Description:

Food security is a key pillar of environmental security and lies at the heart of human well-being and prosperity. However, it remains one of the world’s greatest challenges and is increasingly threatened by our changing environment. Our food system – including the production, distribution, and consumption of food – is highly vulnerable to extreme weather and climate events. The interactions between weather, climate, and the food system have a significant impact on food security by affecting the availability, access, utilization, and stability of food. However, the global food system is not only vulnerable to environmental changes, but also a major driver of these changes as a significant source of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

In line with the theme of the 104th AMS Annual Meeting, addressing food security in the context of a changing environment will require engagement from the physical and social sciences, policy-makers, practitioners, and other stakeholders. Therefore, this session will bring together diverse perspectives to explore the role of the AMS community in addressing global food security in a changing environment. We welcome submissions on, but not limited to, the following:

• how advances in earth-system and data driven modeling, improvements in seasonal to sub-seasonal forecasting, and enhanced precipitation predictions (including drought and excessive precipitation) are applied in the context of food security;
• observations to support food-security monitoring, and drought and famine early warning;
• engaging with users and decision-makers and communicating scientific uncertainty effectively to food-security stakeholders;
• engaging with stakeholders and forecasters to better capture their expertise and feedback into climate and food system prediction through the operations-to-research and research-to-operations (O2R-R2O) nexus; 
• climate change adaptation and mitigation across the food system;
• attribution of meteorological and climate impacts for food security applications; 
• addressing systemic risks and cascading crises across the food system; 
• enabling humanitarian action and sustainable development to support food security; 
• environmental justice and equitable food access; and
• impacts of extreme events across the food system.