First Global Conference On Food Security

29 September – 2 October 2013. Wageningen.Wageningen University and scientific publisher Elsevier have taken the initiative to invite six hundred scientists from 65 countries to attend the first global conference on food security in search of solutions within their own field. The Global Food Security conference.

The conference is a mix of plenary and parallel sessions, including opportunities for discussion and interaction (during so-called workshop cafés, for example). It will be chaired by Prof. Martin van Ittersum and Prof. Ken Giller from Wageningen University. 

Keynote speakers will focus on themes such as: 

• ‘Where we stand in understanding global food security’ (Louise Fresco, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) or 
• ‘Achieving global food security and environmental sustainability’ (David Tilman, University of Minnesota – ‘the world’s number one ecologist’). 
• Other renowned keynote speakers include Chris Barrett from Cornell University and Meine van Noordwijk, World Agroforestry Centre, Indonesia. 

In parallel sessions, researchers will discuss themes such as local and national policy, the role of international investors in land and agriculture, urban agriculture, growing food in and on the water, insect farming, food wastage, quality marks, irrigation, agro-biodiversity, food crises and the atlas that is being compiled to show the geographical differences between the current and maximum feasible yields from agricultural land throughout the world. The workshops will focus on questions such as: Should we choose to preserve biodiversity or tackle world hunger? Why does Africa’s agriculture lag behind that of Asia? Land scarcity or land grabbing?