The Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems focuses on innovative ideas and solutions to the many challenges of current food systems. 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 Ashok Mishra, Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation Chair in Food Management at the Morrison School of Agribusiness in the W. P. Carey School of Business.

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An Arizona State University School of Sustainability alumnus was one of three experts to author a report on the potential consequences of the current administration’s plan to rollback Obama-era vehicle fuel economy standards. The report from Chris Harto, a former Science Foundation Arizona Fellow (2007-2009) who now serves as a senior policy analyst of transportation and energy for Consumers Reports’ Washington, D.C. office shows that “American consumers will lose about $460 billion dollars in fuel savings in the coming years” if the plans are enacted.

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After the United Nations IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land was released in August 2019, several Arizona State University scientists associated with Global Futures Laboratory wrote a response: “Recognizing the urgency of our climate crisis.” This response briefly summarizes the report and the strategies it describes to mitigate climate change and increase global food security. In addition, the response stresses the importance of acting with urgency, removing CO2 from the air and point sources, and engaging people who are most vulnerable to climate change.

You can read the response on Medium. To ensure you don’t miss any Global Futures Laboratory Medium posts, follow our Medium channel directly, or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn where we announce all new posts.

ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber was quoted this week in a Time article addressing the recent changes made by the U.S. federal government to the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

The article, titled “The Trump Administration’s Changes to the Endangered Species Act Risks Pushing More Species to Extinction” echoes the concern of various conservation scientists who fear the changes will further threaten imperiled species.

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Osvaldo Sala, a Regents and Foundation Professor at Arizona State University and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, was elected on August 16 as president of the Ecological Society of America. Elected by ESA members during the society’s annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, Sala will be president for a one-year term that ends in 2020. He is the first Hispanic person to serve as president in the organization's century-long history.

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The Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems focuses on innovative ideas and solutions to the many challenges of current food systems. 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 Bruce Rittman, director of Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology.

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Extreme weather changes and a boom in population growth will result in a declining of the rivers in Arizona, according to an Arizona State University professor. Heather Bateman, a field ecologist and an associate professor in ASU’s College of Integrative Arts and Sciences predicts that the steady rise of Phoenix’s population will increase the consumption of water which will in turn reduce the amount of water in streams. Bateman has conducted research that shows that in highly modified rivers, there is also a “lower diversity of lizards, amphibians and small mammals.”

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Beth Polidoro, ASU New College professor and Center for Biodiversity Outcomes associate director of biodiversity valuation and assessments, was recently featured in an ASU Now article about her recent discovery of chemical pollutants in the urban lakes of Phoenix.

Polidoro and her team found contaminants in fish such as phlates (microplastics), PAHs (such as car emissions or forest fire combusted materials), pesticides and metals.

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Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) were recipients of an award from the Ecological Society of America.

Winners of the award are recognized for their “outstanding contributions to ecology in new discoveries, teaching, sustainability, diversity, and lifelong commitment to the profession,” according to an ESA announcement.

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School of Sustainability junior Sakshi Hegde has always cared about the environment. So when it was time to make a decision about what to dedicate her life to, the answer was a no-brainer.

"I knew by the time I was applying to colleges that I wanted my future career to be about protecting the environment," Hegde said. "When I learned about sustainability, I knew it exemplified what I wanted to do with my life."

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As three Arizona State University alumni — Debbie Namugayi, Katherine Palmer and Patrick Ware — show, sustainability practices can be implemented into any career.

As a sustainability manager at Eastern Kentucky University, School of Sustainability alumna Debbie Namugayi works to implement broad policy sustainability initiatives across the entire campus. She also works on engaging students who aren’t necessarily concerned about sustainability, taking a different approach by incentivizing them with fun activities rather than asking them to make sacrifices. She previously worked at the University of Maryland where she promoted a “green chapter” program for Greek life and recently implemented a bike sharing project at the 16,000-strong Eastern Kentucky University.

