NYC Food and Climate Summit: Creating a Platform for Change

by Matthew Chan, Just Food Food Justice Associate

Food is frequently ignored as a topic when it comes to climate change, despite the fact that nearly a third of our greenhouse gases come from food production, and 60% of our nitrous oxide (N2O), a gas 300 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide in trapping heat. That's why Just Food, the Manhattan Borough President, and NYU, in collaboration with dozens of food and climate justice advocates around the city, are proud to present the NYC Food and Climate Summit: Creating a Platform for Change on December 12th at the Kimmel Center, NYU.

The summit is orientated towards not only informing the public, but also creating actionable goals so the gains made during the summit move beyond discussion into tangible results that can be acted on by the participants themselves. To this end we have created nine policy workshops, ranging from ending enviromental/structural racism to strengthening our regional foodshed, which will allow participants to interact with experts on the subject and create workable and dynamic platforms for tackling each issue. In addition to this, we will also have several skills workshops teaching participants how they can make individual and community differences (e.g. composting, organizing around an issue, assessing and addressing hunger in communities) also running at the same time. We hope participants will leave the Summit feeling informed, educated, inspired and motivated to advance a NYC Food and Climate Platform for Action in 2010 and beyond.

What: NYC Food and Climate Summit: Creating a Platform for Change
When: Saturday, December 12th
Where: Kimmel Center, NYU

For more details about the summit feel free to contact Matthew Chan (matthew@justfood.org).