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K-State Today

September 9, 2020

Virtual 2020 Urban Food Systems Symposium set for every Wednesday in October

Submitted by Kerri Ebert

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In response to COVID-19 restrictions, the 2020 Urban Food Systems Symposium: Nourishing Cities in a Changing Climate, hosted by Kansas State University and K-State Research and Extension, has been modified to an online format scheduled for each Wednesday in October from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. CDT.

Live keynote speakers will be featured each Wednesday accompanied by breakout discussions and poster sessions. Registration deadline for the virtual symposium is Sept. 18. Cost for access to all live and recorded presentations is $100 for professionals and $50 for students.

Breakout discussions each day will be led by a diverse group of presenters from across the country. Topics include community engagement, urban planning and development, food production and distribution, climate change, nutrition and food security, food policy and advocacy, economic development, and international perspectives on urban food systems.

Live keynote sessions begin with Jess Halliday, an associate of the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems on Oct. 7. The second keynote will be Oct. 14 by K-State's Chuck Rice, distinguished professor of soil microbiology. Keynoters for Oct. 21 are Karen Washington, farmer and activist with Rise & Root Farm and Black Urban Growers, and Elizabeth Mitcham, director of the  Horticulture Innovation Lab, a USAID-funded program at the University of California, Davis. The final two keynotes will be Oct. 28. First up will be co-presenters Jill Clark, associate professor in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University, and Jennifer King, assistant director of training and community education, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. Rounding out the symposium will be Mark Winne, food policy expert and former executive director of the Hartford Food System.

Registered attendees will have access to recorded breakout session presentations starting in September, to all live presentations and breakout sessions as they happen, and to recordings of all keynotes and breakouts through April 2021. Complete symposium details including breakout and keynote presentation topics are available at urbanfoodsystemssymposium.org/