2 Jun

Online

Should the future of food be global or local?

seminars, workshops |
Table logo. Illustration.

We are pleased to invite you to the official launch event of our new food dialogue initiative Table. This kick-off event will be a conversation about scale in the food system. It will center on perhaps one of the most complex questions around food and sustainability: At what scale should the food system operate? In other words, should the future food system be more globalised or localised, and why?

We are delighted to have this conversation with two thoughtful panelists who approach this topic from different backgrounds and perspectives: Maryam Rahmanian, an international consultant on biodiversity and agroecology and co-chair of the IPES Food Expert Panel, and Prof Sir Charles Godfray, an internationally renowned expert on food security and director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford.

The Table launch will offer ample opportunities for dialogue, with a Q&A session, reflections from different perspectives, as well as an informal networking session. 

This event marks the official launch of Table and its transition from the Food Climate Research Network into a dialogue initiative led by the University of Oxford, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Wageningen University and Research.

Debates about the future of food have become more polarised and polarising than ever before. All too often, little attention is paid to why people hold genuinely different views and how these differences inform analyses both of the problems and of possible solutions. Table aims to fill this attention gap by exploring the evidence and values that people bring to debates about food, in order to facilitate more reflective, informed and constructive dialogue. We aim to highlight not only critical differences but also areas of agreement so that we can suggest paths forward.

About the speakers

Maryam Rahmanian, Co-Chair of IPES-Food
 
Maryam Rahmanian is an independent international expert on issues related to innovation, biodiversity and agroecology in food systems. She is currently co-Chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. She was a Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainable Development and Environment (CENESTA), an Iranian NGO from 2001 to 2014, where she initiated the programme on Participatory Plant Breeding, working with farmers and breeders to develop varieties adapted to climate change. Maryam Rahmanian was Vice Chair of the High Level Panel of Experts of the Commitee on World Food Security for two terms (2010 to 2015) and a member of the Steering Committee of the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food study (TEEBAgriFood). She has also been a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany. She consults for a number of food and agriculture related organizations.
 
Sir Charles Godfray,  Director of Oxford Martin School
 
Prof Sir Charles Godfray is the Director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford and Co-Director of the cross-disciplinary Wellcome-funded Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) Project. He is interested in how the global food system will need to change and adapt to the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, and in particular in the concept of sustainable intensification, and the relationship between food production, ecosystem services and biodiversity.

Facts

Time: 2021-06-02 14:00 - 15:45
City: Online
Organiser: Table
Additional info:

Table is a joint venture between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the University of Oxford, and Wageningen University and Research developing the discussions about sustainable food systems.

Table website www.tabledebates.org

Read more about Table at SLU


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