OVERVIEW

Desired outcome

Create a shared understanding of major forces driving change in our food systems and shaping policy opportunities to enhance sustainability in the near term, over the coming decade, and into the future.

Symposium objectives 

·         Identify benchmarks regarding major +/- trends shaping the food system (and interactions among these trends)

·         Establish a shared understanding of forces shaping opportunities for reform

·         Consider how these may affect different regions / constituencies

·         Analyze implications for opportunities for reform of US agricultural and food policy

Organizing Committee

Thomas P Tomich, University of California, Davis (chair)

Tom Kelly, University of New Hampshire

Marcy Ostrom, Washington State University

Jerry DeWitt, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, Iowa

Dan Sumner, University of California, Davis

Michelle Wander, University of Illinois

Special advisors

AG Kawamura, Secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)

Richard Rominger, Farmer, former Secretary, CDFA, former Deputy Secretary, USDA

Michael Pollan, University of California, Berkeley

Consultant on process design and facilitation: Nancy White, Full Circle Associates.  

Major funding provided by the WK Kellogg Foundation

Approximate number of participants: 150 on site plus participation from remote sites

Symposium structure: four panels designed to promote interaction among resource people, private sector, government, and NGO leaders, moderated by a journalist with subject matter expertise.

First National Symposium on Food Systems and Sustainability:

Where are We Headed? Where do We Want to Go?

Tuesday, 24 March 2009, University of California, Davis

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

8:00am-8:30am

Opening: welcome, overview, review of objectives and ground rules; why are universities organizing this event?

8:30am-10:00am

1. Food prices, health, and access to food

Journalist/moderator: Lia Huber, freelance journalist, Prevention contributor (confirmed)

Food prices: Bruce Babcock, Professor of Economics and Director, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University, Ames (confirmed)

Population, health and nutrition: Gail Feenstra, Nutritionist and Food Systems Analyst, University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (confirmed)

Access to Food (systems perspective): Patricia Allen, Director, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, University of California, Santa Cruz (confirmed)

Access to Food (urban perspective): Oran Hesterman, President and CEO, the Fair Food Foundation, Ann Arbor, Michigan (confirmed)

10:00am-10:30am

Break

10:30am-12:00pm

2. Climate change: uncertainty and interactions including conflict over water; energy prices and supplies; implications for nitrogen fertilizer; livestock systems

Journalist/moderator: Andrew Martin, The New York Times (tentative, confirmation pending)

Climate change: Robert Watson, Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Chief Science Advisor, DEFRA, UK, and formerly, Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Chief Scientist, World Bank (confirmed)

Water: Mark Shannon, Professor of Engineering and Director, Center of Advanced Materials for Purification of Water with Systems (WaterCAMPWS), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (confirmed)

Energy: Cutler Cleveland, Professor of Geography and Environment, and Director, Center for Energy and Environment Studies, Boston University; Editor-in-Chief, The Encyclopedia of Energy (confirmed)

Science and technology: William Clark, Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development, JF Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Chair of the environmental reporting program, Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment (confirmed)

12:00pm-1:30pm

[Lunch]

1:30pm-3:00pm

3. Regional implications: threats, opportunities, adaptive capacity and managing vulnerability: How do we prepare for an uncertain future?

Journalist/moderator: Tom Philpott, Grist (invited)

Southern perspectives: Nancy Creamer, Professor of Horticultural Science and Director, Center for Environmental Farming Systems, North Carolina State University (confirmed)

The Northeast: Kathy Ruhf, Principal, Land for Good, and Coordinator, Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Belchertown, MA (confirmed)

The Corn Belt: Michelle Wander, Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (confirmed)

Great Plains and Mountain Region: Neva Hassanein, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, University of Montana (confirmed)

California: Dan Sumner, Director, Agricultural Issues Center and Frank Buck Endowed Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis (confirmed)

3:00pm-3:30pm

Break

3:30pm-5:30pm

4. Pulling it together: What do we need to know and do to build resilience into the food system? 

Journalist/moderator: Erik Stokstad, AAAS/Science magazine (confirmed)

Ferd Hoefner, Policy Director, Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (SAC), Washington, DC (confirmed)

Anne-Marie Izac, Chief Alliance Officer, Alliance of the Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), Rome (confirmed)

Eugene Kahn, VP and Global Sustainability Officer, General Mills, Minneapolis (confirmed)

Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center, President of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, and President of Kirschenmann Family Farms (confirmed)

Robert Paarlberg, Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College, and Research Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University (confirmed).

Kate Clancy, Senior Fellow, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, University of Minnesota, St. Paul (confirmed)

5:30pm-8:00pm

Evening: reception

Symposium preparation and format (for interaction in each of the 3-4 panels)

ADVANCE PREPARATION

One page guideline will be provided to moderators and panelists

Resource materials: Each resource person is expected to prepare (in exchange for airfare, accommodations and meals) a 1-4 page briefing document (modeled on data formats used by the Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems) following a set format. 

1) What do you use as key measures and indicators? What are the 3-4 most important indicators that we need to track? What are the appropriate spatial scales?  Also mention measures that are crucial, but do not exist or are not tracked systematically over time.

2) Which data sources do you rely upon? Do credible sources of time series data exist for relevant scales? What are the most authoritative sources?  

3) What do we know about conditions and trends in key indicators?  What is the current state and what is the time trend for each of your key indicators?  Can these trends be projected ahead with any confidence 5 years? 10 years? 25 years? What are key thresholds or turning points?  What are the implications: for food security/inequality, for policy, for technology,  for public institutions, NGOs and the private sector?  Who could be the big winners and losers?

4) Status of our knowledge (or ignorance).  Comments on quality of data; how well- documented, well-established are these patterns? Are there possible thresholds or turning points?  How well are these trends and turning points documented/understood? (speculative? well-established?) Protocols will be provided for qualitative and quantitative assessment of uncertainty in the data, based on formats used in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

Resource materials should be submitted one month before the Symposium (by 24 February); these will be formatted for a shared appearance, posted on the ASI website before the meeting,  and printed and compiled into briefing books to be distributed at registration.  

FORMAT FOR EACH PANEL

0) Overall set up by host (a moment)

1) Moderator (a journalist with subject matter expertise) briefly introduces themselves and each of the 3-4 panelists (5 min)

2) Each panelist has 5 minutes to review 3-4 highlights of their material (20 min or less)

3) Moderator asks questions to prime the discussion, possibly based on key questions developed in advance by us, the moderator, and the resource people (20 minutes or less).

4) Moderator opens the discussion, seeks involvement from other participants to consider how these issues may play out differently in different regions and/or for different constituencies. (25 minutes)

(3) and (4) could be a parallel process, not just sequential. 

5) Moderator paraphrases main points and issues from the session (5 min max)

Overall: 90 minutes MAX