Sustainable Food Future: Workshop Series on Ways to Boost Food Security While Reducing GHG Emissions
WRI and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are sponsoring three workshops to explore potential technical measures to both mitigate climate change and boost food security.
Download the Technical Note: Technical Opportunities for Creating a Sustainable Food Future: How to Boost Food Security While Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Workshop One
The first workshop occurred over two days, August 3-4 2021, and focused on the mitigation measures that are most commonly discussed today. It included sessions exploring the evolving scientific understanding of soil carbon, and the different viewpoints about the feasibility of increasing soil carbon on working agricultural lands. Additional sessions focused on soil health in sub-Saharan Africa, ways of mitigating emissions from rice production, including an integrated mitigation/adaptation project in Bangladesh, ways of reducing emissions related to nitrogen use, and silvopastoral systems.
Additional workshops will focus on promising livestock management changes, promising technical innovations to address each category of emissions and ways in which directly addressing food security by boosting yields can be used to reduce deforestation and emissions.
Speakers and Presentations
Day One – Monday August 4th, 2021
Summary of the food production, food security & emissions challenge
- Tim Searchinger, Senior Fellow and Technical Director, WRI
The Basic Science of Soil Carbon: What is it, what do we know about what causes it to persist, and what do we know about how agricultural practices affect it?
- Dr. Johannes Lehmann, Professor of Biogeochemistry, Cornell University
- Dr. Margaret Torn, Ecologist and Biogeochemist, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
- Dr. John Kirkegaard, Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO
Rice & Integrated Adaptation/Mitigation Project in Bangladesh
- Tim Searchinger, Senior Fellow and Technical Director, WRI, Princeton University
- Dr. Abu Syed, Senior Fellow, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies
Nitrogen
- Tim Searchinger, Senior Fellow and Technical Director, WRI, Princeton University
- Dr. David Powlson, Professor Emeritus, Rothamsted Research
- Eileen Kladivko, Professor of Agronomy, Purdue University
Day Two – Tuesday August 5th, 2021
- Dr. Johannes Lehmann, Professor of Biogeochemistry, Cornell University
- Dr. David Powlson, Professor Emeritus, Rothamsted Research
- Richard Conant, Professor of Ecosystem Science, Colorado State University
Challenges & opportunities regarding soil carbon in Africa
- Ken Giller, Professor of Plant Production Systems, Wageningen University
- Pauline Chivenge, Principal Scientist, Africa Plant Nutrition Institute
Silvopastoral systems
- Julian Chara, Research Coordinator, CIPAV
Workshop Two
The second workshop occurred over two days, October 19-20 2021, and focused on livestock systems, which generate most of agricultural emissions and use most of the land. It also focused on proposed technical innovations related to nitrogen, manure management, and soil carbon with a policy discussion about how to encourage innovation.
The third workshop to occur later will focus on “produce and protect” strategies to boost yields while protecting forests and other natural habitats.
