Stanford University

Food Security

Special Screening of Documentary Film 'FOOD EVOLUTION'

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Please join us for a special screening of 'FOOD EVOLUTION' with a panel discussion where the film's director Scott Hamilton Kennedy and Stanford experts in the field of food security will discuss what "GMO" and "organic" mean for the health of your family and the environment. Pamela Ronald, coauthor of the book Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food which helped inspire the movie will also be hosting a book signing during the reception following the event.

This event is free and open to the public.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Date: 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 16

Location: Vidalakis Dining Hall, Schwab Residential Center, 680 Serra St., Stanford, CA 94305 with panel and reception to follow.

SYNOPSIS

Amidst a brutally polarized debate marked by passion, suspicion and confusion, FOOD EVOLUTION, by Academy Award®-nominated director Scott Hamilton Kennedy (The Garden, Fame High, OT: Our Town), explores the controversy surrounding GMOs and food. Traveling from Hawaiian papaya groves, to banana farms in Uganda to the cornfields of Iowa, the film, narrated by esteemed science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson, wrestles with the emotions and the science driving one of the most heated arguments of our time.

In the GMO debate, both pro and anti camps claim science is on their side. Who’s right? FOOD EVOLUTION shows how easily misinformation, confusion and fear can overwhelm objective analysis. How do we ensure that our food supply is safe, and that everyone has enough to eat? How do we feed the world while also protecting the planet? Has genetic engineering increased or decreased pesticide use? Are GMO foods bad for your health? And, most importantly, what data, evidence and sources are we using to approach these important questions?

While the passionate advocates in the film are all concerned with the stewardship of safe, nutritious food for the planet, their differing views over what constitutes the truth have pit them against each other, rendering the very subject of food itself into an ideological battleground.

Enlisting experts such as Mark Lynas, Michael Pollan, Alison Van Eenennaam, Jeffrey Smith, Andrew Kimbrell, Vandana Shiva, Robert Fraley, Marion Nestle and Bill Nye, as well as farmers and scientists from around the world, this bold and necessary documentary separates the hype and emotion from the science and data to unravel the debate around food, and help audiences reach their own conclusions. In a debate in which all sides claim to be on the side of science, FOOD EVOLUTION brings a fresh perspective to one of the most critical issues facing global society today.

PANEL

Scott Hamilton Kennedy, FOOD EVOLUTION Director/Academy Award® nominee, writer, director, producer, cameraman, and editor

Ertharin Cousin, Payne Distinguished Lecturer, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies/Visiting Fellow, Center on Food Security and the Environment/Distinguished Fellow of Global Agriculture, Chicago Council on Global Affairs/Former Executive Director, World Food Programme  

Pamela Ronald, Visiting Professor, Center on Food Security and the Environment/Distinguished Professor, Plant Pathology and the Genome Center, UC Davis/ Director, UC Davis Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy/co-author “Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food"

MODERATOR

Rosamond Naylor, Gloria and Richard Kushel Director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, William Wrigley Professor of Earth System Science, Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Film Screenings

Eyes in the sky, boots on the ground : assessing satellite- and ground-based approaches to crop yield measurement and analysis in Uganda

Paragraphs

Crop yields in smallholder systems are traditionally assessed using farmer-reported information in surveys, occasionally by crop cuts for a sub-section of a farmer's plot, and rarely using full-plot harvests. Accuracy and cost vary dramatically across methods. In parallel, satellite data is improving in terms of spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution needed to discern performance on smallholder plots. This study uses data from a survey experiment in Uganda, and evaluates the accuracy of Sentinel-2 imagery-based, remotely-sensed plot-level maize yields with respect to ground-based measures relying on farmer self-reporting, sub-plot crop cutting (CC), and full-plot crop cutting (FP). Remotely-sensed yields include two versions calibrated to FP and CC yields (calibrated), and an alternative based on crop model simulations, using no ground data (uncalibrated). On the ground, self-reported yields explained less than 1 percent of FP (and CC) yield variability, and while the average difference between CC and FP yields was not significant, CC yields captured one-quarter of FP yield variability. With satellite data, both calibrated and uncalibrated yields captured FP yield variability on pure stand plots similarly well, and both captured half of FP yield variability on pure stand plots above 0.10 hectare. The uncalibrated yields were consistently 1 ton per hectare higher than FP or CC yields, and the satellite-based yields were less well correlated with the ground-based measures on intercropped plots compared with pure stand ones. Importantly, regressions using CC, FP and remotely-sensed yields as dependent variables all produced very similar coefficients for yield response to production factors.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Working Papers
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
World Bank Group
Authors
David Lobell
George Azzari
Marshall Burke
Gourlay,Sydney
Kilic,Talip, Murray,Siobhan
External URL
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