Online
Summary:Join this Global Climate Change Week panel of experts to discuss the impacts of climate change on our food supplies.
Presenter(s):
- Professor Alana Mann, Head of Discipline, School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania
- Anthony Houston, Tasmanian Farmer and Climate Change Advocate
- Professor Christine Beveridge, President, ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture, Professor of Plant Biology, University of Queensland
- Hosted by Professor Gretta Pecl, Director, Centre for Marine Socioecology and ARC Future Fellow, University of Tasmania
Climate change is predicted to lead to a net decrease in food production, globally. Tropical zones will move from optimal growing conditions into extreme and prolonged summer temperatures. This will cause drops in productivity in areas where the bulk of malnourished people live. Growing seasons will likely get longer in temperate zones as climate warms but any gains will likely be offset by extreme weather events like drought, flood and bushfire. More species are documented as ‘on the move’ due to these changing climatic conditions, many are vital to our food security.
Meet our panel of experts and discover the implications of food on the move for Tasmania and beyond. Join and explore how our communities can adapt to secure a sustainable food future.
Speakers
Professor Gretta Pecl
Gretta is a Professor of marine ecology at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, the Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology and lead of the Future Seas project.
A specialist in climate change ecology, Gretta studies what is happening to the species in our oceans as the water warms. She is a marine 'generalist' with broad interdisciplinary research interests, building on a background in population dynamics, fisheries biology, and movement and migration of commercial species. She currently focusses on species and ecosystem responses to climate change, and the development of adaptation options for natural resource management. She has a specific interest in exploring the mechanisms and processes underpinning climate-driven species redistribution, and the ecosystem implications of these, including co-convening the 2016 & 2019 'Species on the Move' conferences.
One of the approaches she uses to examine climate-driven changes in species distribution includes citizen science; she developed and leads the National citizen science project Redmap Australia, the Range Extension Database and mapping project, which invites fishers and divers around our coastline to help monitor changes in Australian seas.
Gretta has a strong passion for science communication and engagement with the public. She is also a Lead Author for the IPCC AR6 report, an Australian Research Council 'Future Fellow' and an associate editor for Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, Ecography, Frontiers Ocean Solutionsand Citizen Science Theory & Practice. Gretta is also on the Australian Society of Fish Biology Hall of Fame.
Professor Alana Mann
Professor Mann is an interdisciplinary scholar researching the power relations between media, governments, institutions, and citizens in the field of food politics. International in scope, her research foregrounds communication and social learning as central to food systems transformation. Innovating theory for making sense of these transformations is a strong focus of her work at the critical intersection of food security, global warming, and public health.
Prior to joining University of Tasmania in 2022, Alana led the Department of Media and Communications at University of Sydney and was Food Lead Researcher at the Sydney Environment Institute. She embarked on doctoral research on food sovereignty campaigns in Latin America and Europe in 2007 after a career in media and marketing - including seven years at Fairfax Media, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Alana has worked with the Food First Information and Action Network in Heidelberg, Germany, conducted fieldwork at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome and Geneva, and served on the committee to appoint an Australasian representative to the Civil Society Mechanism of the UN World Committee for Food Security in 2017.
Professor Christine Beveridge
Professor Christine Beveridge graduated with a BSc (Hons) and PhD in Plant Science at the University of Tasmania in 1994. After a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (Versailles, France) Christine took up a competitive University of Queensland (UQ) Fellowship, then an Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, teaching and research positions, an ARC Future Fellowship and Deputy Dean and Associate Dean Research (Science) position at UQ. Christine is now the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture (CoE), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, an ARC Georgina Sweet Laureate Fellow and a highly cited researcher. Christine was both the first female and first Australasian president of the International Plant Growth Substances Association and is a Life Member of the Australian Society of Plant Scientists. Christine discovered strigolactone as a plant hormone and that sugar signalling is a driver of shoot branching. Christine founded the CoE of 175 members (including 17 Chief Investigators across five Universities) to enhance the use of prior knowledge in breeding, increase food diversity, and to promote an inclusive interdisciplinary research culture to future proof Australian agriculture, biodiversity and sustainability.
Anthony Houston
Anthony was the founder of Houston’s Farm, a national farming and food manufacturing company, supplying fresh salad products to supermarkets across Australia. He’s is a passionate conservationist and a strong advocate for climate action in agriculture. Anthony will talk about his journey from farming and business to climate action.
