Food, nature and people are the three essential elements of our food system. When these elements are in balance, our food system provides nutritious food and livelihoods and supports natural systems like biodiversity, nutrient and water cycles and a stable climate. Unfortunately, our food system is out of balance, threatening people and communities around the world. To reverse this dangerous trend, we need to implement solutions at scale, quickly.

This half-day digital event will show the way forward, by providing actionable scientific evidence to build sustainable landscapes and by connecting with people on the ground to share knowledge and experience and fundamentally transform agriculture and land management. By rebuilding resilient food systems, supporting sustainable use of forests, trees and other healthy landscapes, we can adapt to the crises we have created.

ASU’s Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, part of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, is a partner in this international, virtual and free event. Learn more and register.

Join the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI), the Journal of Science Policy & Governance (JSPG) and the UK Science and Innovation Network for a workshop that brings together innovative thinkers in climate science and provides opportunities to reimagine positive climate futures. This event will feature early career researchers published in a special issue of JSPG on climate-change solutions, and CSI's Climate Imagination Fellows, who are working on stories that inspire positive visions of climate action and resilience.

Workshop participants will work in interdisciplinary teams to create their own narratives on climate-policy interventions, focusing on issues including climate migration and displacement, advocacy and coalition-building and transforming institutions and industries.

The event will also feature a conversation with Emily Cloke, the British Consul General in Los Angeles, California, whose portfolio includes bolstering scientific cooperation between the U.S. and UK and exploring ways to tackle the climate crisis. Register online.

To further the implementation of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) that advances a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, Pacific Forum International, in partnership with USINDOPACOM Office of WPS, is organizing the conference Advancing Women, Peace & Security in the Indo-Pacific. Topics in this conference include cultivating a culture of allyship in security, building bridges between CSOs and local government, WPS in the defense sector, gender and preventing/countering violent extremism, and gender and climate security in the Indo-Pacific. Learn more on the event website.

The future of the office has become an open question after the coronavirus lockdown forced billions of people to work from home. Will office workers return to their cubicles with refrigerators when the pandemic ends? Or will employees want to hold on to their newfound freedom and flexibility, while noting the lower costs of no-show?

At least some companies have already answered this question: Twitter, for example, says that most of its employees can continue to work from home forever, making the office simply a place to meet with clients. Three academics weigh the future of the office. Beth Humberd and Scott Latham of University of Massachusetts, Lowell, say jobs that are inherently relational are more likely to last. Global Futures Scientist Deborah Salon discusses a survey that finds office workers want more flexibility where they work.

Read the piece in Entrepreneur.

Organic food once was viewed as a niche category, but today it’s a routine choice for millions of Americans, with over half of organic sales in conventional grocery store chains, club stores and supercenters.

Surveys show that 82% of Americans buy some organic food, and availability has improved. Still, overall organic sales add up to a mere 6% of all food sold in the U.S. In addition, there are some 2 million farms in the U.S.; of them, only 16,585 are organic – less than 1%.

A recent report by the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems recommends dedicating 6% of USDA spending to supporting the organic sector, a figure that reflects its market share. Kathleen Merrigan explains why and how in a new piece for The Conversation.

An Arizona State University assistant professor says laws regarding natural resources on public land are antiquated and prevent voluntary conservation.

“Use-it-or-lose-it requirements, together with narrow definitions of eligible uses, can preclude environmental groups from participating in markets for natural resources,” said Bryan Leonard, a senior sustainability scientist at ASU who was the lead author

on a recently published policy forum for Science. “These restrictions can bias resource management in favor of extractive users, even when conservation interests are willing to pay more to protect resources from development.”

Leonard said resources can include oil, gas, water and a variety of minerals and raw materials. He added the laws were created in the 19th and early 20th centuries when the country’s priorities were different, and they now need to be updated.

Read the ASU News Q&A with Leonard about his article and resources on public lands.

The Global Futures Office of Research Services (GFORS) is a virtual organization of the set of services required by members of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory to plan, apply for and perform externally sponsored research. GFORS organizes and administers these services through a single web portal.

