CONGRESS ON ADAPTING FOOD PRODUCTION TO A CHANGING CLIMATE:
IDENTIFYING TACTICS AND ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES
December 9-10, 2014
American Geophysical Union Conference Facility
2000 Florida Ave NW
Washington, DC
Agricultural systems are extremely sensitive to climatic variability. Deviations from historical patterns of temperature and precipitation cause agricultural areas to shift, affecting crop production cycles and yield, and the proliferation of disease, insect pests, and weeds. Extreme weather patterns, especially drought, pose an increasing risk to food supplies as the planet warms. The consequences of a changing climate will vary from region to region and will be alleviated or exacerbated by each region’s respective social, economic, and political environment.
Global food production is poised to decrease by up to 2% each decade for the remainder of the 21st century. Meanwhile, changing diets and increasing population size may cause food demand to rise by as much as 14% each decade. (IPCC 2014)
Climate change impacts including temperature increases and altered precipitation patterns are already affecting agriculture in the United States. Effects will vary by region but all production systems will be affected, and timely research and response are critical. Elements of sustainable domestic agricultural production include water allocation, crop selection, adjusted production and harvesting strategies, and policies prioritizing resilience.
The international community faces similar issues. The situation is more complicated in some regions because of economic and social pressures. Food shortages can pose humanitarian crises and national security concerns. The impacts of climate change will fall disproportionately on developing countries and could interrupt progress to significantly reduce world hunger. Short-term variability in supply can destabilize food systems in areas particularly vulnerable to hunger and under-nutrition.
RNRF congress delegates discussed the consequences of a changing climate on agricultural production and identified tactics and priorities for sustaining global productivity. The congress featured discussions on domestic and international policies, agronomic and technical solutions, economics, food security, and distribution. It concluded with a discussion of the future of international agricultural and food institutions. The primary goals of this meeting were to identify specific strategies and tactics to sustainably adapt food production to a changing climate and explore the multi-disciplinary and global scale of this challenge.
Summaries of presentations, findings, and recommendations of participants are presented in a special edition of the Renewable Resources Journal available here.
Speakers
Susan Capalbo
Oregon State University
University of
Nebraska-Lincoln
World Resources Institute
World Bank
Purdue University
Yale University
U.S. Global Change Research Program
University of California-Davis
EcoAgriculture Partners
Charles Walthall
USDA Agricultural Research Service
PROGRAM
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
8:00 AM – 8:50 AM
Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Richard Engberg
RNRF Chairman
Technical Director
American Water Resources Association
Middleburg, Virginia
9:30 AM – 10:10 AM
Effects of climate change on the agroecosystem (to 2050).
An overview presentation. What weather patterns and climatic changes are anticipated between now and 2050? How will these changes affect crop productivity, the range and extent of pests and disease, and ecosystem structure and function.
Charles Walthall is the National Program Leader for the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Climate Change, Soils and Air Quality Research Program. He also oversees ARS remote sensing and geospatial research, plant and environmental process modeling research and development of data management systems for ARS natural resources projects.
Dr. Walthall was introduced to climate change science as a graduate student during 1983, and has interacted with climate research communities throughout his career. He is the lead author of the first USDA Climate Change Science Plan, the “Climate Change and Agriculture: Effects and Adaptation” report for the National Climate Assessment, and the ARS Climate Change, Soils and Emissions National Program Action Plan. He also contributed climate change and soils sections to the USDA Research Economics and Education Strategic Plan. He serves on interagency working groups on climate change, earth observations, air quality, and soils, and is frequently invited to speak on climate change topics by domestic and international organizations.
Dr. Walthall has a B.S. in Geography from the University of Maryland; an M.S. in Forest Science with a specialization in remote sensing from Texas A&M; and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology with a specialization in remote sensing from the University of Nebraska. Prior to joining the ARS Office of National Programs during 2005, Dr. Walthall conducted research to develop remote sensing technologies for urbanized area change detection, rangeland ecology, forestry, agriculture, and land-surface climatology. Dr. Walthall is ranked among the top 100 authors cited in the remote sensing literature. Prior to joining USDA-ARS in 1994, Dr. Walthall worked with NASA, the University of Maryland and the World Bank.
