Towards designing an ontology encompassing the environment-agriculture-food-diet-health knowledge spectrum for food system sustainability and resilience

Feeding 9 billion people is not solely a matter of food, health, nutrition, and the environment. Promoting human health by increasing the sustainability and resilience of food systems requires integrating information from a broad range of disciplines from human nutrition/health systems and agricultural/natural systems to social, financial, physical and political systems. Ontologies serve to specify common terminologies for critical concepts and relationships within these systems, however very few ontologies have been developed with this interdisciplinary focus. Biological ontologies, whether focused on human physiology, soil quality, or nutritional value are only part of the story when it comes to determining linkages throughout the food system that help determine human health and well-being. We seek to build an ontology of food and food systems that encompasses the relevant sustainability issues in their entirety. We have already built an ontology of sustainable sourcing of agricultural raw materials issues and indicators, but aim to expand our ontology to include attributes of resilience, and other issues along the environment-agriculture-food-diet-health knowledge spectrum. Additionally, we aim to create this ontology with the intention of quick usability for the food system decision-maker.