April 16, 2012

SAIS to host conference on food supply, new technologies

A daylong conference titled Growing Food: New Places, New Technologies will be held at SAIS from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17, as part of the school’s Year of Agriculture.

The event will bring together experts from academia, government, international organizations and the private sector to discuss the challenge of feeding a growing population of more than 9 billion by 2050.

Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, will give the conference’s keynote address, “Boosting Harvests, Fighting Poverty: Collective Action Through Feed the Future,” at 1 p.m.

Among the questions to be addressed are: Where are the world’s current and future potential breadbaskets? How is climate change influencing the productivity of many regions for better or worse? What are the risks of working in many of these politically charged climates? How might countries mitigate risk moving forward, and what are the implications of increasing competition with private companies for resources and arable land?

The conference also will explore new technologies and agricultural research that might help to manage growing concerns of food vs. fuel, as well as the importance of infrastructure development that is critical to improving the global food supply chain.

A live webcast of the event will be available at sais-jhu.edu/pressroom/live.html.

For a complete agenda, go to sais-jhu.edu/agriculture/conference. The conference will be held in the Nitze Building’s Kenney Auditorium. Non-SAIS affiliates should RSVP via saisyearofagriculture.eventbrite.com.