Speakers and Presentations
Day Two – Tuesday October 19th
Topic: WRI and the Gates Foundation Present: Technical Opportunities for a Sustainable Food Future: Part Two
Start Time : Oct 19, 2021 06:27 AM
Introductions & Summary of First Workshop
Tim Searchinger, Senior Fellow and Technical Director, WRI
Livestock
Mario Herrero, Chief Research Scientist of Agriculture and Food; Professor of Sustainable Food Systems and Global Change, CSIRO; Cornell University
Ermias Kebreab, Professor of Sustainable Agriculture, University of California at Davis
Solomon Mwendia, Associate Scientist, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
Michael Peters, Tropical Forages Program Lead, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
Innovative methods for soil carbon increases: suberin & deep roots, silicate rock spreading, biochar, remote soil carbon measurements
Joanne Chory, Professor and Director, Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute
David Beerling, Sorby Professor of Natural Sciences, Sheffield University
Claudia Kammann, Professor, Hochschule Geisenheim University
Keith Shepard, Principal Soil Scientist, World Agroforestry Center
Innovations for using perennial crops
Morten Ambye-Jensen, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
James Astwood, Chief Technology Officer, TerViva
Day Two – Wednesday October 20th
Topic: WRI and the Gates Foundation Present: Technical Opportunities for a Sustainable Food Future: Part Two
Start Time : Oct 20, 2021 06:29 AM
Introduction to Second Day
Tim Searchinger, Senior Fellow and Technical Director, WRI
Nitrogen: Biological nitrification inhibition, microbial additions, balancing nutrients
Guntur Subbarao, Senior Scientist and Group Leader, JIRCAS
Adriana Botes, R&D Director, Azotic Technologies
Ken Giller, Professor of Plant Production Systems, Wageningen University
Panel regarding precision agriculture & timing of fertilizer application
Pauline Chivenge, Principal Scientist, African Plant Nutrition Institute
David Powlson, Professor Emeritus, Rothamsted Research
Harold Mathjis van Es, Professor, Cornell University
Innovations to address demand: food loss & waste & plant-based meats
Jessica Vieira, Senior Director of Sustainability, Apeel Science
Liz Specht, Vice President of Science and Technology, Good Food Institute
Policies to promote Innovation – Panel discussion
Daniel Vennard, Chief Sustainability Officer, Syngenta
Kathryn Zook, Program Analyst, USDA
Bill Hohenstein, Director of Office of Energy and Environmental Policy (OEEP) within the Office of the Chief Economist, USDA
Workshop Three
This workshop is the last in a series of workshops sponsored by the World Resources Institute and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (as well as the Bezos Earth Fund), exploring potential measures to both mitigate climate change and boost food security. The first workshop focused on the evolving science and different perspectives about potential carbon sequestration on working agricultural lands. It also addressed opportunities and challenges to build soil health in Africa and management opportunities related to use of nitrogen, growing rice and silvopastoral systems. The second workshop focused on livestock systems and a wide range of potential areas of technical innovations, from crops that reduce nitrous oxide to plant-based “meats.” In general, these workshops, whose presentations can be viewed here, explored how measures designed to reduce agricultural emissions might also boost food security.
The third workshop focuses on the reverse causal pathway: whether and how efforts to boost crop yields and livestock efficiencies can address climate change by reducing the demand to clear forests and other native habitats. The workshop will explore recent rates and locations of agricultural expansion and likely future loss of natural habitats and forests at present rates of yield gains. The workshop will address potential rebound effects and mechanisms for avoiding these effects by linking these “produce” strategies with measures that “protect” native habitats. The workshop will explore some country efforts, and private, governmental, and philanthropic funders will offer their thoughts on what each can do next. (See WRI’s summary of reasons for produce and protect strategies.)
Speakers and Presentations:
The State of Land Use Change and Relation to Yields & Livestock Efficiencies
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Nancy Harris, Research Manager, Global Forest Watch, World Resources Institute
- Patrice Dumas, CIRAD
Successful Strategies for Increasing Livestock and Crop Yields and Land Use Linkages (Africa)
- Carolyn Opio, Livestock Policy Officer, FAO
- Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, Senior Research Fellow/Program Leader- Ethiopia, IFPRI
- Alice Ruhweza, Africa Regional Director, WWF
Experiences Linking Produce & Protect in Brazil
- Paulo Barreto, Associate Researcher, IMAZON
- Ana Toni, Executive Director, Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS)
The Theory and Mechanisms of Produce & Protect
- Tim Searchinger, Senior Fellow & Technical Director, Food Program, World Resources Institute | Senior Research Scholar, Princeton University
Panel Discussion
- Andrew Steer, President & Ceo, Bezos Earth Fund
- Janet Ranganathan, Managing Director, Strategy, Learning and Results, World Resources Institute
- Rodger Voorhies, President, Global Growth & Opportunity, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation