Oral

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 reported that 31% of world greenhouse gas emissions came from agriculture and forestry (the latter substantially related to deforestation for food production). The U.S. public is largely unaware of the magnitude of this impact. This session examines the public health issues relevant to understanding, tracking, and working to reduce food and agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions. We will begin by presenting an overview of food and agriculture contributions to climate change. The second presentation describes strategies for measuring impacts and prioritizing among foods to address, and identifies a set of ‘rules of thumb’ to help reduce consumers’ food carbon footprints. The third presentation, also working from the principle that “what is not measured is not managed,” reviews carbon footprint calculator tools that include food, in order to develop a module on food that can be used nationally by institutional food service providers. While one part of addressing the problem is identifying and quantifying it, another part is creating awareness and the will to address it. The final presentation reviews the major gap in media coverage of food contributions to climate change, and discusses strategies to increase this focus.

Session Objectives: 1. Participants will be able to discuss the significance of food and agriculture effects on global climate, and will be able to identify at least three ways our current food and agriculture systems affect climate change. 2. Participants will be able to identify at least two useful strategies for measuring/quantifying food and agriculture contributions to climate change in the US. 3. Participants will be able to discuss tradeoffs and ambiguities affecting decisions about the optimal ways to eat and provide food, in order to protect the climate. 4. Participants will recognize synergies between messages about protecting climate and promoting nutritional and environmental public health.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing