Global Food Security Summit to tackle future challenges
Purdue faculty and staff can contribute their ideas on food security research and engagement at the Purdue Global Food Security Summit.
The summit will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Beck Agricultural Center, located on the grounds of the Purdue Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE). ACRE is located about six miles west of Purdue's West Lafayette campus, at 4540 U.S. 52 West.
The summit is open to all University faculty and staff, and there is no charge to attend. For head count purposes, contact summit organizer Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer, professor of agricultural economics and director of International Programs in Agriculture, or his assistant, Carole Braund, if you plan to attend. Lowenberg-DeBoer can be reached at lowenbej@purdue.edu and Braund at cbraund@purdue.edu.
The overall goal of the summit is to produce an outline to guide Purdue's planning and serve as the basis for discussions with Purdue's partners.
"We need to identify what our strengths are and what we can do," Lowenberg-DeBoer said. "This was the best way we could think of to get that process started."
The summit will build on the work of Purdue' two World Prize Food Laureates, Phil Nelson and Gebisa Ejeta, and focus on what Purdue should be doing to help address global food security issues and how to maximize Purdue's impact on those issues.
Nelson is a food scientist known for developing aseptic packaging. The packaging allows bulk handling of processed foods. Ejeta, an agronomist and plant breeder, developed drought- and Striga-resistant sorghum. Striga is a parasitic weed.
Sorghum is important for food security because it will grow where other grains do not, Lowenberg-DeBoer said.
"Both World Food Prize Laureates individually contributed in a major way to overall food security," Lowenberg-DeBoer said. "Nelson's work helps us understand that this is not just a production problem. While producing more food is important, if a big part of that food never gets to people because it spoils or is lost along the way, it won't do you much good to produce more."
The two World Food Prize winners will play important roles at the summit. Ejeta will moderate a panel discussion on production agriculture in the face of emerging grand challenges. Nelson will lead a discussion on post-harvest issues, including storage, processing, distribution and marketing.
After the panel discussions, participants will take part in small group discussions on how Purdue can address such issues as climate and food, energy and food, water and food, and technology and food.