NAS Colloquium Program

NAS Colloquium

Plants and Population: is there time?

5-6 December 1998

Beckman Center of the National Academy of Sciences, UC Irvine

Program

Session I

Demographic and economic projections of food demand and supply.

Session Chair: Joel Cohen, The Rockefeller University

Papers:

"World food and agriculture: the outlook for the medium and longer term." Nikos Alexandratos (abstract, full text), United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

"The growth of demand will limit output growth for food over the next quarter century." D. Gale Johnson (abstract, full text), University of Chicago

"Global and local implications of biotechnology and climate change for future food supplies." Robert Evenson (abstract, full text), Yale University

"World food trends and prospects to 2020." Tim Dyson (abstract, full text), London School of Economics

Panelists:

Dennis Ahlburg (comments), University of Minnesota

Kenneth Arrow (comments), Stanford University

Bernard Gilland (comments), Espergaerde, Denmark

Vaclav Smil (comments), University of Manitoba, Canada

Session II

Limits on agriculture: land, water, energy and biological resources.

Session Chair: Michael Clegg, University of California, Riverside

Papers:

"Plant genetic resources: what can they contribute towards increased crop productivity?" David Hoisington (abstract, full text), Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo, Int., Mexico

"Ecological approaches and the development of 'truly' integrated pest management." Matthew Thomas (abstract, full text), Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College, London, England

"Ecological intensification of cereal production systems: the challenge of increasing crop yield potential and precision agriculture." Kenneth Cassman (abstract, full text), University of Nebraska

"The transition to agricultural sustainability." Vernon Ruttan (abstract, full text), University of Minnesota

Panelists:

Gretchen Daily (comments), Stanford University

William Murdoch (comments), University of California, Santa Barbara

Billie Lee Turner (comments), Clark University

Catherine Woteki (comments), US Dept. of Agriculture

After dinner speaker:

Ismail Serageldin, World Bank, "Plants and Population: is there time?"

Session III

Plant and other biotechnologies.

Session Chair: Nina Fedoroff, The Pennsylvania State University

Papers:

"Biotechnology: enhancing human nutrition in developing and developed worlds." Ganesh Kishore (abstract, full text), Monsanto

"Use of plant roots for environmental remediation and biochemical manufacturing." Ilya Raskin (abstract, full text), Rutgers University

"The post-industrialized agricultural biotechnology era: what's rate limiting?" John Ryals (abstract, full text), Paradigm Genetics, Inc.

"Transgenic plants for the tropics: some strategies to develop them and reach the farmer." Luis Herrera-Estrella (abstract, full text), Centro de Investigacion y Estudios Avanzados, Irapuato, Mexico

Panelists:

Donald Roberts (comments), Boyce Thompson Institute

Ron Sederoff (comments), North Carolina State University

Dennis Avery (comments), Hudson Institute

Richard Meagher (comments), University of Georgia

Brian Staskawicz (comments), University of California, Berkeley.

Session IV

Biodiversity and multiple land use demands

Session Chair: Dr. Harold Mooney, Stanford University

Papers:

"From prehispanic to future conservation alternatives: lessons from Mexico." Arturo Gomez-Pompa (abstract, full text), University of California, Riverside

"Gardenification of tropical conserved wildlands: multitasking, multicropping and multiple users." Daniel Janzen (abstract, full text), University of Pennsylvania

"Plant biodiversity, land use, and the sustainability of essential ecosystem services." David Tilman (abstract, full text), University of Minnesota

"Food supply expansion and the sustainable global management of carbon and nitrogen: interacting challenges." Robert Socolow (abstract, full text), Princeton University