removal on pollination services), as well as potential comanagement strategies that maximize food safety while minimizing conservation and economic costs.

Significance: Systems thinking is a potential approach for enabling industry and government stakeholders to make informed decisions that consider both the short- and long-term effects of regulations, voluntary grower agreements, and on-farm management practices.