White House meeting with food, ag, tech businesses on addressing climate change today
July 29, 2014 | 09:30 AM
Senior Obama administration officials are meeting at the White House today with representatives of leading food, agriculture and technology businesses to discuss ways these companies are leveraging open government data, information tools, and other innovations to improve the resilience of the U.S. and global food system and reduce the contributions of food production to climate change, the White House announced early today.
The companies at the White House meeting include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Mars Inc., Monsanto, the Climate Corporation, Nestlé, the Kellogg Company and Walmart.
The meeting appears to be in conjunction with the release at 6 a.m. of a White House paper on climate changes that emphasizes the costs of waiting for action.
John Podesta, the counselor to the president, said Monday that companies would announce commitments on addressing climate change, and a White House fact sheet lists those commitments. The groups meeting at the White House today do not include farm groups, and it would appear that some of the commitments that corporations are making would put more pressure on farmers and other suppliers to be more efficient in their uses of water and energy. (See link.)
In addition, the White House also announced that on Wednesday the Agriculture Department will host two workshops, one with young and beginning farmers and another with food distributors, to spur the development of information-technology tools that can help farmers and those in the food supply chain to prepare for climate-change impacts.
Also, on Thursday, USDA and New York University’s Governance Lab (GovLab) will host an event in Washington focused on food resilience and climate change, as well as preparedness for food emergencies. The event will encourage dialogue between government agencies and the businesses and organizations that use their data, in support of the goals of President Barack Obama’s Climate Data Initiative.
And next Tuesday, concurrent with the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington, the government, IBM, and partners of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative will host an event focused on developing technological innovations based on open data that can help address global food security and nutrition in Africa.
▪ White House — Fact Sheet: Empowering America’s Agricultural Sector and Strengthening Food Resilience through the President’s Climate Data Initiative
▪ — The Cost of Delaying Action to Stem Climate Change
▪ ClimateData.gov
The companies at the White House meeting include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Mars Inc., Monsanto, the Climate Corporation, Nestlé, the Kellogg Company and Walmart.
The meeting appears to be in conjunction with the release at 6 a.m. of a White House paper on climate changes that emphasizes the costs of waiting for action.
John Podesta, the counselor to the president, said Monday that companies would announce commitments on addressing climate change, and a White House fact sheet lists those commitments. The groups meeting at the White House today do not include farm groups, and it would appear that some of the commitments that corporations are making would put more pressure on farmers and other suppliers to be more efficient in their uses of water and energy. (See link.)
In addition, the White House also announced that on Wednesday the Agriculture Department will host two workshops, one with young and beginning farmers and another with food distributors, to spur the development of information-technology tools that can help farmers and those in the food supply chain to prepare for climate-change impacts.
Also, on Thursday, USDA and New York University’s Governance Lab (GovLab) will host an event in Washington focused on food resilience and climate change, as well as preparedness for food emergencies. The event will encourage dialogue between government agencies and the businesses and organizations that use their data, in support of the goals of President Barack Obama’s Climate Data Initiative.
And next Tuesday, concurrent with the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington, the government, IBM, and partners of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative will host an event focused on developing technological innovations based on open data that can help address global food security and nutrition in Africa.
▪ White House — Fact Sheet: Empowering America’s Agricultural Sector and Strengthening Food Resilience through the President’s Climate Data Initiative
▪ — The Cost of Delaying Action to Stem Climate Change
▪ ClimateData.gov