All FSI Projects

Global Education Network on Food Policy, Food Security, and the Environment

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Photo credit: Courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Researchers

Walter P. Falcon
Principal Investigator
Rosamond L. Naylor
Principal Investigator
Ashley Dean
Project Manager

Providing food security for a world that will be warmer, more populous, and continually developing requires the implementation of sound policies that enhance food and agricultural consumption, production, incomes, and trade. FSE is in the midst of hosting a two-year, 12-lecture symposium series on Global Food Policy and Food Security. Policy experts in the fields of food and agricultural development are addressing the major themes of hunger and rural poverty, agricultural productivity, and resource and climate constraints on agriculture with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The series draws heavily from economics, and embraces polices related to demand, supply, price formation, marketing, trade and development. Ultimately, the emphasis of the series is on the implementation of sound policies that will enhance agricultural production, incomes, and resource stewardship.

The state-of-the-art lectures are videotaped before a live audience at Stanford and made publically available to the international community via the FSE website.

Videos and papers currently available

Please visit the Global Food Policy and Food Security Series page for videos and papers.

Educational volume and SPICE unit

Participants will also write a significant paper that brings together new, relevant thinking about a particular topic area. At the end of the series, a volume of edited papers on international food security and food policy issues will be published. All the program products will be freely available on the FSE website. 

The volume will be designed for advanced degree programs and mid-career professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia-individuals who later in their careers will have policy responsibilities. We have targeted these regions because they are areas of the world where malnutrition and poverty remain prevalent and where climate change impacts are already being felt. Through partnerships, including Michigan State University and Cornell University, our program will also reach U.S. universities focused on these issues.

The grant, provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, also includes funding to produce a specialized educational unit on food policy and food security for high school students. FSE will work closely with Stanford's Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) to complete this project. With the renewed interest in food, agriculture, and food security, it is important that the next generation have access to thoughtful commentary about global food issues.

Gates Foundation's Agriculture Development Initiative

This grant is part of the Gates Foundation's Agricultural Development Initiative, which is working with a wide range of partners to provide millions of small farmers in the developing world with tools and opportunities to boost their yields, increase their incomes, and build better lives for themselves and their families. The Foundation is working to strengthen the entire agricultural value chain-from seeds and soil to farm management and market access-so that progress against hunger and poverty is sustainable over the long term.

Advisory Committee:

  • Christopher Barrett, Professor of Applied Economics and Management, International Professor of Agriculture, Cornell University
  • S. Mahendra Dev, Professor of Economics and Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, India
  • Walter Falcon, Deputy Director, FSE, and Farnsworth Professor (Emeritus), Stanford University
  • Thomas Jayne, Professor of International Development, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University
  • David Lobell, Assistant Professor, Environment and Earth System Science, and FSE fellow, Stanford University
  • Chandra Madramootoo, Dean, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and James McGill Professor of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University
  • Ellen McCullough, Associate Program Officer, Agricultural Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Rosamond Naylor, Director, FSE, and Professor, Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University
  • Willis Oluoch-Kosura, President, AAAE, and Program Director, Collaborative Master of Science Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE), Nairobi
  • Prabhu Pingali, Deputy Director, Agricultural Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Publications