February 2, 2016

2016 Ontario Climate Symposium – Climate Resilient Food Systems in the Greater Golden Horseshoe

On May 5^th, the University of Guelph will be hosting the 2016 Ontario Climate Symposium. This event will bring together stakeholders from across the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region agriculture and food sectors to discuss challenges and opportunities related to climate change – including issues associated with mitigation, adaptation and food security.

We are excited to announce that we have confirmed two keynote speakers to help set the broad context for the event: Dr. Evan Fraser from the University of Guelph and Dr. Hank Venema from the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD). Dr. Fraser is Canada’s Research Chair in Global Food Security and will speak to the issue of Regional Food Security in a Changing Climate. Dr. Venema is Chief Scientist at IISD, and has been recently tapped to lead the newly created Centre for Climate Risk Reduction on the Prairies.  He will speak to issues surrounding climate adaptation and resilience in agri-food systems.

We have also planned a set of 3 afternoon workshops where participants will have the opportunity to delve more deeply into one of either: bioenergy, on-farm resilience strategies, or regional food supply chains, and help to develop a set of policy ideas that will be published after the event to support the integration of climate change, land use planning and agriculture policy in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region.

For more information about the program and confirmed speakers, visit the OCC website. Also, follow the OCC on Twitter for ongoing updates on the event.