Food nature and consumption strategies to address the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency. Special briefing for councillors and council staff

EVENT SPECIFICALLY FOR COUNCILLORS AND COUNCIL STAFF

Why is a food strategy necessary? How does this link to a nature and rewilding strategy? How important are both these areas in the face of the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency and what should local councils be doing?

What is a food systems approach and how should a council address this including looking at the role of changing production and consumption to help tackle the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency

Councils all over the UK have started work on their Climate Change strategies but how many of these have considered the crucial role of food? Dr Helen Harwatt and panel explain the vital importance of a Climate Crisis food strategy and cover the science behind this.

Carbon dioxide removal and emissions reduction is at the core of any councils net zero strategy but how is this associated with food. What is the potential for carbon capture through using agricultural land differently?

Food, nature and consumption issues are obviously intertwined but how? Our panel of top scientists explain this in detail and move on to discuss connected land management issues and rewilding as well as looking at changes needed to production and consumption.

This briefing session by scientists is for councillors and council staff to help them to identify the most important issues in relation to food and nature. The panel members will also emphasise what needs to go into every council's planning to tackle the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency.

After introductory talks by panel members there will be an extensive opportunity for questions and panel discussion.

The panel members are

Dr Helen Harwatt

Dr Marco Springmann

Professor Andrew Balmford

The moderator will be Ed Gemmell, Managing Director, Scientists Warning Europe

Dr Helen Harwatt is an environmental social scientist, with a focus on food systems shifts and their contribution to climate change mitigation goals. Helen’s current projects focus on assessing the impacts of food systems shifts on a range of issues around environmental sustainability, public health and ethics, to identify pathways toward creating food systems that minimize adverse environmental impacts, maximize public health benefits, and address ethical issue.

Dr. Marco Springmann is a senior researcher in the Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention in the Nuffield Department of Population Health. Since 2017, he is working on a Wellcome funded project “Livestock, Environment and People” (LEAP). Marco holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Oldenburg (Germany), a MSc in Sustainability from the University of Leeds (UK), and a MS in Physics from Stony Brook University (USA). He is a Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College, and a Honorary Research Associate in the Food Systems Group of the Environmental Change Institute.

Professor Andrew Balmford is Professor of Conservation Science in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, where his research focuses on how to reconcile biodiversity conservation with meeting human food needs and other land-demanding activities; the costs and benefits of retaining intact ecosystems; and identifying what works in conservation. He collaborates closely with conservation practitioners and with colleagues in other disciplines, including economics and psychology. In his book Wild Hope he argues that cautious, evidence-based optimism is vital in tackling environmental challenges. Andrew helped establish the Student Conference on Conservation Science, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, and Earth Optimism.

Ed Gemmell, Managing Director Scientists Warning Europe. Ed passionately believes that action to protect the climate is needed now based on the indisputable science. He sees awareness of the three Scientists Warnings and the fact they are signed by tens of thousands of scientists as vital in stimulating that action. After reading the first two warnings Ed sat outside the houses of parliament on 22 July 2019 and read 20,000 of the signatories’ names over the course of 14 hours while streaming live to Facebook. After undertaking his own ecological conversion Ed founded No Disposable Cup Day and Believers Action on Climate Change. He then stood in the 2019 General Election as an independent candidate with only one policy to reverse climate change. As a parish councillor Ed was instrumental in Hazlemere Parish Council making a Climate Emergency Declaration. Ed is a member of Friends of the Earth, a regular speaker, ex-army officer and city lawyer and owner of his own marketing business bringing with him a wide variety of skills to the role of Manging Director for Scientists Warning Europe