This year we’ve joined forces with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists to present The Wentworth Talks, a series of free bi-monthly presentations and panel discussions at The Wharf led by guest speakers addressing a wide range of topics relating to climate change and the environment.
Our third talk has just been confirmed, and we encourage you to get in early and book your seats by calling the STC Box Office on (02) 9250 1777 or clicking here.
The Wentworth Talks: Dr John Williams
Can We Secure Our Food Whilst Maintaining Our Environment?
As world population continues to expand, projected demand for food will require agricultural and fisheries production to double over the next fifty years.
Whilst this is a huge call for food production to be increased substantially, the more demanding challenge is to make these huge increases while decreasing detrimental impacts on natural resources and the environment.
To avoid a global food crisis without further and increased damage to the environment, at a time of rising costs for energy within a specter of climate change, we need substantial reform to agricultural and natural resources sciences, coupled with a major injection of both national and international investment.
This urgent need to give priority attention to food production whilst maintaining the quality of the resource base from which it is produced is perhaps one of the greatest scientific challenges ahead and certainly one that has apparently slipped from our gaze.
Dr John Williams is a long-time advocate of the need for Australia to adopt land use practices that are both productive and sustainable in terms of resource use and impact on the environment, and has published extensively on the nature of agriculture as part of the natural ecosystem. Dr Williams was Chief and Deputy Chief of CSIRO Land and Water since its inception in 1997 until he retired from CSIRO in 2004. John lead, with Dr Phil Price, the LWRRDC/CSIRO Program "Redesign of Agriculture for the Australian Landscape", which explored and set down some robust principles in the search for solutions to the fundamental causes of land degradation under current agricultural practice. His advocacy of “Farming without Harming” is now finding acceptance in the progressive farming community and Landcare.
Dr Williams was the inaugural Chair of the Water Action Council for the Global Research Alliance, which brings together strategic thinking on water resources management from around the world. He was an inaugural member of the Board for CRC Irrigation Futures, previously member of Ministerial Scientific Advisory Council for NSW Department of Primary Industry, and inaugural Chief Scientist for NSW Department of Planning, Infrastructure and Natural Resources where he chaired the Board of Science and Information. Currently, Dr Williams is Commissioner of the NSW Natural Resources Commission (NRC). In addition to his part-time role as NRC Commissioner, Dr Williams is a member of the Commission for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Scientific Advisor to the Board for Landcare Australia Limited, Chair of the Science Advisory Council to Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre and Chair of Advisory Board to The Commonwealth Environmental Research Fund’s Landscape Logic Hub.
