UMD Alumni Hall of Fame inductee and AREC graduate to give lecture on the environment
Image Credit: Earth Policy Institute
University of Maryland alumnus and famed environmentalist Dr. Lester Brown will return to College Park November 12 to share his expert insights on the future of the global food supply. Brown received a master’s degree in Agricultural & Resource Economics from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland and was inducted into the university’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 2010.
Brown will be the featured speaker in the first Distinguished Lecture Series on the Environment hosted by the University of Maryland’s Council on the Environment. Founder and President of Earth Policy Institute, a non-profit environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C., Brown is considered one of the heroes and pioneers of global environmentalism. The Washington Post recently heralded him as “One of the world’s most influential thinkers.” Brown’s lecture is open to the campus community and general public, and will focus on his new book Full Planet, Empty Plates – The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity.
When: November 12, 2012
Where: Computer Science Instructional Center, University of Maryland
4:00 p.m.: Reception in Atrium
5:00 p.m.: Lecture in Room 1115
During a career that started with tomato farming, Brown has been awarded 25 honorary degrees and has authored or co-authored more than 50 books which have appeared in some 40 languages.
Dr. Brown will speak on “food as the new oil.” 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. What will the geopolitics of food look like in a new era dominated by scarcity and food nationalism? He will outline 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.
For more information on the Council on the Environment and directions to lecture please see: http://cone.umd.edu/ . Nearby parking is free after 4pm.
