From Green to Resilient

NewAmericaFoundation

Published on Apr 17, 2012

From Green to Resilient

This panel discussion was recorded at the Future Tense event: Feeding the World While the Earth Cooks, which was held in Washington, DC on April 12th, 2012

Fred Kirschenmann – @StoneBarns
Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University
President, StoneBarns Center for Food and Agriculture
2011 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award Recipient

When today’s toddlers are parents themselves, they will face an agricultural crisis. The world population will reach 9 billion. A growing global middle class will demand more food. And climate change will leave farmers holding seeds that won’t sprout. By 2050, will our global appetite outgrow our agricultural capacity? We held an event to find out how everyone—growers, technologists, governments, business leaders, and carbon-conscious consumers—will be part of the solution.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2012…

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Food-Matters

Reports Affirm Climate Change Could Lead to Drastic Increases In Food Prices

CleanTechnica | January 28, 2014 12:11 pm

Climate impacts are likely to lead to drastic increases in the prices of common food-stuffs over the next few decades, according to a series of new studies from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

The studies strongly suggest that the agricultural industry won’t be able to adapt fast enough to the shifting climatic patterns to prevent a decrease in production—hence rising prices.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/28/climate-change-lead-to-increases-food-prices/

As a result of climate impacts, average food prices could increase up to 25 percent by 2050. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

The research also addresses the concerns that some have that expanding biofuel production could also lead to higher food prices. Such an expansion could indeed lead to increases in food prices according to the new research, increases of up to five percent by the year 2050. While such a rise is quite significant, it is absolutely dwarfed by the rise that is now expected to be caused by climate change. The new research predicts increases in food prices as high as 25 percent by the year 2050 as a result of climate impacts. That means up to 25 percent higher without even including important secondary effects, such as increased war/conflict, increasing levels of disease/plant diseases, increasing populations of common pests, etc.

In total, three separate studies were completed—one assessing the impact of climate change on demand for cropland, one assessing the impact on crop yields and one assessing the impact of second-generation biofuels on the transport sector.

The lead researcher on the cropland study, Christoph Schmitz, notes that climate impacts are “likely to lead to a drastic increase in demand for cropland.” Continuing: “We find most models projecting an increase in cropland by 2050 that is more than 50 percent higher in scenarios with unabated climate change than in those assuming a constant climate,” adding that the “increase meant the world would require 320 million hectares instead of about 200 million hectares by 2050—a difference equal to an area roughly three times the size of Germany.”

….(read more).

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Food-Matters

China Increases Food Imports

VOA Khmer Learning English

Published on Jul 31, 2013

From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report. A new report says China’s demand for food imports will sharply rise in the next 10 years. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development made the prediction. They say China will increase its imports of grains, oil seeds and meat. Angel Gurria is secretary-general of the OECD. He says China’s need for food is growing at a time when world food production is decreasing. Imports to China are expected to grow at a yearly rate of three percent to 1.7 million tons by the year 2022. China’s imports of crops used to feed animals, called coarse grains, are expected to double by 2022. And imports of oil seeds are predicted to rise 41 percent. Angel Gurria says China’s economic growth is fueling its hunger for imports. He says the country already has a big effect on world food markets. Jose Graziano Da Silva is the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization. He says reducing the large amount of food that is now wasted would help meet the growing demand for food. The rise in the Chinese demand for food is expected to cause grain and other commodity prices to rise. Businesses are taking new steps because of China’s influence on world food trade. Last month, the Chinese meat processing company Shuanghui announced a $7 billion offer for the American pork company Smithfield Foods. China is already the world’s biggest importer of milk and soybeans. It is expected to become the world’s biggest consumer of pork, passing the European Union within 10 years. The FAO and OECD say that will cause international pork prices to rise. For VOA Learning English, I’m Alex Villarreal.

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China’s Ag Demand – Azzeddine Azzam – November 1, 2013

Market Journal

Published on Nov 1, 2013

A recent UNL Cornhusker Economics article details how China’s changing diet towards higher meat consumption has helped U.S. corn and soybean production. But the report also points out more natural resources will be needed to produce even more output. Azzeddine Azzam, UNL professor of agricultural economics, discusses the recent report.

Global Climate Change
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Food-Matters

The Economics of Meat Production

Climate One

Published on Mar 24, 2014

The U.S. animal agriculture industry sees roughly $38 billion in government subsidies per year. “That number is probably an order of magnitude higher than the number of the people typically think about when they think about animal food production subsidies,” says David Robinson Simon, author of Meatonomics.

