Ask Ag About... The Interactions Between Climate Change and Nutrition

Children in Cambodia ready to plant
Children in Cambodia prepare to plant

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How can cooperation between climate and nutrition communities mitigate the impacts of climate change on nutrition, as well as the impacts of dietary choices on climate change? Join this month’s Ask Ag discussion in the comments area below to ask our panel of experts about their work and the interactions between climate change and nutrition.

Changes in climate patterns are expected to negatively impact nutrition in the most food insecure regions of the world by reducing production, influencing disease levels, and increasing post-harvest losses. Additionally, different diets and their associated production systems have varying emissions levels and resource footprints, which in turn affect climate outcomes.

In order to mitigate the destructive impacts of climate change on nutrition, and nutrition on climate, the 2015 Global Nutrition Report calls for greater collaboration between nutrition and climate change communities. With that in mind, our experts from USAID, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University and Purdue University will join us in the comments section below to discuss opportunities for collaboration, challenges, and opportunities for success. 

Questions for consideration:

  • What is USAID doing to make its nutrition work climate proof?
  • Is the nutrition community sufficiently engaged with the climate agenda? What can we do to strengthen that relationship?
  • Is there a big win-win space for diets in terms of health and environmental sustainability?
  • What are some of the associations between climate, nutrition and diets, and where are the gaps in knowledge and practice?

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Speakers

Moffatt K.

Moffatt Ngugi

USAID Bureau for Food Security

Moffatt K. Ngugi is the Climate Change and Environment Advisor to the USAID Bureau for Food Security. He is a geospatial ecologist by training with a background in range management, physical land resources and agro ecology. He studied at the University of Nairobi (Bsc), Ghent University (Msc) and Colorado State University (PhD) and has worked in diverse settings in the US, Belgium and Kenya. Some examples of his research and work experience include dissertation research in Kenya on social and ecological characterization of herbivore key resource areas, postdoctoral research at University of California Davis using GIS/remote sensing to constrain biogeochemical modeling of greenhouse gases; and taking inventory of forage resources in Dakota grasslands at the USDA Agricultural Research Service. His current role at USAID is to collaborate with all stakeholders to address climate change concerns in the sustainable intensification of agricultural production in order to improve food security.

Jess Fanzo

Jess Fanzo

Johns Hopkins University

Jessica Fanzo is the Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor of Ethics and Global Food & Agriculture at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Jessica was an Assistant Professor of Nutrition in the Institute of Human Nutrition and Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University. She also served as the Senior Advisor of Nutrition Policy at the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development. Before joining Columbia University, Jessica was the Evaluation and Monitoring Officer for the REACH Interagency partnership at the UN World Food Programme in Rome Italy.

Madeleine Thomson

Madeleine Thomson

Columbia University

Madeleine Thomson is a Senior Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Senior Scholar at the Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences – at Columbia University. She is also the Director of the IRI/PAHO-WHO Collaborating Centre (US 306) for Early Warning Systems for Malaria and Other Climate Sensitive Diseases. Her research focuses on the development of new data, methodologies and tools for improving climate sensitive health interventions Her focus has been on vector-borne diseases (e.g. malaria, onchocerciasis, visceral lieshmaniasis etc.) but in recent years has expanded to include air and water-borne infections as well as broader health challenges associated with food security and disasters. She is particularly interested in improving institutional and human capacity for incorporating climate information into health planning.

Gerald Shively

Gerald Shively

Purdue University

Dr. Gerald Shively is Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, where he also directs the MS and PhD programs. He has more than 20 years of research experience working in the areas of Agricultural Development, Food Security and Natural Resource Management. Geographically, his work focuses on the humid tropics of South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with research experience in more than 20 countries including Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and the Philippines. He has managed a number of major and multi-institution research grants, including grants from the World Bank and the National Science Foundation, and been a principal investigator on four USAID Collaborative Research Support. He served for 9 years as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Agricultural Economics, the flagship journal of the International Association of Agricultural Economists and is on the editorial boards of the journals Land Economics and Environment and Development Economics. He currently serves on the Executive Committees of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center and Purdue’s Center for Global Food Security. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996.

Katherine Dennison

Katherine Dennison

USAID Bureau for Food Security

Katherine Dennison, Nutrition Advisor in the Bureau for Food Security, is a dietitian with 15 years of experience in international public health, community health, food management, and clinical care. Katherine served in the US Army Reserve as an officer and was deployed with the 325th Combat Support Hospital to Tikrit, Iraq, serving US troops from 2007-2008. She returned to Iraq from 2008-2011 with the US Department of State as the Senior Public Health Advisor for the US Embassy, assisting to bridge gaps in healthcare for the Iraqi Ministry of Health. As a native Texan, Katherine earned her BS in Nutrition from the University of Texas at Austin, with a strong background in Biochemistry and completed her dietetic internship at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. She earned a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in 2006 and completing a second Master’s degree in Homeland Security on Agricultural Biosecurity and Food Defense from Penn State University by May 2016.

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