National Program Leader, Climate Change, Soils and Air Emissions Research Program
USDA Agricultural Research Service
Beltsville, Maryland
10:10 am – 10:40 am
Questions/ Discussion
10:40 am – 11:00 am
Break
11:05 am – 11:35 am
An economic analysis of the impact of climate change on agriculture.
A comparison of economic impacts in developed versus developing nations. What economic consequences are anticipated with different degrees of warming? To include a discussion of the implications for adaptation policy.
Robert Mendelsohn has written over one hundred peer-reviewed articles and edited six books. The focus of his research has been the valuation of the environment. He has developed methods to value natural ecosystems including coral reefs, old-growth forests, non-timber forest products, ecotourism, and outdoor recreation. He has also developed methods to value pollution, including emissions of criteria pollutants (such as particulates and sulfur dioxide) and hazardous waste sites. His most recent work values the impacts of greenhouse gases, including the effects of climate change on agriculture, forests, water resources, energy, and coasts. This research carefully integrates adaptation into impact assessment and has recently been extended to developing countries around the world. He has also been involved in studies of nonrenewable resources, forest management, and specifically carbon sequestration in forests.
He is currently a Professor in the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He received his B.A. from Harvard University and Ph.D. from Yale University.
Professor of Forest Policy, Professor of Economics, and Professor in the School of Management
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
| PowerPoint Slides |
11:35 – 12:05 pm
Questions/ Discussion
12:05 pm – 1:05 pm
Lunch
1:10 pm – 1:40 pm
Tools to adapt food production to climate change: agronomic responses.
An exploration of early response farm production practices including crop diversification, change in intensification, fallow/tillage practices, irrigation, and timing changes. What are the barriers to the upkeep of climate smart agriculture practices? How do we address them?
Kenneth Cassman is the Robert B. Daugherty Professor of Agronomy at the University of Nebraska, and also serves as Chair of the Independent Science and Partnership Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. He was Chair of the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at the University of Nebraska from 1996-2004.
His research and teaching have focused on ensuring local and global food security while conserving natural resources and protecting environmental quality for future generations. During his 33-year career as a systems agronomist, he has worked on nearly all of the world’s major cropping systems—from the humid tropics, to irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean climates, to rainfed maize-soybean systems of the U.S. Corn Belt, Argentina, and Brazil.
Dr. Cassman received a Ph.D. (1979) from the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture, and a BS degree in Biology from the University of California, San Diego (1975). He served on agricultural development projects in Brazil and Egypt (1980-1984), was on the faculty at UC Davis from 1984-1990, and served as Head of Agronomy, Plant Physiology, and Agroecology at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines (1991-1995). He is best known for his publications on crop yield potential and yield gap analysis, nitrogen use efficiency, and global food security, and as co-author of the textbook, Crop Ecology. Cassman has received a number of professional awards for his contributions in research and education, most recently the 2012 President’s Award from the Crop Science Society of America. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America.
Robert B. Daugherty Professor of Agronomy
University of Nebraska- Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska
| Video | |
| PowerPoint Slides | |
| Referenced resources: | Global Yield Gap Atlas |
| Can there be a green revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa without large expansion of irrigated crop production? | |
| Crop Ecology |
1:40 pm – 2:10 pm
Questions/Discussion
2:15 pm – 2:30 pm
Break
2:35 pm – 3:05 pm
Tools to adapt food production to climate change: technological solutions.
Technological solutions for climate change adaptation include new crop varieties, resilient seed stock, early weather warning systems, and appropriate mechanical cropping technologies for developing countries. This segment will feature an overview of the role of genetically modified organisms, including safety and ethical considerations, technological frontiers and benefits.
Martina Newell-McGloughlin directs the University of California (UC) Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Education Program (UCBREP), which covers all ten campuses and the three national Laboratories. She is co-director of an NIH Training Grant in Biomolecular Technology and co-director of the NSF IGERT training program in Collaborative Research and Education in Agricultural Technologies and Engineering, a UC/Ireland collaboration. Prior to this she was director of the UC System Life Sciences Informatics program and the local UC Davis Biotechnology Program. She helped contribute to the formation of Science Foundation Ireland and is now a member of its Board of Directors.
