FoA 265: Climate, Land Use, and Agriculture with Richard Waite of the World Resources Institute

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">World Resources Institute: <a href="https://www.wri.org/">https://www.wri.org/</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Follow Rich on Twitter: <a href= "https://twitter.com/waiterich">https://twitter.com/waiterich</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Recent blog post: <a href= "https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/08/us-agriculture-emissions-food">https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/08/us-agriculture-emissions-food</a> </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">More from Rich: <a href= "https://www.wri.org/profile/richard-waite">https://www.wri.org/profile/richard-waite</a> </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our guest today has spent years diving into this question of the environmental impacts of the food system, and what can be done to optimize the amount of food that gets produced and distributed, while minimizing the negative externalities of that system. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rich Waite is a Senior Research Associate in World Resources Institute’s Food Program. He is an author of the World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future, which focuses on solutions to feed 10 billion people by 2050, including boosting agricultural productivity, reducing food loss and waste, shifting toward plant-rich diets, and protecting and restoring forests and other natural ecosystems. Rich is also the Data Lead for Cool Food, an initiative that helps major food providers reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions in line with climate science. Prior to joining WRI in 2007, Rich lived in Cameroon for four years, where he served as an agroforestry extension agent with the U.S. Peace Corps and helped coordinate the U.S. Embassy’s international development programs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rich and I discuss that, for all the talk about climate change, there has been very little progress to reducing the carbon footprint of the food system. We discuss why actions must be taken, and what the data tells us about what