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.
International Development
International Development
FSI researchers consider international development from a variety of angles. They analyze ideas such as how public action and good governance are cornerstones of economic prosperity in Mexico and how investments in high school education will improve China’s economy.
They are looking at novel technological interventions to improve rural livelihoods, like the development implications of solar power-generated crop growing in Northern Benin.
FSI academics also assess which political processes yield better access to public services, particularly in developing countries. With a focus on health care, researchers have studied the political incentives to embrace UNICEF’s child survival efforts and how a well-run anti-alcohol policy in Russia affected mortality rates.
FSI’s work on international development also includes training the next generation of leaders through pre- and post-doctoral fellowships as well as the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program.
Recent Events
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Special Screening of Documentary Film 'FOOD EVOLUTION'
March 16, 2018
Please join us for a special screening of 'FOOD EVOLUTION' with a panel discussion where the film's director Scott Hamilton Kennedy and Stanford experts in the field of food security will discuss...
Poverty Alleviation through Sustainable Palm Oil Production – Research in Progress
September 27, 2016
The Global Development and Poverty Initiative Seminar Series kicks off the 2016 school year with a presentation of one of its most exciting and timely capacity-building projects, "Poverty...
Film Screening: "Seeds of Time" with Dr. Cary Fowler
April 20, 2016
Join us for a free screening of "Seeds of Time: One man's journey to save the future of our food" from Academy Award nominated director Sandy McLeod.Synposis:A perfect storm is brewing as...
Achieving food security and nutrition for the furthest behind in an era of conflict and climate change
November 20, 2015
Ertharin Cousin began her tenure as the twelfth Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on 5 April 2012.Cousin brings more than twenty-five years of national and...
Doomsday Vaults, Genebanks and Plant Breeding in the Age of Climate Change
May 6, 2015
Read a full event summary here. Agricultural crops are on the front lines of climate change. Can we expect increased food production in the context of global warming?
The United States and Global Food Security: A View From Rome
April 29, 2015
Ambassador David Lane was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and confirmed by the U.S.
Connecting the Dots 2015: The Food, Energy, Water and Climate Nexus
April 17, 2015
For more information and to register, visit tomkat.stanford.edu/ctd.Each year Stanford experts from a range of disciplines meet to discuss the interconnections and interactions among humanity's...
Earth Matters: Feeding the World in the 21st Century
October 2, 2014
Meeting the world’s need for food in the 21st century presents unprecedented challenges and opportunities.
Fisheries and Food Security in China - 2014 Symposium
May 13, 2014
From May 13-15, the Center on Food Security and the Environment and the Lenfest Ocean Program welcomed leading Chinese and international scientists to the Stanford Center at Peking University in...
Has the Food Price Bubble Burst?
April 29, 2014
A reception in the lobby of Encina Hall will follow the event. Bursting the Bubble: A Long Run Perspective What are the long run drivers of global food prices?
E-IPER Dissertation Defense: Rachael Garrett
June 5, 2013
Interactions between global supply chains, land use, and governance: the case of soybean production in South America Rapid growth in global soybean demand has had a profound impact on land cover in...
Water and agriculture in a changing Africa: What might be done?
May 23, 2013
Effective water management is one key element of agricultural innovation and growth.
Connecting the Dots 2013: The Energy, Food, Water, and Climate Nexus
April 19, 2013
Stanford experts from a range of disciplines will discuss the interconnections and interactions among humanity’s need for and use of energy, food, water, and environmental resources.
China and Africa: Are there Lessons for Development?
April 17, 2013
The lost decades for China in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s look remarkably like the lost decades of Africa in the 1980s and 1990s.
What works for climate adaptation? Testing and targeting strategies in crop development
April 10, 2013
This talk is part of Stanford's Environmental Earth System Science seminar series.
Africa's Food Systems in 2030
February 5, 2013
Paul Collier will talk about how to manage the difference between helpful and damaging commercialisation, and puts forth three arguments.
Teaming Up to Learn How to Overcome Anemia: Nutritional Education and Mobile Messaging Design for Household Engagement
January 25, 2013
This study seeks to understand whether developing an innovative curriculum kit that will supplement health instruction for 3rd to 6th grade students and teachers in underdeveloped areas of rural...
How can trade improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa?
January 23, 2013
For decades, earnings from farming in many developing countries, including in sub-Saharan Africa, have been depressed by a pro-urban bias in own-country policies, as well as by governments of...
Linkages between food systems and human health in Africa
October 11, 2012
Pinstrup-Andersen, H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy and J.
Moving Mountains Symposium
May 25, 2012
During a daylong symposium speakers that range from scientists to authors and activists will touch on subjects like water tables, food security, women's education, immigration, and human longevity...
Structural Change and the Future of Indian Agriculture
May 10, 2012
Binswanger-Mkhize's talk will look at past and likely future agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction in the context of the overall economy of India, in which growth has accelerated sharply...
Biofuels: The changing nature of agricultural demand
April 11, 2012
Policies promoting ethanol and biodiesel production and use in the U.S., Europe, and other parts of the world since the mid-2000s have had profound—and largely unintended—consequences on global...
Information, Counseling or Conditional Cash Transfers: How Can China Increase Matriculation into High School in Poor Rural Areas?
April 5, 2012
China’s future economic growth is dependent on skilled and educated workers.
People
Rosamond L. Naylor Senior Fellow William Wrigley Professor of Earth System Science, Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Professor, by courtesy, Economics, Senior Fellow and Founding Director, Center on Food Security and the Environment 
Prashant Loyalka Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education, Center Fellow, Rural Education Action Program 
Pamela Matson Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, FSE Affiliated Faculty Professor, Earth Sciences, Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute 
Sam Heft-Neal Research scholar, Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford Department of Earth System Science Research scholar, Center on Food Security and the Environment 
Ertharin Cousin Payne Distinguished Lecturer at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Distinguished Fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment, Distinguished Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law