Martina's personal research experience has been in the areas of disease resistance in plants, scale-up systems for industrial and pharmaceutical production in microbes, and microbiological mining. She has a special interest in Developing World Research and is part of the USAID Applied Biotechnology Research Program. She speaks frequently before scientific and other associations, testifies before legislative bodies, and works with the media.
The UC Davis Academic Federation selected her to receive its 2001 James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2003, the Council for Biotechnology named her one of the DNA Anniversary Year, Faces of Innovation. In 2005, was awarded the 'Irish America Lifescience Awards' as one of the top contributors to Irish American Life Science. Her science training is from Trinity College, Dublin; University College Dublin, and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
Director, University of California Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Education Program
Co-Director, NIH Training Program in Biomolecular Technology
Co-Director, NSF IGERT CREATE Training Program
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology
University of California, Davis
Davis, California
| Video |
| PowerPoint Slides |
3:05 pm – 3:35 pm
Questions/ Discussion
3:40 pm – 4:10 pm
Landscape planning to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
A discussion of integrated landscape management to provide agricultural products sustainably, support viable livelihoods for local people, and conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. What tools can be used to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable agriculture in the face of climate change?
Sara Scherr is an agricultural and natural resource economist specializing in land management policy in tropical developing countries. Founder of EcoAgriculture Partners, she now serves as its President and CEO. In 2011 she led the founding of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, for which EcoAgriculture Partners now serves as secretariat. She currently serves on the board of the international agricultural biodiversity research organization Bioversity International, on the advisory board of Food Tank, on the Scientific Advisory Board for the ASSETS (Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystems) research program, as a member of the UN Agri-food Task Force, and on the design team of the Solutions from the Land initiative. She is also a member of the scientific editorial boards of the journals Agroforestry Systems, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, and Land Use Policy.
Before founding EcoAgriculture Partners, Dr. Scherr held positions as Director of Ecosystem Services at the non-profit Forest Trends; adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA; co-leader of the CGIAR Gender Program; senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.; and principal researcher at the World Agroforestry Centre based in Nairobi, Kenya. She was previously a Fulbright Scholar (1976) and a Rockefeller Social Science Fellow (1985-87). Dr. Scherr received her B.A. in Economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and her MSc and Ph.D. in International Economics and Development at Cornell University. Dr. Scherr is widely published in the scientific and policy literature, and has been a leading voice globally in promoting the restoration of degraded agricultural lands and new approaches for integrated landscape management.
President and Chief Executive Officer
EcoAgriculture Partners
Washington, D.C.
| Video | |
| PowerPoint Slides | |
| Referenced resource: | Landscapes for People, Food and Nature |
4:10 pm – 4:40 pm
Questions/ Discussion
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
8:00 am – 8:50 am
Continental Breakfast
9:00 am – 9:30 am
Adopting public policies and priorities to encourage climate-smart agricultural practices.
What are the policy tools available to influence and promote climate-smart agriculture? Include discussion of farm subsidies. Do current policies incentivize resilience to climate stresses? What adjustments are required?
Susan Capalbo accepted the position of Department Head for the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Oregon State University in 2008. She has been involved in the economics of climate change, carbon sequestration, and integrated policy analysis and tradeoff assessment for the past 20 years. In addition to recent research on climate change and carbon sequestration, Dr. Capalbo has been involved in integrating science and economics in addressing issues of sustainable agricultural policies in both developed and developing countries. She co-edited two books and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, and received the WAEA Distinguished scholar award in 2012 for her research, mentoring of STEM students, and academic leadership.
Dr. Capalbo has developed an extensive program in the area of interdisciplinary science research and promoting women in the research arena. As the Director of Special Projects in the Montana State University VPR Office, Dr. Capalbo was awarded several diversity and social science research collaborative grants, including an NSF ADVANCE Leadership Award to advance women as research leaders. She was awarded a Marie Tharp Fellowship through the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the NSF ADVANCE program to integrate her research and leadership in the areas of climate change and the economics of clean coal technology on a national and global basis.
