Following a year of volatile and rising food prices, this panel discussion with leading experts will explore the major challenges facing global food and agriculture today and examine what is required to promote a sustainable global food system that provides food security for all.

Panelists include Anuradha Mittal, Founder and Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, a leading think-tank on global food and development issues; Alex McCalla, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis; and Prabhu Pingali, Deputy Director, Agricultural Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"Talk Back" will be moderated by Jennifer Clapp, CIGI Chair and Marc Cohen, International Food Policy Research Institute.

About the Speakers:

Alex McCalla

Professor of Agricultural Economics, Emeritus - University of California, Davis

Alex McCalla is best known for his research on international trade, an area in which he has published extensively. Throughout his academic career, McCalla was associated with the University of California, Davis, where he served as dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, associate director of the California Agricultural Experiment Station, and founding dean of the Graduate School of Management. He also directed the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department at the World Bank, chaired the Technical Advisory Committee of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and was a founding member and co-convenor of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.

Anuradha Mittal

Executive Director, Oakland Institute

Anuradha Mittal, a native of India, is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights and agriculture issues. After working as the co-director of Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy, Mittal established the Oakland Institute, a progressive policy think tank, in 2004. She is the author and editor of numerous articles and books including America Needs Human Rights; The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance; Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation; and most recently of Food And Energy Sovereignty: Brazilian Grassroots Position on Agroenergy.

Prabhu Pingali

Deputy Director, Agricultural Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Formerly Director of the Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations, from 2002-2007. Pingali was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a Foreign Fellow in May 2007. Pingali has over twenty five years of experience in analyzing food, agriculture and development policy in Asia, Africa and Latin America. An Indian national, he earned a Ph.D. in Economics from North Carolina State University in 1982.