Empty grocery stores shelves. Shuttered restaurants. Milk spoiled and dumped. The pandemic served as an unscheduled stress test for the world’s food systems, highlighting gaps, weak points, and strengths. How did food supply chains fare in different regions? What safety nets exist for those at risk of food insecurity? What are the benefits and drawbacks of local food-based systems versus global supply chains? How might other circumstances like drought or diminished crop yields affect how the population grows and consumes food? And, going forward, what can people and institutions do — from farmers to processors to governments — to build more resilient food supply chains in the face of climate change and future pandemics?
Join us for a conversation with two leading experts on the world’s food supply — what’s working and what can be done to prepare for future shocks.
Speakers:
Johann Swinnen, Director General,International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Johann Swinnen is the director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute. He is involved in multiple groups and task forces working to develop sustainable agriculture and food systems and reduce food loss and waste, and he is a frequent adviser to institutions such as the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Swinnen is a fellow of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association, the European Association of Agricultural Economists, and a past president of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. He holds a PhD from Cornell University and was professor of economics and director of the LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at Belgium’s KU Leuven and senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.
Tim Benton, Research Director, Emerging Risks; Director, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, Chatham House
Tim Benton leads the Energy, Environment and Resources program at the independent policy institute Chatham House. He joined Chatham House in 2016 as a distinguished visiting fellow when he was dean of strategic research initiatives at the University of Leeds. From 2011 to 2016, Benton was the “champion” of the UK’s Global Food Security program, a multi-agency partnership of groups including research councils and governmental institutions with an interest in the challenges around food. He has worked with UK governments, the EU and G20 and has been a global agenda steward of the World Economic Forum. Benton has published more than 150 academic papers, many tackling how systems respond to environmental change and is an author of the IPCC’s Special Report on Food, Land and Climate (2019), and the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment.
Moderator:
Bob Holmes, Independent journalist
Bob Holmes is a frequent Knowable contributor and a science writer who has covered ecology, evolution, agriculture and sustainability for nearly three decades. He is also author of Flavor: The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense (W.W. Norton). He has a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
This event is part of Reset: The Science of Crisis & Recovery, an ongoing series of live events and science journalism exploring how the world is navigating the coronavirus pandemic, its consequences and the way forward.
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