UMD Distinguished Lecture: L. Brown, Geopolitics of Food Security, Nov 12, 5 pm

The University of Maryland Council on the Environment
Distinguished Lecture Series, Inaugural Event

Presents: Dr. Lester R. Brown

"Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity"

When: November 12, 2012
Where: Computer Science Instructional Center, University of Maryland, College Park
4:00PM Reception in Atrium
5:00PM Lecture in Room 1115

Welcome:
Antonio Busalacchi, Chair of the Council on Environment

Introductory Remarks:
Senator Joseph D. Tydings
Herman E. Daly, University of Maryland, School of Public Policy

Abstract: With food scarcity driven by falling water tables, eroding
soils, and rising temperatures, control of arable land and water
resources is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food
security. In this era of tightening world food supplies, the ability
to grow food is fast becoming a new form of geopolitical leverage.
Food is the new oil. What will the geopolitics of food look like in a
new era dominated by scarcity and food nationalism? Brown outlines the
political implications of land acquisitions by grain-importing
countries in Africa and elsewhere as well as the world’s shrinking
buffers against poor harvests, and exposes the increasingly volatile
food situation the world is facing.

Described as “one of the world’s most influential thinkers” by the
Washington Post, Lester Brown is Founder and President of Earth Policy
Institute, a non-profit environmental research organization based in
Washington, D.C. During a career that started with tomato farming,
Brown has been awarded 25 honorary degrees and has authored or
coauthored over 50 books. One of the world's most widely published
authors, his books have appeared in some 40 languages. One of his
recent books, World on the Edge, was called by the Financial Times "a
provocative primer on some of the key global issues that businesses
will face in the coming decades.” He is a MacArthur Fellow and the
recipient of many prizes and awards including United Nations'
Environment Prize, the World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the
Blue Planet Prize for his "exceptional contributions to solving global
environmental problems." In 1985 the Library of Congress requested his
personal papers noting that his writings and work had “already
strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and
resources.” Brown earned master degrees in agricultural economics
from the University of Maryland and in public administration from
Harvard University. He was inducted into the University of Maryland
Alumni Hall of Fame in 2010.

THIS LECTURE IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Click below for directions. Parking is free after 4pm. For more
information on the Council on the Environment see:
http://cone.umd.edu/