Global Food Security Symposium 2014
Global leaders convened at The Chicago Council's Global Food Security Symposium to chart a course for how the US government could advance global food security in the face of weather volatility and climate change.
Advancing Global Food Security in the Face of Weather Volatility and Climate Change
Global leaders will convene at The Chicago Council's Global Food Security Symposium 2014 to chart a course for how the US government—in partnership with business, civil society, and international organizations—can advance global food security in the face of weather volatility and climate change.
The global food system is growing more fragile, and a changing climate and increasingly volatile weather patterns could reduce food production globally by 2 percent each decade for the rest of this century. The world’s growers, especially smallscale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and agrifood businesses, must adapt to these conditions if food production is to be increased sustainably and nutritiously by 60 percent by 2050. Symposium sessions will explore:
- The climate-food nexus and what it means for food security, conflict, economic growth, and the environment.
- The most effective approaches to making food systems more resilient to extreme weather and a changing climate.
- Opportunities to better manage risks to agriculture and food production associated with weather and climate change.
- The water-agriculture nexus and promising approaches to successfully managing water stresses related to food production.
About the Speakers
Jessica C. Adelman
Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, North America, Syngenta
Pamela K. Anderson
Director, Agricultural Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Distinguished Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture
Catherine Bertini served as executive director of the UN World Food Program, the world’s largest international humanitarian agency, from 1992 to 2002 prior to joining the Council. She was named the World Food Prize laureate in 2003 for her groundbreaking leadership there.
Lester R. Brown
President, Earth Policy Institute
Howard W. Buffett
President, Buffett Farms Nebraska LLC
Howard W. Buffett is a lecturer at Columbia University and at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Previously, he was the executive director of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, served in the US Departments of Defense and Agriculture, and was a policy advisor for the White House Domestic Policy Council. He received the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award—the highest-ranking civilian honor.
James Cameron
Chairman, Climate Change Capital
Ann Mei Chang
Chief Innovation Officer, Mercy Corps
Jason Clay
Senior Vice President, Markets and Food, World Wildlife Fund
Jason Clay leads the Market Transformation work of WWF-US for agriculture. Dr. Clay invented Rainforest Marketing, one of the first fair-trade ecolabels in the US and has spent more than 30 years with human rights and environmental organizations, is National Geographic's first ever Food and Agriculture Fellow, and the winner of the 2012 James Beard Award for his work on global food sustainability.
CEO, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Ivo H. Daalder served as the US ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013. He joined the Council as president in 2013 and took on the new role of CEO in 2023. Previously, he was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution and served as director for European affairs on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council. He is the author or editor of 10 books.
Shenggen Fan
Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute
Shenggen Fan is the director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, with expertise in transition economies and rural development in China.
Michael Gerson
Columnist, The Washington Post; Senior Fellow, ONE
John Ginascol
Corporate Vice President, Global Supply, Abbott Nutrition
Ronnie D. Green
Vice President, Agri. and Natural Resources; Harlan Vice Chancellor, Inst. of Agri. and Natural Resources, Univ. of Nebraska
Trey Hill
Harborview Farms
Mark Kahn
Founding Partner, Omnivore Partners
Agnes Kalibata
Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, the Republic of Rwanda
A.G. Kawamura
Cochair, Solutions from the Land Dialogue
A.G. Kawamura is a founding member of Orange County Produce, LLC, and co-chair of Solutions from the Land, a nonprofit implementing climate-smart land management strategies. He serves on several boards and committees including American Farmland Trust Board member; Farm Foundation Board member; Western Growers Association Board member and former chair. He is the former secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (2003-2010).
US National Editor, Financial Times
Edward Luce is the Financial Times' chief US commentator and columnist based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that role, he was the Financial Times' Washington bureau chief and South Asia bureau chief based in New Delhi.
Strive Masiyiwa
Chairman and Founder, Econet Wireless
Carolyn Miles
President and CEO, Save the Children
Nick Moon
Founding Director, KickStart International
Hilda Moraa
Research Fellow and Entrepreneur, iHub
Gerald C. Nelson
Professor Emeritus, UIUC; Principal Author, Advancing Global Food Security in the Face of a Changing Climate
Danielle Nierenberg
President, Food Tank: The Food Think Tank
Herbert Oberhaensli
Chief Economist, Nestlé S.A.
Patrick F. O'Toole
Owner and Manager, Ladder Livestock; President, Family Farm Alliance
William K. Reilly
Senior Advisor, TPG Capital
Susan E. Rice
Former National Security Advisor and US Ambassador to the United Nations
Susan E. Rice is a distinguished diplomat and policymaker who served as national security advisor from 2013 to 2017 and as US ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013. Most recently, she was domestic policy advisor to President Biden.
Cynthia E. Rosenzweig
Senior Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is a senior research scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where she heads the Climate Impacts Group. She is also a senior research scientist at Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research, cofounder of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, cochair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, and codirector of the Urban Climate Change Research Network.
Barbara A. Schaal
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
Barbara Schaal is a plant evolutionary biologist focused on rice genomics, and the dean of the faculty of arts and sciences and the Mary Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She served as chair of the Division on Earth and Life Studies at the National Research Council, member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, and US science envoy for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Judith D. Schwartz
Author, Chelsea Green Publishing
President, The Rockefeller Foundation
Rajiv Shah is the president of The Rockefeller Foundation and previously served as the administrator of USAID, where he secured bipartisan support for the Global Food Security Act and Electrify Africa Act, led the US response to the Haiti earthquake and West African Ebola pandemic, and served on the National Security Council.
Roger Thurow
Former Senior Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture
Roger Thurow spent three decades at The Wall Street Journal as a foreign correspondent based in Europe and Africa prior to joining the Council in 2010. His coverage spanned the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, the end of apartheid, and humanitarian crises. He is the author of three books.
Juerg Trueb
Managing Director, Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd.
Obinna Ufudo
President & CEO, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc
Ann M. Veneman
Former Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund, former US Secretary of Agriculture
Ann M. Veneman was the first and only woman to lead the United States Department of Agriculture as Secretary. She currently serves as a co-leader of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center. She was included on the Forbes World's 100 Most Powerful Women list and is a recipient of the Women Making History Award from the National Women’s History Museum.
Darci L. Vetter
Deputy Undersecretary, Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, US Department of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack
Secretary, US Department of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack is the 32nd United States Secretary of Agriculture. He previously served in this role for eight years under President Barack Obama. Prior to returning to USDA, he served as president and CEO of the US Dairy Export Council.