The Future of Food and Agriculture in the Face of Climate Change

California is the top agriculture-producing state in the country, and that big business presents big challenges. California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross addressed many of the key issues during a speech presented by UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.

Secretary Ross talks at length about the impact climate change has already had on the state’s resources and the effects we can expect to see in the future. She says prolonged droughts, like the one California just escaped, will become more common. But, we can also expect more severe flooding. Ross says the state needs to take a big-picture approach to water and land management in order to mitigate future disasters. But, she says there is hope. Agriculture accounts for just eight percent of greenhouse gas emissions in California, compared to 30 percent worldwide. Ross says her department and private farmers are working on ways to bring down greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in California, and she hopes their progress can serve as a model for sustainable farming worldwide.

Following her speech, Secretary Ross covers everything from immigration reform to the future of agricultural careers in a fascinating Q&A moderated by her former colleague, Executive Director of the Berkeley Food Institute, Ann Thrupp.

Watch California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross

Sustainable California

From the snowy watersheds of the Cascades and Sierras, to the world’s most productive agricultural valley and on to the sea, visit Sustainable California and see what your University, its people and friends are doing to find real-world solutions to maintain the sustainability and vitality of our state.

From cultivating soil biota to purify groundwater, to managing fish stocks, to collaborative management of our unique California landscape to laying the foundations of carbon free energy sources, see what California is doing to maintain its unique biodiversity, sustain the human and environmental health of our state and meet the 21st century challenges of global climate change.

Browse more programs in Sustainable California

Behind “Farm to Table:” The Labor of Farming

32822Did you know that the median age of US farmers is now is 58? And that the number of people actually farming now equals just one percent of the population? As farmers, chefs, food vendors and policymakers gathered by the Berry Good Food Foundation explain, those trends are not sustainable. So what to do? How do you make agriculture attractive to young people? What will bring them back to the land? And how do you connect the rest of the community to their sources of food? Watch as these experts make the whole process of growing, harvesting, selling and serving food sound incredibly, what’s the word they used? Oh yes, sexy!

Learn more: Behind “Farm to Table:” The Labor of Farming — Future Thought Leaders Series Presented by the Berry Good Food Foundation

Michael Pollan: "Don't buy any cereal that changes the color of the milk."

8232This year, renowned journalist, author, and food intellectual Michael Pollan received the 2014 Nierenberg Award for Science in the Public Interest.

“Michael Pollan has shown that an English major can do great service to science in the public interest,” said Walter Tschinkel, one of many who introduced Pollan. “Science very much needs writers like Michael Pollan to bridge the gap between scientists and the wider public… to make science meaningful, relevant, and accessible… and just perhaps to influence people and public thinking about important social, philosophical and scientific issues.”

After receiving his award, Pollan sat down with KPBS News Editor, Tom Fudge and talked about everything from the lesson Pollan learned from a woodchuck, to the carbon problem, his love of food, and how to feed the world.

The problem of getting carbon back into the soil:

“I think the future, the next set of important gains come not from [seed] breeding, but from understanding the soil microbiome and manipulating that environment.”

His relationship with food:

“I enjoy food now more than I used to… I think I’m less self-conscious about my eating than a lot of my readers are… and I think I’ve made a certain number of people that you probably know insufferable.”

Healthy eating:

“Eating well is easier if you have some money, and that’s one of the real tragedies of the food system we have – that the cheapest calories are so unhealthy.”

One of Pollan’s “Food Rules:”

“Don’t buy any cereal that changes the color of the milk.”

The difficulty of political change:

“It’s very much in the interest of political leaders to have our food be cheap even if it’s unhealthy. When you get spikes in food prices, you get political restives, you get riots, you get revolutions. And every political leader understands this. So they’re willing to put up with a lot of negative side effects of cheap food, as long as the price stays down. And this, in a way, is the biggest impediment to changing the food system.”

Feeding the world:

“The goal is for the world to be able to feed itself. The idea that we grow all the grain and dump it on the rest of the world is incredibly arrogant.”

“There’s plenty of food. We’re now growing 2800 calories per person per day… That’s for everybody living on the planet. We still have a billion who are hungry. So quantity is not the problem with feeding the world. We have to look at equity. We have to look at who controls the land. We have to look at diet. We have to look at waste.”

Watch more of this enlightening interview: An Evening with Michael Pollan: Nierenberg Award 2014.

Alternatives to Insecticides: High Impact Solutions Without Environmental Trade-offs

To mark the 50th anniversary of “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson’s landmark book that helped launch the environmental movement, the Center for Ethics in Science and Technology presents
“Alternatives to Insecticides: High Impact Solutions Without Environmental Trade-offs.”

In this talk, Stephen Welter of San Diego State University focuses on biologically-based alternatives to insecticide use in American agriculture that also consider non-target environmental effects, worker safety issues, and consumer needs, as well as the more traditional models of economic trade-offs.

Tune in to UCSD-TV tonight at 8 or watch it now!