Discussion on Biochar and Climate Smart Food

Biochar and Climate Smart Food: How Consumer Choice can Fix the Climate and ensure a Sustainable Future.

Biochar is charcoal used as a soil amendment. Biochar is a stable solid, rich in carbon, and can endure in soil for thousands of years. Like most charcoal, biochar is made from biomass via pyrolysis. Biochar is under investigation as an approach to carbon sequestration. Biochar thus has the potential to help mitigate climate change via carbon sequestration. Independently, biochar can increase soil fertility of acidic soils (low pH soils), increase agricultural productivity, and provide protection against some foliar and soil-borne diseases.

We will learn and have a discussion about Biochar and Climate Smart Food. Our special speaker Lloyd Helferty will talk about the various concepts around the "Climate Smart" Food Program, the relevance of this new sector designation, and why it is a necessary next step toward achieving a more sustainable food system, locally, regionally, nationally and globally. His presentation will outline the various public and private sector initiatives, programs, projects and business synergies that are either ongoing, are under development and/or that will need to be created in order to fill the gaps and meet the needs of the sector in order to develop a new sustainable and "climate friendly" food supply chain within the Food and Ag sector of the economy.

https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/3/2/0/600_461965376.jpeg

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/climatesmartfood/ , https://twitter.com/CSF_WG/@CSF_WG (https://twitter.com/CSF_WG/))

The basics of some of the existing synergies will be explored during the presentation and time for discussion of the various challenges and opportunities will be provided as it relates to how the the public, private and civil society (non-profit) sectors might be able to work together to co-create and deliver meaningful outcomes, whether it is through the development of public policy, developing civil society (non-profit) initiatives, private sector initiatives (working with business and industry) and/or through the development of new social enterprises and/or other types of related innovative entrepreneurial activities that can achieve positive environmental, social and economic outcomes via productive Agriculture and Food value chains.

https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/4/b/0/600_461930352.jpeg

(Source: http://www.biochar-international.org/sites/default/files/CHARTREE2.jpg)

Our speaker Bio: Lloyd Helferty

Lloyd serves as the Chief Ecosystem Director, Project Development Director & Sustainable Society Consultant at Energime University and is the System Leader and Sector Expert for their "Climate Smart" Platform, while also serving as the Manager of the global “Biochar Offsets Group” and as a Founding manager of the "Future Farming" group. He is an advocate for the smart and sustainable use of technology, energy conservation, renewable energy, sustainable land use, soil and nature conservation, good community design, and the re-naturalization of our towns and cities. He has been involved in supporting biochar projects in places like Mexico, Haiti, Africa, China, Taiwan, Japan and Nepal and is working toward the creation of a Biochar and Climate Smart Food educational centre in Toronto. All are examples of his many efforts and attempts at achieving some measure of sustainability both within his community and around the world.

There will also be a discussion session with the speaker and other attendees.

Fee: Sliding Scale $5 to $20 per person.

It will be collected at the event if you have a problem with the online payment. This fee will help us covering the costs of the group and organizing more great events.

Further reading:

https://ccafs.cgiar.org/climate-smart-agriculture-0#.WUKibmjyu01