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NASA Harvest Conference 2019
The NASA Harvest Conference took place from June 24-26 in Washington, D.C.

The Harvest Team wishes to extend a huge "THANK YOU!" to everyone who helped make the Conference a success!

Read below to find out what happened. Follow @NASAHarvest to learn more and check #HarvestConf19 on Twitter to see highlights of the conference.

At NASA Harvest's Inaugural Conference, Administrator Bridenstine Emphasizes Food Security
NASA Harvest's Inaugural Conference introduced the Harvest Consortium as well as our goals and our strategy for attaining them. Harvest leadership presented early achievements and impacts, emphasizing the stakeholder perspectives as well as the science responding to those needs. In his opening remarks, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine highlighted the importance of applying NASA's technology to enhance and advance the human condition. The conference provided an opportunity to increase awareness, form new connections, and strengthen existing relationships around using satellite Earth observations to promote food security.
Highlights from the Harvest Conference
24 June: NASA Harvest Partners All-Hands Meeting
This Working Meeting of Partners was our Consortium’s first opportunity to gather in person and discuss Harvest, its organization, activities, successes, lessons learned, priorities, and next steps.
We used an innovative “Marketplace of Ideas” to minimize passive listening and maximize exchange - presentation stations with a series of lighting sessions followed immediately by Q&A, encouraging participants to form connections interactively from the outset.
Further breakout discussion focused on thematic areas and bringing together ideas, identifying possible areas for enhanced collaboration and potential new initiatives.
Harvest Director Inbal Becker-Reshef and Chief Scientist Chris Justice summarized areas where shared progress can be made on advancing the use of Earth observation towards operational activities and for decision making and development.
25 June: NASA Harvest Conference
NASA Harvest’s Conference introduced the NASA Harvest Consortium, its high-level goals, and our strategy for attaining them to a larger audience of stakeholders.
Early achievements and impact were highlighted, presenting both the remote sensing as well as the stakeholder/end user sides of the research-to-operations transition around using satellite data for agricultural monitoring and informing decisions.
Conference sessions included expert insight from keynote speakers and partners from around the globe who spoke on Earth observations, agricultural markets, and food price volatility.
A series of panels on agricultural markets, public-private partnerships, and food security and early warning framed the meeting, concluding with a panel discussion on priorities for integrating EO into agricultural policy & global food security.
Through the panel series, we demonstrated a diversity of thought and needs around food security and agriculture toward increasing EO awareness, forming new connections,
and strengthening existing relationships around these themes and scales. 
26 June: Eastern Africa and Domestic Strategy Day
A day focused on two of our cross-cutting regional areas: an all-day session on Eastern Africa and a parallel afternoon session on the United States. High-level presentations and group discussions advanced Harvest work and international coordination on operational user needs, priorities, and future directions in these regions.
For Eastern Africa, panel discussions covered the current state of the technology for ways in which satellite-derived information can be used to inform national and regional decisions and policies.
For Domestic Strategy, a focused group advanced Harvest activities on public-private partnerships, on advancing emerging Earth observation (EO) technologies, and on improving EO-usage at the intersection of agriculture and water use in the US. 
The ICPAC - NASA Harvest Partnership was formalized through the signing of an MOU to support and collaborate on the thematic application areas of agriculture and crop monitoring, and on future atmospheric monitoring.
Outcomes of the meeting included a set of priorities where shared progress can be made on advancing the use of EO for decision-making, action-taking, and policy-making.
A workshop report is forthcoming.
Upcoming Event
This AGU session invites abstracts that demonstrate the utilization of or showcase the impact of NASA data, services, and tools for agricultural monitoring and assessment. Perspectives from researchers through end users are welcome toward weaving a cohesive narrative of the impact of NASA Earth on global agriculture and food security while identifying challenges and opportunities for enhancing the use of EO for agricultural monitoring.
New Publications
At the NASA Harvest Conference, partner Molly Jahn announced a new Lloyds publication, Evolving risks in global food supply. This new report looks at what is driving this fast-growing area of insurance, and identifies both the risks and opportunities in the sector, providing an overview of current and future risks arising from food supply chains.
The GEOGLAM Crop Monitor for the G20 Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) was created to provide timely and transparent consensus on global crop prospects. A new paper in Global Food Security provides background on the creation and role of the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor in fulfilling the objectives of AMIS, including a description of its methods and protocols and how decision-makers are using its information.
Thank you from the NASA Harvest Hub Team at UMD and NASA Food Security!