The landscape of AI technology is rapidly growing, and finding creative, safe ways to integrate it into our work is becoming increasingly relevant. Earlier this month, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) shared an article about a grant that was awarded to NC State University researchers “to develop an AI-enabled, open-source platform that can analyze the potential to convert agricultural leftovers – biomass such as misshapen sweet potatoes or their discarded green tops – into biofuels or other bioproducts, creating new business opportunities”. 

A farmer using a computer.

Within our local food programs, we continue to brainstorm how to apply these technologies to our day-to-day work. With input from Digital Skills and Family and Consumer Sciences agents, we’ve identified several ideas for use in the field. While AI cannot replace the essential human experience and relationship building at the heart of Extension, it can save time on marketing, communication, and administration tasks. By framing AI as an approachable, practical resource, Extension can help producers and consumers build digital confidence while preserving the authenticity that defines our local food systems. It’s important to note that NC State University offers helpful guidance and best practices to promote the ethical and responsible use of AI tools. Staff should make sure to use approved tools and remember that generative AI tools deal in probabilities, not certainties. They may “hallucinate”, suggesting things that are partially or entirely inaccurate so outputs should be carefully reviewed for accuracy and quality before use.

According to NC State University’s AI Fluency Teaching Resource, the path to high-quality AI outputs isn’t perfect writing – it’s intentionality. To get the best results your prompt should clearly define the context, audience, and purpose, aligning with the PARTS Framework:

• Persona – tell AI what role or identity it should reflect
• Act  – specify the task or action to be performed
• Recipient – identify who will read or use the output
• Theme – include a topic or focus to maintain 
• Structure – specify the format or layout you want for your response

A few other important tips the article suggests include:

• Clarify over perfection – focus on being specific about your expectations
• Prompt building – your first message can include all of the details of your task or can start with a base prompt and layer details as the conversation evolves 
• Context matters – a prompt should communicate your request in a way that shares the context, audience, and purpose of your task

Local Food + AI in Family & Consumer Sciences Programming

Agents can utilize AI to help families navigate nutrition and resource management: 

• Generate cost-effective meal plans based on specific dietary restrictions or utilizing what ingredients or equipment consumers already have on hand 
• Create seasonal recipes featuring local, in-season ingredients from nearby farms
• Draft talking points, lesson outlines, and equipment checklists for cooking demos and taste tests 
• Translate research into consumer-friendly language, adjust reading levels for accessibility, and support communication for a variety of audiences
• Draft social media content, newsletters, and other forms of public-facing content

Local Food + AI on the Farm Stand

For local food producers and market managers, AI can streamline business operations and customer engagement:

• Draft social media posts, newsletters, and CSA updates to keep customers informed and engaged
• Generate or refine copy for product descriptions, website listings, and signage (labels, chalkboards, etc.)
• Organize sales data, track inventory trends, and support short-term planning and forecasting; make sure to remind producers that these tools retain data
• Organize ideas, draft outlines, and edit language for grant applications and reports
• Translate technical production information into accessible language that resonates with the average shopper
• Forecast fuel cost trends in NC for a future month and compare scenarios among market routes, delivery schedules, consolidated trips, etc.
• Forecast operational costs like packaging prices, feed or input cost trends, seasonal labor needs, market demand
• Forecast commodity trends such as how national fuel or input trends can affect local food pricing 

NC State University suggests staff use LinkedIn Learning to learn more about using AI tools – “whether you want to explore AI fundamentals, applications or ethics, you can find courses that challenge and inform you”. LinkedIn Learning can be accessed free for faculty, staff and students. Public users can create a paid premium account, and in many areas can be accessed through public libraries.