Feb 3: Food, farming, and climate lecture at CMU

The Distinguished Lecture Series in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy Presents Gary Paul Nabhan, the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona: 

"Tapping Into the Wisdom of Traditional Farmers: Sustainably Growing Food in the Face of Climate Uncertainty"

Over the next half century, climate change will dramatically affect which food crop varieties reach optimum quality in nearly every foodscape in North America. Farmers' selection of crop varieties and how they grow them in each microclimate will be radically reworked by declining chill hours, extreme summer temperatures, the changed frequency of tropical storms, and extended droughts. Fresh water scarcity and increasing salinity will also change what food plants can be grown in many localities as well, not just in already arid areas, but along all coasts. By listening to traditional and innovative farmers on five continents and seeing how they are adapting their diversity of food crops to climate extremes, Nabhan offers options to greater reliance on a few "climate-ready" GE crops, each of which costs close to 5 million US dollars to develop, market and employ. The farm-based strategies for innovation developed through biomimicry, ecomimicry and ethnomimicry will be highlighted.

His most recent book is Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land (Chelsea Green, 2013) will be available for purchase prior to and during the lecture. 

4:30 p.m. in Porter Hall 100 (Gregg Hall) at Carnegie Mellon Universaity.  Free and open to the public.  For more information, contact Erika Ninos, Steinbrenner Institute.  Environment at CMU events website: http://www.cmu.edu/environment/events/

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