Karen Seto: Hidden Linkages between Urbanization and Food Systems

From croplands to landfills, urban systems co-evolve with food systems. Rapidly urbanizing regions must systematically contend with agricultural land loss, increased meat consumption, diet diversification, and shifting patterns of food access and storage. Guest speaker Karen Seto will join for a joint Environmental Policy and Planning/Sam Tak Lee discussion on how urbanization science and urban planning can inform debates over food security and sustainability.

Karen Seto is the Associate Dean of Research, Director of Doctoral Studies, and a Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is an established leader in the area of urbanization and global change, with experience founding, chairing, and researching for groups such as Urbanization and Global Environmental Change, International Human Dimensions Programme, Future Earth, the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, the US National Research Council Committee to Advise U.S. Global Change Research Program, the NRC Committee on Pathways to Urban Sustainability, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Karen was the executive producer of 10,000 Shovels: Rapid Urban Growth in China, a documentary integrating multiple mediums and tools to highlight urban changes in China.