May (Hybrid - Zoom & in person ) 05/10/2023

The Environmental Footprint of Global Food Production

Feeding humanity puts enormous environmental pressure on our planet. Most studies on this critical issue have addressed it piecemeal--one group of foods or one environmental pressure at a time. Dr. Halpern will share results from his lab's recently published work compiling vast data on greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, habitat disturbance, and nutrient pollution generated by 99% of the total reported production of freshwater, marine, and terrestrial foods (crops, livestock, fisheries, and aquaculture). He'll explain how they mapped these pressures to produce the first-ever global "footprint" of food production. This work provides new insight into decisions about which foods we choose to eat, and how we can influence policy towards more sustainable food production.

Dr. Benjamin Halpern, Director, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and Professor, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UCSB

Dr. Halpern received his Ph.D. in marine ecology in 2003 from UCSB and then held a joint post-doctoral fellowship at NCEAS and the Smith Fellowship Program. He was a Research Associate at NCEAS for the decade following that until joining the faculty at the Bren School. In the past 20 years Dr. Halpern has published over 275 peer-reviewed articles and was named one of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds by Thompson-Reuters. In 2016 he was awarded the A.G Huntsman Award for Excellence in Marine Science by the Royal Society of Canada, in 2017 the Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in Science and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, in 2018 the Ocean Award in Science, and in 2020 he was elected a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. Dr. Halpern's research leverages environmental data science and synthesis to address a wide range of topics centered on the many ways that human activities are impacting ocean ecosystems and species, and the consequences of those impacts on the benefits we receive in return. Key research topics have included assessing and mapping cumulative human impacts, developing and implementing the Ocean Health Index, environmental implications of fisheries and aquaculture, and incorporating equity and justice into conservation planning.