GFORS is available to all members of the Global Futures Laboratory who are performing (or want to perform) externally sponsored research. Members include the following: faculty, post-docs, staff and students within the College of Global Futures; the centers, projects and initiatives in the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation (GIOSI); participants in the Global Futures Focal Areas groups; Global Futures Scientists and Scholars. Participants in centers, projects and programs within the Global Futures Laboratory that are not within GIOSI, such as the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainable Solutions Service, the ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future, etc., are also welcome to use GFORS.

You may be asking, "Can GFORS really serve all those groups?" And the answer is, well, not yet. However, that is the ultimate goal. While capacity is currently limited, we are working hard to create more efficient processes and build more capacity. Read more on the website: globalfutures.asu.edu/gfors.

Despite years of declaring that conversion of high-voltage, long-distance electrical transmission lines to underground installation was cost prohibitive, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has announced plans to spend $20 billion over 10 years to bury 10,000 miles of power lines in wildfire-prone areas of California.

The move comes after PG&E filed a preliminary report with the California Utilities Commission noting that the Dixie Fire, which so far has decimated 460,000 acres in Northern California, may have been ignited by a blown fuse on one of its utility poles. The utility company has been linked to multiple fires in California and pleaded guilty last year to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the Camp Fire.

According to Samuel Ariaratnam, a nationally recognized expert in trenchless technology and a professor and Beavers-Ames Chair in heavy construction at Arizona State University, utility companies are beginning to move their power lines underground, but none have contemplated a project on the scale of the PG&E announcement.

“This action taken by PG&E, while motivated by tragic circumstances, highlights the importance of adopting advanced new technologies despite the initial expense,” said Ariaratnam. “Over time, those upfront expenses will pay dividends in diminished maintenance, repair and replacement costs. Most importantly, it will save communities and lives, not only from wildfires, but from other catastrophic events like ice storms, hurricanes and tornados.”

Read more on ASU News.

In this series, we’re sitting down with the Swette Center senior fellows to catch up on food systems, innovation, and what makes a good meal. 

Read on for an interview with Malik Yakini, Co-founder and the Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network

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In this series, we’re sitting down with the Swette Center senior fellows to catch up on food systems, innovation, and what makes a good meal. 

Read on for an interview with Pam Marrone, Executive Chairperson and Partner of Primary BioAg Innovations and Global BioAg Linkages.

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A new paper published by a team from the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service that includes College of Global Futures associate professor Rimjhim Aggarwal examines the culture and economy of waste pickers. In the paper, published Aug. 10 in Sustainability, the authors demonstrate that waste pickers, typically part of extreme poverty communities based on or around landfills, have the potential to act as environmental stewards by mitigating the effects of waste, contributing to the resilience of urban systems, reducing greenhouse gas emissions through recovery of materials from waste streams and saving energy and preserving natural resources by enabling recycling and reuse.

"They play critical roles in waste management, but their full potential to contribute to the circular economy remains unrealized due to their marginalized social status, lack of recognition by authorities, and disconnection from the formal economy. Additionally, they face significant occupational hazards and social exclusion, and their livelihoods are at risk of being displaced by private-sector-led waste management approaches."

The paper was co-authored by Raj Buch, Alicia Marseille, Matthew Williams, Rimjhim Aggarwal and Aparna Sharma. Read the full report.

By Emma Rotner, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership student 

In March of 2021, the Biden Administration put forth a proposal called the American Jobs Plan, a bill that focuses on revitalizing the American economy and job creation by investing in American infrastructure. The primary focus of the bill is to invest in roads and buildings and to update public transportation systems. Although school nutrition is not a primary focus, this bill could be an opportunity to push for updates within school kitchen facilities in order to improve the access to and quality of healthy, nutritious, and delicious school food for our nation’s children (The White House, 2021).

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In this series, we’re sitting down with the Swette Center senior fellows to catch up on food systems, innovation, and what makes a good meal. 

Read on for an interview with Bob Nash, Former Under Secretary of Rural & Community Development at USDA.

