Sustainable Food Systems: How Better Natural Resources Management Leads to Better Food Security
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Increases in population and wealth are leading to ever-growing demands for food, while increasing urbanization is leading to proportionally fewer people producing food. The next few decades will require sound policy and careful management of resources in order to simultaneously provide 50 percent more food, 50 percent more energy and 30 percent more fresh water, without further degrading the natural resource base upon which our food security largely depends.
This webinar will highlight emerging evidence and provide examples from the field on improved and more sustainable program design across the entire food system, from production to consumption. We will explore the emerging evidence and the value added of adopting a sustainable food system approach that delivers food security and nutrition in such a way that enhances and restores natural resources and sustains rural and urban livelihoods while providing access to nutrition foods for future generations that is not compromised.
During the webinar, we will hear presentations on:
Why transforming food systems impacts food security, Dr. Sara Scherr, President and CEO, EcoAgriculture Partner
Dr. Scherr will share why food systems must be transformed over the next few decades to ensure food security and healthy nutrition to all people around the globe, while becoming major positive contributors to sustainable livelihoods, to the conservation of wild and agricultural biodiversity, healthy watersheds and water security, other ecosystem services, and adapting to and mitigating climate change.
How global weather data can influence sustainable crop growth, Dr. Faisal Hossain, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington.
Dr. Faisal will discuss how global weather models and satellite data have been used to develop technology that help farmers increase crop yield through sustainable water management in countries of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Food loss and Sustainable Development Goal 12: responsible consumption and production, Pete Pearson, Senior Director of Food Loss and Waste, World Wildlife Fund
Pearson will discuss WWF’s global Food Practice and why the world’s largest conservation non-profit is working at the intersection of agriculture and sustainable development. Pete will briefly discuss WWF’s strategic focus on sustainable food production and consumption and will go into detail on the growing global Food Loss and Waste program in support of Sustainable Development Goal 12, responsible consumption and production.
Speakers
Sara Scherr
President and CEO
EcoAgriculture Partners
Dr. Sara J. Scherr, an agricultural and resource economist, is a prominent voice globally in promoting restoration of degraded lands. She founded the non-profit EcoAgriculture Partners in 2002 to promote locally-led transformation of agricultural landscapes for food security, rural livelihoods and ecosystem services. A leading innovator in agricultural landscape analysis, planning, policy, and finance she has supported landscape partnerships in Africa, Latin America, Asia and U.S.; and advised landscape programs world-wide. In 2011 she co-founded the global network ‘Landscapes for People, Food and Nature’, and in 2019 launched a global collaborative--1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People--to accelerate landscape regeneration around the world. Dr. Scherr serves on the boards of Bioversity International-USA and Solutions from the Land, and other advisory and editorial boards. Her research is widely published in scientific and policy literatures. She previously served as Director of Ecosystem Services at the non-profit Forest Trends, senior researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), adjunct professor at Univ. of Maryland, and principal researcher and later Board member of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). She served on the Millennium Project’s Hunger Task Force to develop strategies to halve the incidence of hunger worldwide.
Pete Pearson
Senior Director of Food Loss and Waste
World Wildilfe Fund
Pete Pearson is the Senior Director of Food Loss and Waste at World Wildlife Fund (WWF), helping businesses and communities understand agriculture’s impact on wildlife and habitat conservation. Pete has 10 years of technology and grocery retail experience with companies including Hewlett-Packard, Accenture and Albertsons; has worked with public schools and hospitals as a sustainability and zero waste consultant, co-founded a sustainable agriculture non-profit in Idaho, and co-produced a documentary film on local and regenerative agriculture (www.ToLiveLocal.com). Pete currently lives in Washington DC and enjoys fly fishing, sailing, skiing, and exploring the outdoors with his family.
Faisal Hossain
Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Washington
Faisal Hossain received his Ph.D. from The University of Connecticut in 2004, his M.S (1999) and B.S (1996) from The National University of Singapore and Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi, respectively. His research interests are hydrologic remote sensing, sustainable water resources engineering, transboundary water resources management and engineering education. He is the recipient of awards such as NASA New Investigator Award (2008), American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Outstanding Research Award (2009), US Fulbright Faculty Award (2012), G.O.L.D. (Graduate Of the Last Decade) award from University of Connecticut (2012), American Geophysical Union (AGU) Charles Falkenberg Award (2012), American Meteorological Society Editor's Award (2015) and ASCE Walter Huber Award (2015).
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