Beyond the Yield: Enhancing Agricultural Sustainability Through Operations Management

With this editorial and the associated SI papers, we hope to encourage the OM community to engage more deeply with agricultural systems, where opportunities for meaningful contributions are both pressing and plentiful. Our emphasis here was on upstream agriculture operations, though we believe it is equally important for OM research to engage with down-stream processes. Overall, we see ample opportunities for OM scholars to contribute and provide valuable insights toward shaping agriculture into a system that is capable of meeting the world's growing needs for food, feed, and fiber with minimal harm to the environment, people, and animals. By leveraging knowledge of processes, technologies, and human factors, OM researchers are well positioned to address key challenges at the intersection of farming operations, system design, and public policy.