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Ertharin Cousin, Former US Ambassador and World Food Programme Director, Joins Stanford as Visiting Scholar
The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University is pleased to announce that former U.S. Ambassador and World Food Programme (WFP) Director Ertharin Cousin will serve as this year’s Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer and Visiting Fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE).
FSE in the Field: Casey Maue Oil Palm Research in Ghana
Casey Maue, a PhD student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources alogn with Woods Institute Senior Fellow, Erica Plambeck, spent time this spring examining the oil palm supply chain in Ghana. Casey is a 3rd year PhD student and is advised by FSE Director Roz Naylor and FSE Senior Fellow Marshall Burke. Casey's research focuses on the economic dimensions of agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the economic impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector.
India’s groundwater future is at stake
Since the 1960s, India’s groundwater irrigation has increased dramatically, playing an important role in its economy and people’s lives — supporting livelihoods of over 26 crore farmers and agricultural labourers who grow over a third of India’s foodgrains. These benefits, however, have come at the cost of increased pressure on groundwater reserves.
Tropical Oil Crops - a More Sustainable Future?
An interview with authors of the “The Tropical Oil Crop Revolution” predicts the future of soy and palm oil booms by examining the past and present.
Stanford researchers measure African farm yields using high-resolution satellites
Stanford researchers have developed a new way to estimate crop yields from space, using high-resolution photos snapped by a new wave of compact satellites.
Rebuttal to “A revisit to fishmeal usage and associated consequences in Chinese aquaculture”
As authors of “China’s aquaculture and the world’s fisheries” (Cao et al., Science, 2015), we would like to dispute several claims presented in “A revisit to fishmeal usage and associated consequences in Chinese aquaculture” (Han et al.,§ Reviews in Aquaculture, 2016), as the latter seriously misrepresents the intent and substance of our Science paper.
How China is Poised for Marine Fisheries Reform
As global fish stocks continue sinking to alarmingly low levels, a joint study by marine fisheries experts from within and outside of China concluded that the country’s most recent fisheries conservation plan can achieve a true paradigm shift in marine fisheries management – but only if the Chinese government embraces major institutional reform.
Joann de Zegher selected as SAWIT Challenge Finalist
FSE is excited to announce that graduate student, Joann de Zegher, is one of the nine innovators chosen in the SAWIT Challenge to pitch her solution to help independent smallholder farmers produce palm oil sustainably. She will present her idea to international businesses, government, and NGO leaders in Jakarta, Indonesia November 17-18, 2016.
Stanford researchers find 15 million children in high-mortality hotspots in Sub-Saharan Africa
Stanford researchers have determined that more than 15 million children are living in high-mortality hotspots across 28 Sub-Saharan African countries, where death rates remain stubbornly high despite progress elsewhere within those countries.
USAID Releases 2016 Global Food Security Act Strategy
"Right now, the world is closer than ever before to ending global hunger, undernutrition, and extreme poverty, but significant challenges and opportunities remain, including urbanization, gender inequality, instability and conflict, the effects of a changing climate, and environmental degradation.
Milestones, Markets and Malaise
It is now the end of summer for what has been a milestone year for my wife and me. This essay, itself a mini-milestone, is the fifth annual report from our farm. As readers of prior Almanac postings will know, my day job is as professor of international agricultural policy at Stanford University; however, we also own a medium-sized farm in east central Iowa that produces corn, soybeans, alfalfa and beef from a cow-calf herd. Our friends laughingly refer to our operation as a corn-California crop rotation.
Stanford scientists combine satellite data, machine learning to map poverty
One of the biggest challenges in providing relief to people living in poverty is locating them. The availability of accurate and reliable information on the location of impoverished zones is surprisingly lacking for much of the world, particularly on the African continent. Aid groups and other international organizations often fill in the gaps with door-to-door surveys, but these can be expensive and time-consuming to conduct.
What we need to know about the economics of climate change
Scientists have made huge strides in understanding the physical and biological dimensions of climate change, from deciphering why climate has changed in the past to predicting how it might change in the future.
As the body of knowledge on the physical science of climate grows, a missing link is emerging: What are the economic and social consequences of changes in the climate and efforts to control emissions of greenhouse gases?
Ling Cao joins board of Aquaculture Stewardship Council
FSE research scholar Ling Cao has been named a member of the Supervisory Board of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), a Netherlands-based non-profit organization founded in 2010 to provide certification and labelling for responsibly farmed seafood.
Monitoring crops from space
As Earth's population grows toward a projected 9 billion by 2050 and climate change puts growing pressure on the world's agriculture, researchers are turning to technology to help safeguard the global food supply.
What will climate change cost?
When thousands of scientists, economists and policymakers meet in Paris this December to negotiate an international climate treaty, one question will dominate conversations: what is the climate worth?
Roz Naylor gives opening talk at Global Food Security Conference
FSE director Roz Naylor will give the opening plenary lecture at the 2nd International Conference on Global Food Security on October 12, 2015 at Cornell University. Naylor is William Wrigley Professor in Earth System Science, and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford.
A Global Perspective on Food Policy
Read the original post on Medium.com:
Rolling Through Iowa
It is the end of summer and time for another Iowa report. My wife and I own a medium-sized farm in East Central Iowa that produces corn and soybeans, and beef from a cow/calf herd. My day job is as Professor of International Agricultural Policy at Stanford University, typically working on hunger problems in Asia. The summer keeps me in direct contact with rural life in the Midwest.
FSE researchers win three new environmental research grants
Four FSE affiliates are among the recipients of new Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) research grants from the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. The Stanford Woods Institute's EVP seed grant program has spurred cross-disciplinary faculty collaborations that have addressed global environmental and sustainability challenges since 2004.
The environmental impacts of marijuana in California
In a new study in the journal BioScience, a team of researchers including Stanford professor Roz Naylor links marijuana cultivation to widespread environmental damage in California and calls for greater regulation of the crop’s impact on natural ecosystems.
Drought increases the spread of HIV in Africa
Bad weather in sub-Saharan Africa increases the spread of HIV, according to a study published in the June 2015 issue of the Economic Journal, co-authored by Stanford professor and FSE fellow Marshall Burke.
New grant for palm oil research
A research team led by FSE director Rosamond Naylor has won a $400,000 multi-year grant to study how to create sustainable palm oil supply chains that promote economic growth and environmental sustainability in Indonesia and West Africa.
David Lobell named William Wrigley Senior Fellow
FSE deputy director David Lobell has been named the William Wrigley Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). Lobell is also an Associate Professor in Earth System Science.
"Doomsday vault" founder calls for seed saving, plant breeding to cope with climate change
Governments must do more to diversify the types of crops grown throughout the world. If they don’t, climate change may jeopardize the global food supply, a leading agriculture researcher told a Stanford audience.