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Dave White, deputy director of Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation and professor in the School of Community Resources and Development, has been tapped by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to represent the Southwest region as chapter lead author for the Fifth U.S. National Climate Assessment. White previously served as co-author for the complex systems chapter for the Fourth U.S. National Climate Assessment, published in 2018.

“I am honored to step into the lead author role for NCA5 for the Southwest, and I look forward to building an author team that represents the true diversity of our region,” White said. “Our primary goal is to develop actionable knowledge to address the climate crisis.”

Learn more.

The Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation's deputy director, Dave White, was featured in the Washington Post on Aug. 18 with his opinion piece on the US Bureau of Reclaimation's recent report on a record low water level for both the Colorado River and Lake Mead. In his opinion, White asserts that "nothing less than a water 'moonshot'" will be the only way forward to ensure that the needs of industry, agriculture and residents will be met.

"Debates over water rights and water usage are often emotional because people’s lives and livelihoods depend on this basic component of our existence. Solving the problem will demand unprecedented cooperation among competing parties, rapid technological innovation and thoughtful public engagement."

Read the full opinion.

Jennifer Vanos, a HUE partner and Assistant Professor at the School of Sustainability, College of Global Futures, and Rachel Braun, a Postdoctoral Research Associate with HUE, have been featured in Come Rain or Shine podcast produced by the SW Climate Adaptation Science Center (SW CASC) and the USDA Southwest Climate Hub to talk about the impacts of extreme heat on public health, especially on vulnerable groups.

Listen to the podcast here!

In this series, we’re sitting down with the Swette Center affiliated faculty to catch up on food systems, innovation, and what makes a good meal. See the rest of the series on our Food Systems Profiles page.

Read on for an interview with Dr. Rolf Halden, Director for the Center for Environmental Health Engineering at the Biodesign Institute.

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By Isabel Yoder, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student 

On Wednesday morning, we changed things up by hearing from a panel of non-governmental organization leaders. The panel was headed by Ann Mills, the Executive Director at Agua Fund, Michael Fernandez, the founding director at AAAS Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues (AAAS EPI Center), and Ferd Hoefner, who consults with multiple organizations on behalf of federal farm policy issues. After hearing from mostly government-affiliated leaders earlier on in the week, it was fascinating getting some insight on what work is getting done to advance agricultural policy goals and initiatives from the outside. 

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By Mary Rochelle, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student 

Students were eager and ready to dive in on the first morning of the ASU Food Policy Certificate Capstone Immersive in DC. Fortunately, the lineup of speakers that morning was an engaging and impressive bunch, all ready to share diverse perspectives to paint a picture of their current and past work in food and agriculture. 

The third panel of the day featured Kumar Chandran and Sara Bleich, Political Staff in the Office of the Secretary at USDA. Their presentations and answers to student questions covered topics ranging from specific policies to what it was like to be a part of a presidential administration transition team to ways that their own career trajectories have informed their current roles.

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Demand-driven science: the role of knowledge partnerships in improving the public value of conservation science

The actionable science in conservation team with the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes at ASU has been awarded a 3-year NSF grant focused on actionable science, coproduction, and knowledge partnerships. Proposed research aims to understand the supply of and demand for conservation science knowledge, as well as the role of knowledge partnerships in facilitating this linkage. By analyzing experiences of knowledge users and the possibilities inherent in knowledge partnerships as a distinct organizational form, we aim to understand the organizational configurations best suited for facilitating demand-driven conservation science.

We seek a social-science oriented graduate research assistant (RA) to start in late 2021 or early 2022 for 20 hours/week. This RA will help to conduct interviews and surveys, adapt an existing research tool and help utilize it to collect data, analyze and manage qualitative and quantitative data, and help with reporting to the NSF. The RA would stay with the project for all three years funded, and ideally have this project play a role in their dissertation research. Desired qualifications include basic familiarity with qualitative social science research methods including interviews, surveys, data analysis and management, and interest in science policy, conservation and/or public value is a plus, as is fluency in Spanish.

If you are interested, please email your CV and a cover letter to the PI, Leah Gerber (Leah.Gerber@asu.edu) by September 27, 2021.