AGENDA

***Please note: times listed are tentative and subject to change. ***

September 16, 2008

Columbia University, School of International Public Affairs
Kellogg Conference Center, 15th Floor

8:00 AM CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST, The Cleaver Co.

8:45 – 9:00 AM OPENING REMARKS
Jeffrey D. Sachs, The Earth Institute at Columbia University

One of the world’s greatest challenges is to secure plentiful and healthy food for all, and to do so in an environmentally sustainable manner. This challenge is under threat on many fronts: climate change, population growth, extreme poverty, the obesity epidemic, water scarcity, land degradation, the contentious role of bio-fuels, rising prices of fuel and fertilizer, and intense social conflicts and divisions over what constitutes a safe and sustainable food supply. There has never been a more urgent time for global cooperation on these issues. We will need cooperation not only across international borders but across key groups in each society, including farmers, consumers, scientists, industry leaders, ecologists, and government.

9:00 – 9:30 AM KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Derek Yach, VP, Global Health Policy, PepsiCo Inc.
Emerging ideas about how private-public collaboration could contribute solutions to the long-term food crises

9:30 – 11:00 AM PANEL I: Agriculture Systems and Food and Nutrition Security

It is imperative to ensure that there are adequate food supplies to provide food and nutrition security for the world’s poor, especially given increased vulnerability to hunger due to rising food prices and higher demand for food production. This panel will examine the effects of food supply and demand on agricultural productivity, considering questions such as how to provide food security in the current global context, the consequences of the demand for meat-based diets, and the role of indigenous crops in combating under-nutrition and hunger.

Moderator:
Andrew Martin, New York Times

Panelists:
William Masters, Purdue University
Pedro Medrano, World Food Programme
Alice Pell, Cornell University
Pedro Sanchez, Columbia University
Jerry Steiner, Monsanto

11:00 – 11:15 AM COFFEE BREAK

11:15 – 11:30 PM Doctors Without Borders and Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition’s Starved For Attention Meeting Synopsis
Buddhima Lokuge, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières
Nutrition Security and the Importance of Diet Quality

11:30 – 1:00 PM PANEL II: Addressing the Double Burden

The double burden of obesity and chronic undernutrition, which arises from urbanization, demographic shifts, and changing dietary patterns, affects as many as two billion people around the globe. It also places particular demands on food and public health systems and will require a well-crafted response from local farmers and the global food industry. This panel will examine some of the important questions around these issues.

Moderator:
Raj Patel, Author of Stuffed and Starved

Panelists:
Tom Arnold, Concern
Barry Popkin, Carolina Population Center
Marie Ruel, International Food Policy Research Institute
Paulus Verschuren, Unilever
Walter Willett, Harvard University

1:00 – 2:30 PM BUFFET LUNCH, The Cleaver Co.

2:00 – 2:20 PM PACIFIC HEALTH SUMMIT SYNOPSIS:
Claire Topal, Center for Health & Aging, The National Bureau of Asian Research
Navigating the Nutrition Labyrinth

2:30 – 4:00 PM PANEL III: Environmental Sustainability and Food Supply and Distribution

There are significant issues around how to make food supply and distribution systems environmentally sustainable, in terms of the use of water, nitrogen, land, and chemical herbicides and pesticides. Key questions arise concerning the impact of potential environmental measures on health and the consequences of environmentally sustainable food production on food prices.

Moderator:
Justin Gillis, New York Times

Panelists:
Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Niels Christiansen, Nestle SA
Cheryl Palm, Columbia University
Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA / Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Sara Scherr, Ecoagriculture Partners

4:00 – 4:15 PM COFFEE BREAK

4:15 – 5:45 PM PANEL IV: Advanced Technologies, Food Safety and the role of Local and Organic Food Production

Agro-biotechnology and other advanced technologies, and local and organic production play important roles in the global food system however each approach has distinct financial costs and benefits for both developed and developing countries. Organic systems raise particular concerns regarding scalability, relationship to rising food prices, and agricultural practices and yields whereas specific industrialization practices and technology, is a cause for concern amongst the world’s consumers not only for nutritional quality of foods but also food safety.

Moderator:
Sam Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc.

Panelists:
Martin Clough, Syngenta
Drew Goodman, Earthbound Farms
Marion Nestle, New York University
Gary Toenniessen, Rockefeller Foundation
Josh Viertel, Yale University

5:45 – 6:00 PM CLOSING REMARKS AND NEXT STEPS:
Jeffrey D. Sachs