World Food Day event to examine how climate change affects poor
Contact Information:Phil Crandal, UA department of food science, 575-4605, crandal@uark.edu
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- How climate change endangers the poor is the subject of a World Food Day program Tuesday, Oct. 16, in the University of Arkansas Center for Continuing Education auditorium featuring a worldwide teleconference and a local panel discussion.
The public is invited to the teleconference from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by a local panel discussion. There is no charge, and event sponsors will provide a complimentary lunch. The Center for Continuing Education is on the corner of East and Center streets.
"The local panel will focus on how climate change impacts Northwest Arkansas," said UA Food Science Professor Phil Crandall, co-organizer.
Ray Suarez of the Jim Lehrer NewsHour will host the worldwide broadcast, "Climate: Changes, Challenges and Consequences." Panelists are Suzanne Hunt, who writes and lectures on energy and biofuels; Cynthia Rosenzweig, leader of the Climate Impacts Group at the NASA Goddard Institute; and Stephen Schneider, co-director of the Center for Environmental Science and Policy at Stanford University.
Viewers can call in questions to be answered in the third hour of the televised conference.
Local panelists will include Patrice Gros, a farmer and founder of the Foundation Farm and School, Eureka Springs, and UA faculty members Art Hobson, physics; Stephen Boss, geosciences and director of the Environmental Dynamics Program; and Curt Rom, horticulture; and UA students Christopher Vincent and Kate Luck.
Local sponsors include the Arkansas World Trade Center, City of Fayetteville, the UA Applied Sustainability Center and other departments and units of the Fayetteville campus and the U of A System's statewide Division of Agriculture.
Patricia Young, national coordinator, said World Food Day was started in 1981 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and is observed in more than 150 countries. The National Committee for World Food Day includes 450 voluntary organizations.