Food Systems as a Solution to the Climate Agenda

21 February 2024. Co-sponsored by the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, this Grand Rounds lecture featured Dr. Jess Fanzo.

She provided a global to local overview of how fragile, yet important food systems are to climate change and action. Food systems involve a complex set of activities and actors, and everyone, every day, engages with food systems. While they are contributors and victims of climate change, there are transformative paths we can take to ensure food systems, in all their various forms, are resilient.

Jessica Fanzo, Ph.D., is a Professor of Climate and the Food for Humanity Initiative Director at
Columbia University’s Climate School in New York City. She also serves as the Interim Director for the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. 

• She held positions at Johns Hopkins University, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, the UN World Food Programme, Bioversity International, the Earth Institute, and the Millennium Development Goal Centre at the World Agroforestry Center in Kenya. 
• She was the Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and Team Leader for the UN High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Systems and Nutrition. 
• She has been involved in various collective endeavors, including the Food Systems Economic Commission, the Lancet Commission on Anaemia, and the EAT-Lancet Commission. 
• She currently leads the development of the Food Systems Dashboard and the Food Systems Countdown to 2030 Initiative in collaboration with the Global Alliance of Improved Nutrition and FAO. 
• Jessica's research focuses on the transdisciplinary field of food systems and the linkages between agriculture, health, and the environment in climate-impacted countries with limited resources. 
• She has twenty years of experience working in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and East Asia on the diversity and quality of diets, nutrition and health outcomes, environmental sustainability, and climate adaptation.