Thursday, September 24, 2015 - 15:00

Thu, September 24, 2015 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE. HodgesLecture_Sept24

Speaker: John Hodges, Emeritus Professor, Land & Food Systems, UBC
Date/Time: 3pm Thursday, September 24th.
Location: St. John’s College, Lecture Hall (2111 Lower Mall)

Description

Myth: The world is short of resources to feed everyone.

Fact: The globe has abundant and varied natural resources for food production.

What are the Problems? Traditional, extensive, subsistence systems locked in poverty and family consumption; capital-intensive, large-scale, costly, destructive monoculture; climate change; tragic human migration; wasteful use of food and resources.

Options for Change: Empower small and medium sized farms; use realistic costs and incomes; research and promote appropriate and sustainable technologies; invest capital for food productivity and not simply profit; sustain natural diversity.

Special roles for governments: give farming special status; ensure the food chain is just and equitable; regulate competition and monopoly; address obesity and waste.

About Dr. John Hodges

Dr. John Hodges was Professor of Animal Genetics at UBC in the 1970s -1980s, moving to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and later to the European Union to restructure agriculture in Eastern Europe after communism. Earlier he taught at Cambridge University and worked in agribusiness. Current concerns are feeding the world sustainably and justice for agriculture.