Dr. Capalbo received her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California-Davis in 1982. She is currently on the faculty at OSU and serves as Department Head and Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Past positions include Professor at Montana State University, Fellow at Resources for the Future, and visiting appointments at Columbia, UC-Davis, and University of Maryland.
Department Head and Professor, Applied Economics
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon
9:30 am – 10:00 am
Questions/ Discussion
10:05 am – 10:35 am
U.S. federal agency coordination and decision-making for climate change policy and research
An overview of interagency activity, coordination, and information sharing. What formal government entities have been formed to coordinate climate change science, policy and research in support of the White House Global Climate Change Initiative? What are the opportunities to improve federal programs and response?
Julie's work focuses on the interagency development of a decadal U.S. Global Change Research Program Strategic Plan that links new research and improved capabilities to societal use, and its implications for implementation planning. She works with USGCRP leadership and staff to: develop the framework and process for strategic planning to ensure that the Strategic Plan reflects the breadth of USGCRP priority activities; coordinate support for the interagency Writing and Integration Teams tasked with producing the plan; facilitate multi-agency, NRC and public review of the draft Strategic Plan; and provide input to implementation planning.
Julie comes to the USGCRP National Coordination Office from NSF, where she served a four-year rotation as Director of the Ocean Sciences Division. She served as an Acting Co-chair for the Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, and contributed to development of the decadal Interagency Ocean Research Priorities Plan, the first Inter-Agency Ocean Priorities Memo, and the initiation of a 12-agency NRC study on "Critical Infrastructure for Ocean Research and Societal Needs in 2030." She also served as NSF's representative to the Ocean Policy Task Force's Working Committee. At NSF, Julie established new funding lines for Ocean Acidification in 2007; contributed to NSF's Climate Research Investment solicitations; developed white papers for a possible NSF emphasis on societal, physical, and biological science research in coastal regions; and completed the planning and initiated construction for a new research vessel to operate at the ice edge and an in-situ ocean observing system oriented toward priority research needs.
Associate Director of Implementation and Strategic Planning
U.S. Global Change Research Program
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Washington, D.C.
10:35 am – 11:05 am
Questions/ Discussion
11:05 am – 11:25 am
Break
11:30 am – 12:00 pm
How will climate change affect the international food market, production and distribution system?
An overview of current global food consumption and distribution patterns. How will food prices, trade and distribution be affected by climate change?
Professor Hertel is a Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, where his research focuses on the global impacts of trade, climate and environmental policies. In 2013, he was awarded the inaugural Purdue University Research and Scholarship Distinction Award.
Dr. Hertel is a Fellow and Past-President of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA). He is also the founder and Executive Director of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), which now encompasses more than 10,000 researchers in 150 countries around the world. This Project maintains a global economic database and an applied general equilibrium modeling framework. These are documented in the book Global Trade Analysis: Modeling and Applications, edited by Dr. Hertel and published by Cambridge University Press in 1997.
Dr. Hertel’s most recent research has focused on the impacts of climate change and mitigation policies on global trade, land use and poverty. During the 2011-12 year he was on leave at Stanford University, where he was engaged in interdisciplinary research on these topics.
Previously, he has conducted research on the impacts of multilateral trade agreements, including the linkages between global trade policies and poverty in developing countries. His book, Poverty and the WTO (co-edited with L. Alan Winters), received the AAEA Quality of Communication award. Other AAEA awards include Distinguished Policy Contribution and Outstanding Journal Article.
Dr. Hertel received a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Cornell University. He also holds a Masters in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a B.A. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics
Purdue University
Founder and Executive Director
Global Trade Analysis Project
West Lafayette, Indiana
| Video |
| PowerPoint Slides |
12:00 am – 12:30 am
Questions/ Discussion
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:35 pm – 2:05 pm
Understanding and managing risk in the international food market
Formulating a risk management framework to respond to increasing volatility driven by climate change and increasing demand for food.
