Keynote: Our Changing Menu

Event Overview

Climate change is rapidly making the business of growing our food less predictable and riskier. This conversation will cover how the changing climate is affecting our globally interconnected and interdependent food supply—just about everything on the menu is changing.

Plants, the basis of life, require the right temperatures, water, soil, air and sunlight. All but sunlight are changing and having subtle and in many cases ominous impacts on our foods and beverages—from spices and herbs to pistachios. The flavors of teas, the protein and mineral content of wheat, vitamins in rice, and yields of many crops are undergoing change.

Addressing this challenge requires innovative research to develop more resilient crops, better practices and tools that help the agricultural and the food sectors adapt to the new normal, and mitigate their impact. The changing menu is also a way to join forces, find a common ground and draw more attention and action to address this grand challenge of climate change—we all eat.

What You'll Learn

A greater appreciation of who grows our food and the interdependent global food system we depend on
A better understanding of the science of climate change and how it’s affecting our food both on land and in the seas
How our menu is changing in so many ways—from before dinner drinks to dessert and coffee
What we can all do about it

Speaker

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Michael Hoffmann

Professor Emeritus

Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Professor Emeritus, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University

As professor emeritus he continues to dedicate all of his time to the grand challenge of climate change and helps people understand and appreciate what is happening through food. Melting glaciers are bad enough but the loss of coffee is downright terrifying – this keeps him going. He tells the climate change story with passion, a little humor, and without doom and gloom. It’s a science-based message about what is happening and what we all can do about it. He has published climate change articles in the popular press – The Hill, Fortune, and USA Today and is lead author of – Our changing menu: Climate and the foods we love and need (Cornell Press 2021). His TEDx Talk – Climate change: It’s time to raise our voices has been well received.

Previous positions he has held at Cornell include executive director of the Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions, director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, associate director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, and director of the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program. He is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Entomology. He received his bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin, master’s from the University of Arizona, and Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.

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