The Center on Food Security and the Environment is a joint effort of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
Environment
Environment
FSI scholars approach their research on the environment from regulatory, economic and societal angles. The Center on Food Security and the Environment weighs the connection between climate change and agriculture; the impact of biofuel expansion on land and food supply; how to increase crop yields without expanding agricultural lands; and the trends in aquaculture. FSE’s research spans the globe – from the potential of smallholder irrigation to reduce hunger and improve development in sub-Saharan Africa to the devastation of drought on Iowa farms. David Lobell, a senior fellow at FSI and a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, has looked at the impacts of increasing wheat and corn crops in Africa, South Asia, Mexico and the United States; and has studied the effects of extreme heat on the world’s staple crops.
Scholarly Publications
The changing risk and burden of wildfire in the United States
January 2021
Recent dramatic and deadly increases in global wildfire activity have increased attention on the causes of wildfires, their consequences, and how risk from wildfire might be mitigated.
Mapping Crop Types in Southeast India with Smartphone Crowdsourcing and Deep Learning
September 2020
High resolution satellite imagery and modern machine learning methods hold the potential to fill existing data gaps in where crops are grown around the world at a sub-field level.
Water-food-energy challenges in India: political economy of the sugar industry
July 2020
Sugar is the second largest agro-based industry in India and has a major influence on the country's water, food, and energy security.
Other Publications
Data Science for Food Security
August 2017
Using agricultural and economic characteristics in African nations as test cases, new research by David Lobell and Marshall Burke demonstrates the use of satellite data to address the long-standing...
The Global Economic Impacts of Climate Change
November 2015
This research brief is based on a paper from the journal Nature, published on-line on October 21, 2015, entitled “Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production.” The paper, led by...
News
Stanford economist and others assess aquaculture’s promise and peril
March 2021
Twenty years ago, a Stanford-led analysis sparked controversy by highlighting fish farming’s damage to ocean fisheries. Now a follow-up study takes stock of the industry’s progress and points to...
Air Pollution's Connection to Infant Mortality
June 2020
The study of sub-Saharan Africa finds that a relatively small increase in airborne particles significantly increases infant mortality rates. A cost-effective solution may lie in an exotic-sounding...
Events
Global Food Security Symposium Series | India's Transition: Was Coleridge Right?
November 8, 2019
...water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink...Join Stanford's Center on Food Security and the Environment for a lecture and reception with Dr.
A Conversation with David Beasley: Challenges of 21st Century Humanitarian Response
September 10, 2019
Please join us for a conversation with United Nations World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley, who will discuss "Challenges of 21st Century Humanitarian Response." The conversation...
Roz Naylor discusses Oceans and Food Security at Hopkins Marine Station
April 2, 2019
Massive changes in the global food sector over the next few decades – driven by climate change and other environmental stresses, growing population and income, advances in technology, and shifts in...
Projects
Interdisciplinary Research on Introducing Heat-Tolerant Wheat to Bolster Food Security
The project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions...
English
Analyzing the role of subsidies in growing the Kenyan aquaculture sector
Food insecurity remains a critical issue across much of sub-Saharan Africa. In certain parts of the region, fish is sometimes the most accessible or affordable source of animal protein.
English
Multimedia
Interview with Chris Barrett
March 2020
Chris Barrett, Professor of Applied Economics and Management and an International Professor of Agriculture with Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, visited FSE and spoke about "Innovation Needed to Meet Global Food Security...
Innovation Needed to Meet Global Food Security Challenges
February 2020
Agricultural and development economist Christopher B.
India's Transition: Was Coleridge Right?
November 2019
Junaid Ahmad, the World Bank Country Director for India, looks at the political economy of managing service delivery in India through the prism of water.
People
A. Patrick Behrer Postdoctoral Scholar, Center on Food Security and the Environment, Department of Earth System Science 
Jillian Deines Postdoctoral Scholar, Center on Food Security and the Environment, Department of Earth System Science 
Hemant Pullabhotla Postdoctoral Scholar, Center on Food Security and the Environment, Department of Earth System Science 
Matthieu Stigler Postdoctoral Scholar, Center on Food Security and the Environment, Department of Earth System Science 