Åsa Giertz is an Agriculture Specialist at the World Bank’s Agriculture Global Practice, where she works with the Agricultural Risk Management Team. She currently leads risk management work in Africa, Asia, and Central Asia, supporting countries in identifying systemic risks and risk management mechanisms for their agriculture sectors.
Ms. Giertz has worked with agricultural development in the World Bank for the past eight years in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Central and South Asia. Her main focus is agricultural policy, and she has contributed to numerous World Bank publications, including the 2013 flagship report, “Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential for Agribusiness.” She has also supported a wide range of World Bank financed investment projects.
Before joining the World Bank, Ms. Giertz worked for two years for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, and before that for the Swedish Private Sector and for the Swedish Ministry of the Environment. Ms. Giertz has a M.Sc. in Macro and Development Economics from the Stockholm University and a M.Sc. in Food and Nutrition Policy from City University London.
Agricultural Specialist
The World Bank
Washington, D.C.
| Video |
| PowerPoint Slides |
2:05 pm – 2:35 pm
Questions/ Discussion
2:40 pm - 3:10 pm
Building support for international agricultural and food programs in developing countries.
Agricultural assistance programs must become a higher international priority. How can political and financial support be increased? What are the opportunities for international institutions to become more effective and efficient? Are there opportunities to increase coordination and cooperation among international organizations?
Christopher Delgado is a Senior Fellow at World Resources Institute (WRI). Previously, he was the Economics and Policy Practice Leader in the Agriculture and Environmental Services Department at the World Bank, where he led the Department’s Agricultural and Environmental Economics and Policy Team. He was the founding Program Manager of the Bank’s short-term Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP) and the G20-requested long term Global Agricultural and Food Security Program (GAFSP). These two programs, which include externally financed trust fund programs, have allocated over $2.5 billion in food-related projects to the poorest countries since 2008, with the majority on a fully additional grant basis.
He was the World Bank focal point for food security issues in the Korean and French G20 Presidencies, and assisted with the same issues under the Mexican and Russian G20 Presidencies. Prior to his time at the World Bank, he spent 26 years at the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). At IFPRI he helped build the organization from a small, private, DC-based NGO into the globally known international organization that it is today. He also led much of the research on livestock and fisheries issues.
Dr. Delgado holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University. He is a former United States Peace Corps Volunteer (Chad), a university researcher (University of Michigan), and part-time teacher (Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies). He has lived and worked widely in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and has published extensively in a number of languages.
Senior Fellow
World Resources Institute
Washington, D.C.
| Video | |
| PowerPoint Slides | |
| Referenced resources: | World Development Report 2008 |
| The New Climate Economy |
3:10 pm - 3:40 pm
Questions/ Discussion
3:50 pm – 4:10 pm
Congress Wrap-up and Discussion
Robert Day
Executive Director
Renewable Natural Resources Foundation
North Bethesda, Maryland
FURTHER READING
Climate change: Impact on agriculture and costs of adaptation. International Food Policy Research Institute. November 2009.
Antle, John M. Adaptation of Agriculture and the Food System to Climate Change: Policy Issues. Resources for the Future. February 2010.
Global Monitoring Report: Food Prices, Nutrition, and the Millennium Development Goals. The World Bank. 2012.
Implementing agriculture for development: World Bank Group agriculture action plan (2013-2015). The World Bank. 2013.
Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation. U.S. Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin 1935. February 2013.
The State of Food Insecurity in the World: The multiple dimensions of food security. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2013.
Risky Business: The Economic Risks of Climate Change in the United States. Risky Business Project. October 2013.
National Climate Assessment. U.S. Global Change Research Program. 2014.
Food security in a world of natural resource scarcity: The role of agricultural technologies. International Food Policy Research Institute. 2014.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report. Chapter 7: Food Security and Food Production Systems. Working Group II. March 2014.
Moving toward a sustainable landscape approach to development. The World Bank. June 2014.
Steenwerth, Kerri L. et al. Climate-smart agriculture global research agenda: scientific basis for action. Agriculture & Food Security. August 2014.
