Seminar: Mike Humber, "Agriculture at the Edge: Linking Local Systems and Global Food Shocks"

Join us at 3:30 p.m. in River Road 325 and on Zoom on May 7, Thursday for this seminar with Associate Research Professor Michael Humber.

Nearly one billion people are directly engaged in agriculture, and almost half of the global population is connected to the agrifood system (FAO, 2023). While agricultural practices range from subsistence farming to large-scale industrial production, most systems are globally interconnected through trade in food, inputs, and energy. This seminar examines how local agricultural systems connect to global outcomes and vice versa, with a focus on vulnerability and resilience across scales. Using Maryland as a case study, the structure of a regional system under climatological, economic, and regulatory pressures is analyzed, with particular attention to efforts that promote resilience through diversified practices and circular bioeconomies. 

This perspective is extended globally through the integration of satellite remote sensing with socioeconomic and trade data. Linked modeling frameworks combine satellite-derived production estimates with trade flows and food security indicators to assess how local production shocks propagate through markets, influencing prices, employment, and food access. Finally, emerging AI-enabled monitoring tools are introduced as a means to support near–real-time analysis and decision-making, offering new opportunities to anticipate and respond to disruptions in an increasingly volatile global food system.

About the Speaker

Michael Humber is an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences. He received his B.S. in Geography (2011), M.P.S. in Geographic Information Science (2013), and Ph.D. in Geography (2019) from the University of Maryland. His background is in remote sensing, spatial statistics, and geographic data management. Dr. Humber is the Deputy Director for the NASA Acres consortium, Data Lead for the NASA Harvest consortium, Lead Scientist for the Climate-Smart Agriculture component of the UMD Climate Resilience Network, and member of the UMD-NASA Fire Science Team.  

For the Zoom link, please visit the GEOG Department Calendar.