About

The Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) uses advanced analytics to fully understand the future of food. The AAL provides a global knowledge hub, forum, and destination for sharing the latest intelligence, research and learning on fisheries, agriculture, aquaculture, and food.  

A range of rapidly emerging risks

Across the world, the agri-food industry is changing fast, dynamism driven by:

  • risks relating to food security, and to the sustainability of soil, water, fisheries, agriculture, and aquaculture
  • mounting threats to health from rising obesity, high blood pressure, and heart disease
  • supply chain problems, such as food authenticity
  • threats to developing and ancient food cultures, and to consumer choice
  • shifting, and harder-to-track, consumer tastes
  • insufficient data to allow a full understanding of how and why the world’s food systems are changing; how agriculture and food communities – from farmers to consumers, including processing and distribution – can collaborate more effectively; and of the future of food in general

Evidence-based insights

Against this backdrop, the AAL – an independent knowledge hub headquartered at Dalhousie University on Canada’s east coast – uses advanced agri-food analytics to help the industry explore, learn, innovate, commercialize; and to improve food quality, security, sustainability, appreciation, and ‘healthfulness’.

Drawing on diverse, deep, and broad expertise from across agriculture and aquaculture, oceanography, engineering, computer science, philosophy, and sociology, the AAL collects, monitors, and continuously mines agri-food data to improve distribution of healthy, affordable and sustainable food.  

Vision and mission

The Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) aims to understand the future of agri-food systems through analytics. The bilingual institute provides a global knowledge hub and space for sharing intelligence, research and learning on food security, agriculture, aquaculture, agri-business and social aspects of food.