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NEWS RELEASE

Climate Change and Agriculture:

Food and Farming in a Changing Climate

WASHINGTON, D.C. June 16, 2010 - Climate change is already affecting the Earth’s temperature, precipitation, and hydrological cycles, with detrimental impacts on U.S. and global agricultural systems. The interaction of these dynamic factors can lead to a decrease in plant productivity, increasing the price for many important agricultural crops.

On Wednesday, June 16, 2010, between 10:30-11:30am, in Room 328A of the Senate Russell Office Building and from 2:00-3:00pm, in Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), and Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE) will sponsor a briefing on agricultural adaptation to climate change.
 
Changing rainfall patterns and intensities, air temperatures, and cropping seasons will require adapting traditional agricultural systems to a new climate, creating new production opportunities and challenges. Join experts on climate modeling, cropping systems and crop breeding, and agriculture and natural resource economics as they present information about how agriculture can adapt to a changing climate.
 
Panel of experts include:
·  Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies where she heads the Climate Impact Group.
 
·  Dr. Cesar Izaurralde is a Laboratory Fellow at the Joint Global Change Research Institute. His current research involves modeling the impacts of climate change and variability on terrestrial ecosystems and water resources, and carbon sequestration in and greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soils.
 
·  Dr. Paul Gepts is a Professor of Agronomy and Geneticist at the University of California-Davis. His research focuses on the evolution of plants under domestication and relies on a combination of genetic and genomic analyses, coupled with field work in centers of crop domestication, principally Latin America and Africa.
 
·  Dr. Gerald C. Nelson is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, where he is responsible for developing research in climate change modeling and spatially explicit assessments of potential adaptation and mitigation programs and policies.
 
Registration is on a first come basis. Members of the media and public information officers are invited to attend. RSVP at the following link: www.aaas.org/spp/cstc/pne/events/10_06_16agricultureclimatechange.shtml or contact Phillip Chalker at pchalker@aaas.org or 202-326-6789.
 

For more information about the briefing, please view our one-page document, "How will Climate Change Affect Agriculture?" www.agronomy.org/files/science-policy/climate-change-one-pager.pdf

 

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, "Triple A-S" (AAAS), is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association. In addition to organizing membership activities, AAAS publishes the journal Science, as well as many scientific newsletters, books and reports, and spearheads programs that raise the bar of understanding for science worldwide.

 
The Council on Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics (C-FARE) is a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the national presence of the agricultural economics profession. C-FARE's governing board includes prominent agricultural economists representing a wide range of public and private sector interests.
 

The ACSESS is an international scientific and professional society with its headquarters in Madison, WI.