The future of food, farming, and sustainability are topics at a symposium today and tomorrow at UNC and Duke. Jaqueline Olich is from the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at UNC; she's also one of the coordinators of the event. According to projections from the United Nations, Olich says food production will have to increase by up to 100-percent by the year 2050 to sustain an estimated 9 billion people.
Jaqueline Olich: There are several challenges and that's why we have an obligation as a hub of university research and technological innovation and community supported agriculture and food activism to be a leader on some of these national dialogues.
The symposium is called Shared Tables: A Triangle Symposium on Local and Global Food Studies. Keynote speakers include Tom Philpott from Mother Jones magazine and Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant. All forums are standing room only at this point. People can still participate via Twitter.