Weathering the ‘perfect storm’: Your invitation to our 2019 Annual Conference
May 14, 2019
Addressing the Agriculture, Energy, Water, Climate Change Nexus
12-13 August 2019, Canberra
From the Crawford Fund Chair
The Hon John Anderson AO
I invite you to join me at the Crawford Fund’s 2019 Annual Conference titled, “Weathering the ‘Perfect Storm’: Addressing the Agriculture, Energy, Water, Climate Change Nexus,” to be held from 12-13 August in Canberra.
I am excited to announce that the conference will open with Australian Nobel Prize Laureate, Prof Emerita Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD, who will be making her first address during her visit to Australia at our especially styled networking dinner. In her 2019 Sir John Crawford Memorial Address, “From Looking Down the Microscope to Looking Out the Window,” Prof Blackburn will discuss how her lifetime’s research journey led to her broader interests in optimising human health, including nutrition.
This year’s Parliamentary Conference will address a set of significant nexus issues relating to food systems and the impact of climate change to discuss weathering the ‘perfect storm’.
More details of the conference are here and you can register with an early bird discount here.
‘The Perfect Storm’ was a term coined by Sir John Beddington, the Sir John Crawford Memorial Address presenter when UK Chief Scientist, to describe his prediction that by 2030, food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources would threaten to unleash public unrest, cross-border conflicts and mass migration as people fled from the worst-affected regions.
Now, 10 years after Sir John’s dire prediction, our 2019 conference will examine the available evidence as to whether the ‘storm’ is still on track to happen, or whether scientific, engineering and agricultural innovation and what is happening in the farmer’s field has lessened or delayed its impact.
The Parliamentary conference has keynote presentations, targeted overview presentations, and a set of examples of impact that will highlight where action is needed or underway around climate change, agriculture, energy and water. Once again, we have brought together leading international and Australian thinkers and practitioners including:
- Professor Sir Charles Godfray FRS, Director of the Oxford Martin School, Oxford University
- Sarah Barker, Special Counsel, Climate Risk Governance, MinterEllison
- Dr Bruce Campbell Director, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security
- Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute, India
- Dr Aditi Mukherji, Principal Researcher, International Water Management Institute
- Professor Alice Joan G. Ferrer, Professor, Division of Social Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas
- Brian Dawson, Energy and Climate Change Adviser, DFAT’s South Asia Regional Program
- Dr Di Mayberry, Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO and member of the RAID Network
- Dr Oudom Phonekhampheng, Vice President, National University of Laos
- Ângela Manjichi, General Director for Academics and Research, Department of Agriculture, Instituto Superior Politécnico de Manica, Mozambique
- Marc Noyce, Chief Executive Officer, Biofilta Pty Ltd
- Professor Timothy G. Reeves FTSE, Crawford Fund board member and conference synthesiser
We will be continuing our successful Conference Scholars Program, which started in 2010 and has received overwhelmingly positive feedback. The program not only offers the scholars the opportunity to engage in the conference, it also connects young researchers and scientists with established mentors in their field. We hope many who attend the conference will donate to the program when they are prompted in the registration process.
I hope you can join us in Canberra to provide your input and share your insights on these significant issues in order to improve understanding and appreciation of what must be done to weather the ‘perfect storm’ and ensure food and nutrition security in a complex world.
Yours sincerely,
The Hon John Anderson AO
Chair, The Crawford Fund