DELEGATE AFFILIATIONS
A Well-Fed World
American Geophysical Union
American Planning Association
American Society of Agronomy
American Society of Civil Engineers
American Water Resources Association
Arizona State University
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
Canadian Federation of Agriculture
Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases
Coastal States Organization
Cornell University
Crop Science Society of America
EcoAgriculture Partners
The Fertilizer Institute
Geological Society of America
Harvard University
The Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics
Morvan Farm at the University of Virginia
The National Academies
National Association of Counties
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Research Council - National Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources
National States Geographic Information Council
National Young Farmers Coalition
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
Oregon State University
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Joint Global Change Research Institute
Pennsylvania State University
Purdue University
Renewable Natural Resources Foundation
Royal Netherlands Embassy
Second Nature
Society of Wood Science and Technology
Soil Science Society of America
Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors
Strategic Conservation Solutions
Tufts University
Union of Concerned Scientists
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of California Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Education Program
University of Maryland
University of Maryland - College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
University of Virginia
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Institute for Water Resources
USDA Agricultural Research Service
USDA Climate Change Program Office
USDA Economic Research Service
USDA Forest Service
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
U.S. Global Change Research Program, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Virginia Tech
Washington State University
The World Bank
World Resources Institute
CONGRESS PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Chair:
Dick Engberg, RNRF Chairman; Technical Director, American Water Resources Association
Members:
Robert Day, RNRF Executive Director
John S. Dickey Jr., RNRF Board Member
John E. Durrant, RNRF Vice-Chairman; Sr. Managing Director, Engineering & Lifelong Learning, American Society of Civil Engineers
Sarah Gerould, RNRF Board Member; Former Board Member, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry; Staff Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey
Albert A. Grant, RNRF Board Member; Former President, American Society of Civil Engineers; Consulting Civil Engineer
Erik Hankin, RNRF Board Member, Public Affairs Specialist, American Geophysical Union
John W. Hess, RNRF Board Member; Executive Director, The Geological Society of America
Paul Higgins, RNRF Board Member; Director, Policy Program, American Meteorological Society
Christopher Lant, Head, Department of Environment and Society, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University; Former RNRF Board Member; Former Executive Director, Universities Council on Water Resources
Julie McClure, Science Policy Manager, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy
Howard Rosen, RNRF Board Member; Former President, Society of Wood Science and Technology
Nancy C. Somerville, Alternate Director, RNRF Board of Directors; Executive Vice President, American Society of Landscape Architects
Barry Starke, RNRF Board Member; Former President, American Society of Landscape Architects; Principal, Earth Design Associates, Inc.
Kasey White, Alternate Director, RNRF Board of Directors; Director for Geoscience Policy, Geological Society of America
Staff Liaisons:
Melissa M. Goodwin, RNRF Program Director
Jennee Kuang, RNRF Research Associate
Carolyn Tilney, RNRF Policy Intern
Special Thanks To:
Jessica Ball, Science Policy Fellow, Geological Society of America
Kathryn Boor, Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
Noel Gollehon, Senior Economist, Resource Economics, Analysis and Policy Division, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Renee Johnson, Specialist in Agricultural Policy, Congressional Research Service
Carol Jones, Senior Economist, USDA Economic Research Service
Janet Perry, Director, Resource Economics, Analysis and Policy Division, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Mark Rosegrant, Division Director, Environment and Production Technology, International Food Policy Research Institute
Richard Waite, Associate, People and Ecosystems Program, World Resources Institute
Margaret Walsh, Senior Ecologist, USDA Climate Change Program Office
Charlie Walthall, National Program Leader, Natural Resources and Sustainable Agricultural Systems, USDA Agricultural Research Service
CONGRESSIONAL FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND U.S. FOOD PRODUCTION
RNRF hosted a congressional forum on climate change and U.S. food production at the Cannon House Office Building on July 21, 2015 in Washington, D.C. The forum followed the 2014 Congress on Adapting Food Production to a Changing Climate. Forum speakers discussed the effects of climate change on U.S. food production and examined federal funding for programs and research that support climate change resilience in agriculture.