See the program book (PDF) - American Phytopathological Society

9:20-9:50 a.m.
Chris Field
Director, Department of Global Ecology,
Carnegie Institution for Science and
Professor of Biology, Stanford University;
U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 2001;
lead author for the North America Chapter
of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group
II, “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”; editorial board,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; and corecipient
of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change.
“Agriculture in a Changing Environment”
Agriculture is potentially sensitive to many dimensions of
climate change, through both direct and indirect drivers.
Responses to warming and altered precipitation, the best
understood responses, create some winners and some
losers, with the fraction of losers expanding with increasing
warming. Indirect responses, from altered pests, weeds,
disease, competition for irrigation water, or competition with
other land uses, are less well understood, but will likely be
as important, in many settings, as the responses to the direct
effects. Rapidly increasing demand for biomass energy as an
offset to fossil fuels adds further complications to the future of
agriculture for food.
9:55-10:25 a.m.
Shiney Varghese
Senior Policy Analyst, Institute for
Agriculture and Trade Policy; project leader
on Global Water Policy; co-chair, Freshwater
Caucus at the United Nations Commission
on Sustainable Development; and visiting
fellow, Agrarian Studies Program, Yale
University (1997-98).
“The Global Water Crisis: Balancing Water for Agriculture
and Public Health”
Access to clean drinking water and sanitation is a basic need and
a human right. Unfortunately, half world’s population does not
have access to sanitation; more than one in six people still lack
reliable access to drinking water. This has led to a severe public
health crisis. The problem is particularly acute in the developing
world, where more than 70 percent of water withdrawal is used
for irrigation purposes. In addition irrigated agriculture and the
dominant model of food production contribute substantially
to soil and water contamination. In short, the current model of
irrigated agriculture negatively affects public health in myriads
of ways. The challenge we have is that of ensuring a synergy
between drinking water and sanitation needs on the one hand
and food production systems on the other. This presentation
will explore both the way in which current food production
systems worsen the water crisis and the possibility of creating
food production systems that are sustainable, meet the needs of
the water poor, help maintain the environmental health, and
contribute toward improving the public health.
18
10:30-11:00 a.m.
Rob Horsch
Senior Program Officer, Science and
Technology, Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation; Former Vice President for
International Development Partnerships,
Monsanto Co; U.S. National Medal of
Technology Award, 1998; and founding coeditor,
The Plant Cell and Plant Biotechnology.
“Revitalizing Support for, and Impact of, Plant and
Agriculture Sciences”
After decades of decline, real food prices are rising, spurred
dramatically upward by a perfect storm of increased demand,
limitations on supply, and a need to conserve land, water, and
energy to prevent even greater impacts on the environment.
The good news is that we have unprecedented scientific and
economic capacity to improve the efficiency and productivity
of agriculture - if we reverse the long decline in investment
in agricultural science, technology, and development, and
focus more deliberately on useful, beneficial outcomes. The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched a major effort
to support agricultural development, including agricultural
science and technology, but the need far surpasses the
resources of a single foundation. We must achieve a global
commitment to innovation that is proportionate to the great
needs and opportunities for improving agriculture. And we
must ensure that the fruits of those investments reach all the
world’s farmers in appropriate and effective ways.
11:05-11:35 a.m.
Florence Wambugu
Chief Executive Officer, Africa Harvest
Biotech Foundation International; book
author, Modifying Africa: How Biotechnology
Can Benefit the Poor and Hungry; American
Biographical Institute “Woman of the
Year”; United Nations Hunger Task Force;
and Private Sector Committee of CGIAR and Vice Chair of
African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum.
“The Role of the Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) Project
in Tackling Micronutrient Deficiency”
The UN estimates that globally one in three persons suffers
from deficiencies in micronutrients. Iron deficiency is
responsible for 100,000 maternal deaths in childbirth each
year, while vitamin A deficiency causes hundreds of thousands
of children to go blind annually. Dr. Wambugu will address
how the Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project, funded by the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ($18.7 million), is tackling
some of these challenges. Co-sponsored by the Canadian
Phytopathological Society and the American Phytopathological
Society “Glenn Anderson Lectureship for World Food Security”.