Speakers:
David Robinson Simon, Author, Meatonomics: How the Rigged Economics of Meat and Dairy Make You Consume Too Much — and How to Eat Better, Live Longer, and Spend Smarter
Tim Koopman, President, California Cattlemen’s Association

This program was recorded before a live audience on February 24, 2014.

http://climate-one.org
http://commonwealthclub.org

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Food-Matters

Fukushima Fallout: Sick U.S. Sailors Sue TEPCO After Exposure to Radiation 30x Above Normal

democracynow

Published on Mar 19, 2014

http://www.democracynow.org – Three years after the triple meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, scores of U.S. sailors and Marines are suing the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, for allegedly misleading the Navy about the level of radioactive contamination. Many of the service members who provided humanitarian relief during the disaster have experienced devastating health ailments since returning from Japan, ranging from leukemia to blindness to infertility to birth defects. We are joined by three guests: Lieutenant Steve Simmons, a U.S. Navy sailor who served on board the USS Ronald Reagan joined in the class-action lawsuit against TEPCO after suffering health problems; Charles Bonner, an attorney for the sailors; and Kyle Cleveland, sociology professor and associate director of the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan campus in Tokyo. Cleveland recently published transcripts of the Navy’s phone conversations about Fukushima that took place at the time of the disaster, which suggest commanders were also aware of the risk faced by sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan.

Watch the full segment here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/19/fukushima_fallout_ailing_us_sailors_sue

Global Climate Change
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Nuclear

Dear White People:Film Tackles Racial Stereotypes on Campus & Being a “Black Face in a White Space”

democracynow

Published on Mar 24, 2014

http://www.democracynow.org- As colleges across the country, from Harvard to University of Mississippi, continue to witness racism on campus, we look at a new film that tackles the issue through comedy and satire. “Dear White People,” follows a group of black students at a fictional, predominantly white, Ivy League school. One of the main characters, Sam, hosts the campus radio show “Dear White People,” where she confronts the racist stereotypes and dilemmas faced by students of color. Racial tensions on campus come to a head when a group of mostly white students throw an African-American-themed party, wearing blackface and using watermelons and fake guns as props. We speak to actor Marque Richardson and award-winning first-time director Justin Simien.

Global Climate Change
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Environmental Justice Atlas

Mapping ecological conflicts and spaces of resistance

One of the core themes of climate justice is that of the forced migration of “internally displaced populations” and the international migration of climate refugees.  Populations that have done the least to create the global climate crisis are often suffer its consequences first and worst.  The result is that in many parts of the world the climate change struggle has become understood most clearly as a “climate justice” struggle.

These themes are apparent in the way migration issues have become understood on a global basis.  See, for example:

• BBC World Service – The Inquiry, Can you reduce Central American migration?
• Is Italy’s tough stance the answer to Europe’s migration crisis? | Inside Story
• Ken Cuccinelli Butchers Iconic Statue of Liberty Poem While Defending Trump Immigration Rule
• Protesting Immigration Policy, and Why I Decided to Get Arrested | Bill McKibben | The New Yorker
• Progressive Churches Challenge the Hard-Line Conservative Evangelical Narrative on Immigration
• Trade, Migration and the Green New Deal

and 

• Tracking World Migration | The Economist
• How the climate crisis catalyzes mass migration
• Causes of forced and voluntary migration — Online Geography Resources
• Climate Change Link to Arab Spring’ Mass Migration
• The Heat: Europe’s migration issue

as well as:

• Designing Boston: Can We Talk About Climate Migration?
• In familiar refrain, Trump relies on fear to sell immigration message
• ‘Migration has become a political issue instead of a human one’
• How can climate change impact migration?
• U.S. Rejects U.N. Migration Deal Backed by 164 Countries
• G20 agrees on trade, migration, US goes own way on climate
• Migration in the Age of Climate Catastrophe
• Europe’s border in Africa | DW Documentary (Migration documentary)

 

Coursera Hires Former Yale President as Its Chief Executive – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education

March 24, 2014

Courtesy of Coursera

Richard C. Levin, who stepped down last year as Yale’s president, will brings international business savvy and academic bona fides to the MOOC provider.

Enlarge Image

By Steve Kolowich

Coursera has won powerful allies in higher education by persuading them that it plans to behave more like a university than an investor-backed Silicon Valley company.

Now Coursera has taken another step to bolster its academic bona fides. The company announced on Monday that it had hired Richard C. Levin, who led Yale University as president for 20 years, to serve as its chief executive.

Mr. Levin, an economist who stepped down last year, spent the later years of his presidency cultivating relationships overseas, notably with China and its universities. Mr. Levin also led a controversial effort to create a liberal-arts college in Singapore, Yale-NUS College.

Landing Mr. Levin could be a coup for Coursera, as the company looks to strengthen its reputation at home while navigating the knotty politics of international higher education.

….(read more).

Global Climate Change
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Media

The Clean Energy Wars – Scientific American

The growth of solar and wind power has brought these renewable resources into conflict with fossil fuels
Mar 20, 2014

Global Climate Change
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