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Innovative Solutions to the Global Food System • Dr. Charles McNeill • Food Matters Series
January 19, 2025 @ 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Dr. Charles McNeill on Innovative Solutions to the Global Food System: Protecting the Climate and Biodiversity
Sunday, January 19, 2025, 1:30 pm, at the Bowen Island Public Library
This event is part of the Food Matters series, featuring four Bowen Island presenters. This series is presented in partnership by Bowen Island Food Resilience Society & Bowen Island Public Library.
About this Talk
How we produce and consume food is contributing to Earth’s triple environmental crises: the climate emergency, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste, with livestock production and consumption playing a massive role in all three. The global food system is responsible for approximately 30% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions and causes 60 to 80% of all biodiversity loss, deforestation, and water extraction. The production and consumption of meat and dairy products continue to rise, posing significant challenges for public health from heart disease to antimicrobial resistance, as well as increasing the risk of new zoonotic diseases. Billions of animals are raised and slaughtered each year under inhumane conditions.
This presentation will explore potential solutions to the triple global crises. These include farming methods that work with nature; shifting to more plant-based diets; reducing food waste; supporting local food economies; “rewilding” agricultural land; developing policies and regulations to incentivize sustainable farming practices and the protection of natural habitat; investing in research into sustainable farming technologies and alternative proteins; and educating consumers about the environmental impact of their food choices to empower informed decision-making and political advocacy.
About Dr. Charles McNeill
Dr. Charles McNeill’s love of nature, and commitment to protecting it, began on Bowen at a very early age and led to a 32-year career with the United Nations building innovative partnerships to solve global environmental challenges. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Meridian Institute after retiring earlier this year from his position as Senior Advisor on Forests & Climate for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) where he created and led the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative, an international alliance bringing faith-based leadership to local and global efforts to end tropical deforestation.
Previously, Dr. McNeill managed UNDP’s work on forests, biodiversity, climate change, sustainable energy, stakeholder engagement and public-private partnerships. In that capacity he founded and led catalytic global initiatives, including the UN-REDD Programme, the Equator Initiative, the global coalition that delivered the New York Declaration on Forests at the 2014 UN Climate Summit, and the Indigenous Peoples Initiative for the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. He also served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Forests.
Dr. McNeill received his Ph.D. in Genetics, with a focus on conservation biology, from the University of California at Davis and his Bachelor of Sciences is in Conservation of Natural Resources & Ecology from the University of California at Berkeley. Charles currently lives on Bowen Island on the property his grandparents acquired in 1919.