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Dear
Friend,
Next week, I will be in Washington, DC
for the Chicago
Council’s 2014 Global Food Security
Symposium. I'll be participating
in a panel at the Symposium and Food
Tank will be live-blogging from the
event.
The global food system is growing more
fragile. Changing climate and volatile
weather patterns threaten global food
production and the livelihood of
small-scale farmers around the globe.
The increase in food prices in 2008,
excessive heat and drought resulting
in wildfires in Russia in 2010, and,
most recently, the worst drought in
more than 100 years in California, all
are warning signs that farmers and
farmers’ groups, global food
producers, industry leaders,
researchers, and scientists must
address food security in the face of
weather volatility and climate change.
Fortunately, innovations in fields,
farms, kitchens, among businesses, and
in laboratories and boardrooms already
exist. Family farmers around
the globe are addressing climate
change through growing less water
intensive crops, drip irrigation,
permaculture practices, no-till
agriculture, and much more.
These and other solutions will be the
focus of the Chicago Council’s 2014
Global Food Security Symposium on
Thursday, May 22nd, “Advancing Global
Food Security in the Face of Weather
Volatility and Climate Change.”
For those
unable to attend, the event
will be available via live-stream.
This all-day conference will address:
-The climate-food nexus and what it
means for food security, conflict,
economic growth, and the environment.
-The most effective approaches to
making food systems more resilient to
extreme weather and a changing
climate.
-Opportunities to better manage risks
to agriculture and food production
associated with weather and climate
change.
-The water-agriculture nexus and
promising approaches to successfully
managing water stresses related to
food production.
Global leaders will convene to chart a
course for how the U.S. government—in
partnership with business, civil
society, and international
organizations—can advance global food
security.
The Symposium will also include the
following speakers (among many
others): Catherine Bertini, Senior
Fellow, Global Agriculture Development
Initiative, The Chicago Council on
Global Affairs; Lester R. Brown,
President, Earth Policy Institute;
Howard W. Buffett, Trustee, Howard G.
Buffett Foundation; Dan Glickman,
Former Secretary, U.S. Department of
Agriculture (Co-chair); Judith D. Schwartz,
author; Rajiv
Shah, Administrator, U.S. Agency for
International Development; and many
more.
Many of these participants are working
to create resilience in the food
system, spreading awareness, and
creating solutions to advance global
food security.
Schwartz, for example, is a journalist
and author of Cows Save the
Planet and Other Improbable Ways of
Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth. She has
taken a look at how our ability to
turn crises—climate
change, desertification, droughts,
floods, and wildfires—into
opportunities depends on how we treat
the soil. And Buffett is also
concerned about improving the
condition of Africa’s depleted soils
and improving farm incomes. He says
that “Africa needs a ‘brown
revolution’ to improve soil quality
and increase agricultural
productivity.”
According to Lester Brown "with 80
million more mouths to feed each year
and with increasing demand for
grain-intensive livestock products,
the rise in temperature only adds to
the stress. If we continue with
business as usual on the climate
front, it is only a matter of time
before what we [saw] in Russia becomes
commonplace.”.
The Chicago Council will also be
presenting a new report on global food
security to kick off the day and I
will be participating in a discussion
about “Climate-Smart Food Security”
starting at 10:45am EST.
Food
Tank will be live
posting and tweeting using #GlobalAg.
We hope you can join us! You can share
this article online by clicking HERE.
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All
the Best,
Danielle Nierenberg
President, Food Tank
foodtank.com
Please connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
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