By Aaron Viner
October 26, 2022
Source: Iowa Farmer Today
Photo Source: Unsplash,
Creating sustainability for continued food growth was the focus of this year’s World Food Prize event.
The 2022 World Food Prize laureate, Cynthia Rosenzweig, is a NASA climate scientist looking at how climate and food systems work together to determine the future. She said this is a critical time for food science and climate science to work together.
“Food systems are emerging at the forefront of climate change action,” she said. “We now know that climate change cannot be restrained without attention to the greenhouse gas emissions coming from food systems. But at the same time, food security for all cannot be provided without resilience to increasing climate change extremes.”
At the three-day World Food Prize summit in Des Moines, many people gathered to discuss and bring attention to issues that relate to food shortages around the world. The event’s keynote speaker, Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said climate issues are a top global concern. “Climate change is leading to ever-more disastrous shocks, and with so many of the harshest impacts falling on poor farmers, how do we break the cycle of lurching from food crisis to food crisis?” Power said. “This is a tall order, but we know what’s required. It starts with changing what we grow, how we grow it and who benefits. And it could not be more urgent.”
World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson said Rosenzweig understands these issues as well as anyone.
“She has truly shaped our understanding between climate and food systems and the effects they have on each other,” Stinson said.
Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), has become one of the leading tools to help understand the relationship between these two topics, and has been used globally to help world leaders make decisions to mitigate the climate crisis.
Rosenzweig said the monetary award received with the honor is going to the Columbia Climate School. The new Columbia program is the first of its kind in the U.S. and is dedicated to learning about the environment and enacting solutions to improve the planet’s health. She hopes to hold global workshops through the school using AgMIP to bring scientists and world leaders together to set up what Rosenzweig calls a “moonshot enterprise.” She hopes for “radical collaboration” to generate new ideas for sustainability and reducing climate change impacts.
“We are calling them workshops, not conferences,” she said. “At workshops, we roll up our sleeves and we get to work.”
At the award ceremony on Oct. 20, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds recognized the work Rosenzweig has done.
“Her landmark research into the links of climate and food systems will affect the lives of countless people around the world,” she said.
Rosenzweig said her work isn’t done and hopes other people are willing to carry the torch with her. The newest laureate capped her speech at the award ceremony by emphasizing the stakes in play.
“We need to do everything we can to ensure food security and a livable planet for (our children),” she said.
What is the difference between food cultivated in a lab or in soil? How can climate change impact food supply? How can that impact your health? Why?
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