Climate change impacts such as variations in temperature, rainfall patterns, and increasing weather variability can contribute to unpredictable harvests – substantially increasing the risks to food security and affordability worldwide. Ensuring basic sustenance and addressing climate change are intrinsically interrelated. A healthy global agricultural sector through investments and incentives in sustainable farming has the opportunity to simultaneously increase agricultural productivity, increase food security and combat climate change. This panel will identify and explore the existing barriers to,opportunities for, and policies for maximizing agriculture’s ability to simultaneously adapt to a changing climate and meet global nutrition needs.

Co-Chair

Ben Grumbles
Director of Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

Co-Chair

A.G. Kawamura
Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture

Moderator

Ann Veneman
Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Speakers

[Speaker] Nikolaus Berlakovich
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management for Austria

[Speaker] Mark Cackler
Manager of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department at The World Bank

[Speaker] Couma Ndoffène Diouf
President of Fatick Region, Senegal

[Speaker] Dr. Daniel Dooley
Vice President of the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources for the University of California

[Speaker] John Hickman
Director of Renewable Energy & Life Sciences at John Deere, United States

[Speaker] Ernie Shea
Executive Director, 25x’25 Coalition