Farm Food Facts

The 2022 world Food Prize Goes to... A NASA Scientist!

• USFRA • Episode 120

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To round out summer listening, we are scheduled to hear from Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, winner of the prestigious 2022 World Food Prize, which honors leaders who are making huge strides in enhancing global food security and availability. Dr. Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist and head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) at Columbia University, is a pioneer in the study of climate change and agriculture.


Phil:

Welcome to Farm Food Facts, the webcast and podcast of the US Farmers and Ranchers in action. To round out our summer listening, we're scheduled to hear from Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, the winner of the prestigious 2022 world food prize, which honors leaders who are making huge strides in enhancing global food security and availability. Cynthia's a senior research scientist and head of t he climate i mpacts group at NASA's G oddard Institute for space studies at Columbia University. She's a pioneer in the study of climate change i n agriculture, Dr. Rosenzweig, welcome to Farm Food Facts and congratulations on receiving the 2022 world food prize.

Cynthia:

Thank you, Phil. Thank you to USFRAfor inviting me to be on the podcast and yes, I'm thrilled and honored to about the world food prize this year.

Phil:

So is it, is it like the Nobel prize where you, where you get something to wear or is it a trophy or what do you get?

Cynthia:

Um, I understand I haven't gotten it yet. That's happening in October, right. But I think it is a like a bronze statue of the sculpture sculpture of the world with crops indicated on the globe.

Phil:

Very cool. Very cool. You're gonna have to send us a picture of it so we can post it with this.

Cynthia:

Definitely. Will do.

Phil:

Okay. So let, let's go back. You know, what got you started to be interested in agriculture, in food, environmental sciences, obviously to win a prize like this, you know, this is your life. What, what got you started as a kid thinking about this?

Cynthia:

I grew up in the suburbs, Phil, but when I went to college and I met my husband to be, he had studied in Italy, in the province of Tuscany, which is, uh, where chianti wine comes from, where they're they grow olives there, um, and just have this beautiful relationship with the land. So we went over there together as young 20 year olds, and I fell in love with agriculture in Tuscany, Italy. Just to fast forward, when we left and came back to the United States, I had a farm in upstate New York. U m, we grew vegetables and sweet corn and Fickling cucumbers, many things and had lots o f animals there too. U m, but then I decided I wanted to study agriculture. And so then I went to the land g rant universities, first of New Jersey at Rutgers, and then for my PhD at the university of Massachusetts.

Phil:

So I've gotta share with you my favorite place, um, in probably all the world is Via RajioTuscany.

Cynthia:

Yes. On the coast.

Phil:

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Um, I, I can, I can understand. I mean, I didn't leave there with the passion that you have that I want to get into agriculture, but if I could live anywhere, it would be Via Rajio. So let, let's fast forward to today. Tell me what it's like to work for NASA and heading up their climate impacts group. I mean, this is major stuff here.

Cynthia:

NASA is a great agency, as I'm sure, uh, all the listeners, um, already now, it's just a fantastic place to be a scientist. And I'll tell you why specifically one is that NASA, we all know, um, to studies planets, right? So it takes not only goes to space, but also considers the earth as a planet. And so that global scale of agriculture and food, food security, food production is enabled by the NASA missions and models of remote sensing and the global, the, the, and the global models that we use that are that developed. So one of them is developed right in our, in my own home Institute, Goddard Institute for Space Studies. So the first thing is that it's this wonderful global scale that we can study agriculture on, but at the same time, we all know that agriculture happens right on the ground and with the remote sensing in particular and the crop models and livestock models that we use, we can go right down to any agricultural region in the world. And so we work with, uh, with researchers who do that all over the world, and that's why it's so great to, to work and to lead the climate impacts group at NASA.

Phil:

So have you ever written that email that says, Hey, I could do a much better job on, on climate. If you sent me up there, you know, a couple miles you sent me, boom. So I could look down.

