Insights from the Past Can Inform the Future

My name is Emma, I am an environmental scientist, plant nutritional specialist, paleoecologist and archaeobotanist from Ireland, working in Ireland, the Netherlands and the US. My research sits at the intersection between ecology, environmental sustainability, agriculture, diet, plant science and environmental archaeology. I advocate for agricultural innovation, food education, and am particularly interested in crop science.

We are in the midst of a climate and food crisis. Consumer knowledge is vital to future food security, therefore we urgently need a wider understanding of where our food comes and how it is produced. I wish to advocate for food education, address misconceptions regarding food production, and inform on sustainable farming methods. I am especially interested in where our food has come from and how it has evolved over the course of history. It is my belief that we can use perspectives from the domestication process of crop plants over time and past agricultural methods, indigenous knowledge, and nature-based solutions, to achieve a truly sustainable method of agriculture now, to solve issues of biodiversity loss and climate-mediated change in the future, and build dynamic rural economies. This is especially true in developing countries where farming is a means to fight poverty and empower people – women in particular – to be more financially stable and aid them in the process of self-determination.

I will talk about the science, the soil, the wider environment, the tools and policies that dictate modern farming and food production, and the people and institutions that are central to the sector. I urgently advocate for comprehensive food education, particularly in schools, so that the next generation can make the informed, difficult, decisions about food resources that they will have no choice but to make- for all the world.

Contact

emmajdevereux@ecofooddev.com