Geo-information methods to study food production systems

A food production system (FPS) depends on environmental resources in all stages from farm to fork. The fact that these environmental resources are becoming more scarce puts pressure on actors in the system to critically consider their use of resources, now and in the future, under locally changing conditions. When planning resource usage, geo-information methods are crucial since they model the properties of space and connectedness. With this book chapter, I aim to provide a structured overview of geo-information methods that are used and can be used to study to FPSs. The reader is offered a summary of the fundamentals behind different geo-information methods and the purposes they serve, using five categories: contemporary inference, prediction, projection, retrodiction, and retrojection. Each of these categories is explained and linked to (research) questions about FPSs with corresponding examples. This should help food scientists to break down the above-mentioned resource challenges into researchable questions, and geo-information scientists to develop and test spatial methods and models that are suitable to answer these research questions so that together we can help to develop and maintain sustainable FPSs.