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Oct. 16 marks World Food Day, an international initiative to commemorate the establishment of the Food and Agriculture Organization 80 years back, and to strive for a nutritious, sustainable, and food-secure future. Over 670 million individuals globally are confronting hunger. Countless others are facing increasing obesity levels and find it challenging to access healthy food for adequate nourishment.
World Food Day urges not just global governments, but also businesses, academia, the media, and even youth to take steps to foster resilient food systems and address hunger. This year, the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Laboratory (J-WAFS) is highlighting a researcher from MIT who is advancing this objective by examining food and water systems in the Global South.
J-WAFS seed grants offer financial support for early-phase research projects that are distinct from previous efforts. In the 11th round of seed grant funding in 2025, 10 members of the MIT faculty acquired backing to conduct their pioneering research in water and food systems. Ali Aouad PhD ’17, assistant professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, was one of the recipients. “I had looked into what research centers and initiatives were available that aimed to consolidate research on food systems before I joined MIT,” Aouad states. “So, I was very enthusiastic about J-WAFS.”
Aouad acquired further details about J-WAFS during the new faculty orientation in August 2024, where he interacted with J-WAFS staff and learned about the program’s funding opportunities for water and food research. Later that fall semester, he participated in several J-WAFS seminars focused on agricultural economics and water resource management. It was then that Aouad realized his project was ideally suited to the J-WAFS mission of ensuring access to water and food for humanity.
Aouad’s seed project centers on food subsidies. With a foundation in operations research and a passion for digital platforms, a significant portion of his work has revolved around harmonizing supply-side operations with diverse customer preferences. Previous projects have included studies on retail and matching systems. “I began to consider that these types of demand-driven methodologies may also be quite pertinent to critical social challenges, especially relating to food security,” Aouad observes. Before embarking on his PhD at MIT, Aouad engaged in projects that examined subsidies for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income nations. “I believe I have always been intrigued by working to resolve these issues,” he remarked.
His seed grant initiative, Optimal subsidy design: Application to food assistance programs, aims to utilize data on preferences and purchasing behaviors from local grocery outlets in India to shape food assistance policy and enhance subsidy design. Conventional data collection methods, such as point-of-sale systems, are not as easily accessible in India’s local markets, making it challenging to obtain this information for low-income consumers. “Mom-and-pop stores are extremely significant last-mile providers when it comes to nutrition,” he elaborates.
For this initiative, the research team provided local grocers with point-of-sale scanners to monitor purchasing behaviors. “We aspire to create an algorithm that translates these transactions into a sort of ‘revelation’ of the individuals’ underlying preferences,” Aouad states. “With that, we can model and enhance food assistance programs—determining how much variety and flexibility is presented while considering the anticipated demand.” He adds, “of course, our capacity to answer detailed design questions [across various products and prices] relies on the accuracy of our inferences from the data, and this is where we require more sophisticated and reliable algorithms.”
Following data collection and model refinement, the ultimate aspiration of this research is to inform policy regarding food assistance programs through an “optimization approach.” Aouad discusses the challenges of using optimization to inform policy. “Policies are frequently guided by domain expertise, outdated systems, or political discussions. Many researchers provide solid evidence to influence food policy, but it’s fair to say that the approach I’m proposing in this research is not commonly employed. I perceive an opportunity to introduce a new methodology and tradition to a problem that has been central to policy for many decades.”
The overall well-being of consumers is the reason for food assistance programs’ existence, yet assessing long-term nutritional ramifications and shifts in purchasing behavior poses challenges. In previous studies, Aouad points out that the immediate consequences of food assistance interventions can be substantial. However, these effects often fade quickly. “This presents a compelling question that I don’t believe we will fully address within the scope of the interventions we will examine. However, I would like to explore this in the research, and perhaps formulate hypotheses for future endeavors around how we can influence nutrition-related behaviors in the long term.”
While his project develops a new approach to calibrate food assistance programs, large-scale applications are not guaranteed. “Much of what influences subsidy mechanisms and food assistance programs is also, frankly, how simple and cost-effective it is to implement these policies initially,” Aouad remarks. Financial and infrastructure obstacles are inherent to this type of policy research, as well as maintaining these programs. Aouad’s efforts will yield insights into consumer preferences and subsidy optimization in a pilot context, but replicating this model on a larger scale may involve substantial costs. He hopes to obtain proxy information from consumers that would not only enhance the model but also offer insights into a more cost-effective method for data collection for broader implementation.
There remains substantial work to be undertaken to guarantee food security for everyone, whether through advancements in agriculture, food assistance initiatives, or methods to enhance adequate nutrition. As the 2026 seed grant deadline looms, J-WAFS will persist in its mission of assisting MIT faculty as they pursue groundbreaking projects that yield practical and significant effects on the challenges within water and food systems.
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