Cynthia:

I am a feet on the ground person, but I do know some of the, I have known some of the astronauts, so it's really exciting and always to interact with them. And who knows maybe who knows? Maybe the space shuttle at some point<laugh> no, no, sorry, sorry. Maybe the international space station that I could, I could go up at some point.

Phil:

That would be great. So, and if you need somebody to carry your bags, you know, just call/

Cynthia:

All right. All right. I'll keep it in mind.

Phil:

So what do you see as the number one issue that we're all faced with in climate change and sustainability in agriculture today, what's keeping you up at night.

Cynthia:

The silos, the silos are keeping me up at night because, and I'll tell you what, I mean, basically there are two groups of people who have, who have studied climate change in agriculture, and they reflect the two way street about climate change in agriculture. So the first part of it is the first one way on the street on the one way street is that agriculture is responsible for about a third of all human caused greenhouse gas emissions. So we have, and in order to solve that, we call that mitigation reduction of the greenhouse gases from agriculture and food, by the way, it's the whole food system, not just production. The other one way street is that climate change is affecting production of food and with extreme events and the changes in the growing seasons, and increased pest infestations, and also change with extreme events disrupting the supply chains. So what we need to do is have those two silos come together because it's really all one system in the food system. And we need to be thinking about reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the food system, as well as preparing and developing resilience for the changes that are already occurring and that are projected to, to get worse.

Phil:

So, you know, this is your forum to farmers and ranchers. What do you want farmers and ranchers to do to help bring those silos together?

Cynthia:

You know, as I said before, it all happens right down on the ground. That's the heart of agriculture and food. And the key actors are farmers and ranchers. So what we need to do is all work together on figuring out ways in each, on each farm, really on each farm and ranch, to both, what can we do in our operations? And it's different for different farming systems. So there's no silver bullet that this is gonna solve the whole thing. But what we need to do is work together to figure out what are the, what are the best appropriate and realistic ways that we can reduce emissions from our systems, as well as prepare for, for increasing climate extremes, extreme events, more droughts we're this is what we're seeing. More droughts, more heavy downpours, more heat waves, affecting for example, maize during pollination. So what we really need to do is work together to develop, we call them, w e, we call them in, in our AGNIP, which is our network of ag researchers t o work on climate change all around the world. We call those adaptation packages and also mitigation packages. So what we need to do is work together to develop with farmers and ranchers, and because we can't just be doing it in our computers, that does not work, it's working together to really then address the challenges o f climate change together

Phil:

In just a few weeks, you will be officially the 2022 recipient of the world food prize. How could that platform being, being that one person at top of the world food prize help you expand the work that you're working on with NASA, the work that farmers are doing, how can you now take this platform and bring it to the next level?

Cynthia:

As I said before, I'm so thrilled and honored to receive the world food prize this year. And one of the amazing opportunities is to speak with so many groups like USFRA. So I'm just saying yes to every invitation to interact with as many groups as possible. And it's very encouraging, Phil, because so many groups here in the states and around the world are addressing these challenges of climate change. So this wonderful opportunity to interact w ith the groups is just really such a wonderful time in my life, especially this year of that I received it. T he food systems are now emerging at the forefront of climate change. Climate change cannot be restrained without attention to food system emissions. It's a third of total human c ost emissions at the same time, food security for all, for every person around the world, can't be provided without resilience to increasing climate extremes. I wanna salute the researchers around the world in the agricultural model intercomparison and improvement project. We call it Agnip for their tireless work, helping countries to achieve food security, both now in and in the future under climate change conditions. As we move now into a crucial decade of action on climate change, food needs to be at the table.

Phil:

Well, Dr., Thank you so much for all your hard work. Congratulations on the world food prize. Don't forget when you get up to the space station, you know, send me a text I'm gonna wait for it. I'm gonna wait for it. And, again, congratulations and thank you for everything that you're doing.

Cynthia:

Thank you so much

Phil:

For more about all food and agriculture, please visit us@farmersandranchers.org. Also be sure to visit us on Facebook and Instagram@farmersandranchers, as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn@USFRA. Until next time.