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After 60 years of only small sporadic outbreaks of the South American locust, in 2015–17, a large upsurge led to damaging outbreaks in Argentina and Bolivia, requiring declarations of national emergencies in these countries (Medina et al. 2017). These outbreaks have continued into 2018–19, with numerous outbreaks in the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay which have now spread south in Argentina as far south as Santiago del Estero.

In response to these outbreaks, on April 8, 2019, a conference was held at SENAVE (Servicio National de Calidad y Sanidad Vegetal y Semillas) headquarters in Asuncion to discuss whether Paraguay should declare a national emergency. The conference included presentations by Hector Medina (Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria, SENASA-Argentina), Fernando Copa Bazan (Universidad Autonoma Gaston René Moreno, Santa Cruz, Bolivia), Jon Harrison (School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University), and Julio Rojas (SENAVE-Paraguay), and was attended by numerous SENAVE administrators including the Director of Dirección de Protección Vegetal, Ing. Agri. M.Sc. Ernesto Galliani.

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This blog post was written by Arizona State University student Maddie Handler. Read her first blog post "The economic x-ray of Jordan" and her second post “Unveiling Syrian Refugee Camps.” Handler is the first intern for The Alchemist Lab, founded by 2018 WE Empower Challenge awardee Hadeel Anabtawi.

As I reflect on my time in Jordan, I have been fortunate enough to accomplish more in three months than most do in a few years. I have traveled to 12 cities, attended U.S. Embassy events, met prestigious business leaders and joined a global women’s network. The most rewarding, challenging and enlightening experience of all, has been teaching (and subsequently learning) from the girls at our Go Girls boot camp.

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The Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems focuses on innovative ideas and solutions to the many challenges of current food systems. 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 Roseanne Schuster, assistant research scientist at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

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Motivated by the proximity of her family and her interest in environmental science, Maddie Mercer decided to attend Arizona State University's School of Sustainability. It's a choice she does not regret.

"I found that the degrees offered by the School of Sustainability were the best fit for me and my interests, and I loved that they were available so close to home," Maddie said. "I also loved the intimacy offered by this program, especially because it gave me the chance to have a small, tight-knit community in the context of the much larger university."

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The ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is currently hiring a new project manager. Applications close on Thursday, August 22 at 3:00 p.m. (AZ time).

The new project manager will help plan, direct, organize and execute the strategic goals of the center. The project manager will coordinate internal and external proposal development; act as the primary center liaison for partnerships and research collaborations; act as primary center contact for ASU and external engagement; identify and implement project management tools for program planning.

Click here to learn more and apply.

The Center for the Future of Arizona recently announced four outstanding recipients of its 2019 Gabe Zimmerman Public Service Award. Non-elected public servants honored this year are: City of Tempe Sustainability Director Braden Kay, an Arizona State University School of Sustainability alumnus; Deputy County Attorney and Northwest Bureau Chief for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Gina Godbehere; City of Phoenix Director of Aviation James (Jim) Bennett; and Yuma County Juvenile Justice Center Director Tim Hardy.

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This month, we sit down with two PhD candidates from Arizona State University, Jason Sauer and Yuliya Dzyuban, to talk about their recent trip to Hermosillo, Mexico. We learn the difference between "enchilada" and "enchilado", how temperatures differ in new and old buses, and the unique ways in which people from Hermosillo react to flooding in their city. Despite lacking some of the resources that residents of other cities might have, locals in Hermosillo illustrate a strong capacity to react to and cope with extreme events. Yuliya and Jason wrap up the episode with haikus about their research!

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher or Buzzsprout.

In the Fall 2018 semester, ASU Project Cities convened 47 Arizona State University students across five classes to collaborate with the City of Glendale on three unique community development projects. Following a fulfilling semester, the PC team is excited to share the completion of our Project Summary Reports which document the experience and provide a digestible, action-oriented guide to the high level strategies and recommendations posed by our students.

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The Arizona State University–Conservation International partnership supported two postdoctoral researchers from 2017–2019 who were jointly advised by a CI scientist and an ASU faculty member to advance cutting-edge conservation research.

One of the researchers, Elena M. Finkbeiner, is the Fisheries Science Program Manager for Conservation International’s Global Fisheries and Aquaculture Program.

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