Reset The Table

The President of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Alvaro Lario, joins CSIS Global Food and Water Security Program Director Catilin Welsh to discuss the outcomes of recent milestone meetings for agricultural development financing, and how momentum from these events can help carry IFAD’s priorities into COP28. President Lario and Director Welsh explore t...

In our first episode of Reset the Table season 3, Dr. Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), sits down with CSIS Global Food and Water Security Program Director Caitlin Welsh to explore food systems approaches to today’s challenges to food security and nutrition. Dr. Haddad discusses the interconnected relationships between water, nutrition, and a...

Caroline Smith DeWaal, Deputy Director of EatSafe at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), joins Caitlin Welsh to discuss the centrality of food safety to food and nutrition security, and how it is often overlooked in global food policy frameworks. Ms. DeWaal explains how EatSafe became a Feed the Future project addressing food safety in traditional food markets in Ethiopia and Nigeri...

Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director of the UN FAO Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, and Anna Herforth, Senior Research Associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Principal Investigator of the Global Diet Quality Project, join Caitlin Welsh on this episode of Reset the Table. Dr. Phillips explains the growing gap between food insecurity among women and me...

Jo Puri, Vice President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) sits down with GFSP Director Caitlin Welsh to discuss IFAD’s priorities ahead of COP27. Ms. Puri explains how the UN agency measures its investments' impacts on indicators such as resilience, economic mobility, and nutrition in the rural communities it serves. Ms. Welsh an...

Kimberly Flowers, GFSP Senior Associate (Non-resident), sits down with Ertharin Cousin, CEO of Food Systems for the Future, former Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, to discuss the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health held in over 50 years. The White House Conference resulted in a Natio...

Zitouni Ould-Dada, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Deputy Director in the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment, sits down with GFSP Director Caitlin Welsh to discuss the potential of agri-food systems to offer solutions to the climate change and biodiversity crises. Mr. Ould-Dada explains the FAO’s new Strategy on Climate Change 2022-2031 and offers insights on i...

Senior Research Fellows at the International Food Policy Research Institute, Joseph Glauber and David Laborde, join GFSP director Caitlin Welsh to discuss the Russia-Ukraine War’s impact on global agricultural markets, food prices, and food security. Mr. Glauber, also a Senior Adviser (Non-resident) with the CSIS Global Food Security Program, and Mr. Laborde kick off the episode by explaining how...

Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital, and Fabián Gómez Gutiérrez, Founder and CEO of Frubana, sit down with GFSP director Caitlin Welsh to discuss the ways in which food tech can streamline the food supply chain to reduce food loss and waste while cutting costs for restaurants and consumers. Ms. Welsh and our guests examine how Frubana, a food tech company operating at 87,000 retailers acros...

Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, joined GFSP director Caitlin Welsh on this episode of Reset the Table to consider the role of biodiversity in securing global food supplies amid climate change, conflict, and other ongoing crises, and the role of gene banks in protecting biodiversity. Mr. Schmitz describes a visit to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a facility i...

In this episode, GFSP director Caitlin Welsh and CSIS Africa Program director Mvemba Phezo Dizolele sit down with Melodine Jeptoo, researcher and coordinator at PlantVillage. PlantVillage is a non-profit research unit that uses AI technology, satellite systems, and field work to increase the yield and profits for millions of farmers in East Africa. They discuss the drivers of food insecurity in th...

In this episode, Jacob Kurtzer, director of the CSIS Humanitarian Agenda, sits down with GFSP director Caitlin Welsh to examine the nature of humanitarian emergencies today and factors that are shaping current humanitarian responses. Mr. Kurtzer considers how the sector can shift funding towards local partners and better integrate humanitarian considerations into U.S. foreign policy and national s...

In this episode, Tom Arnold, the Irish Government's Special Envoy for Food Systems, sits down with GFSP Director Caitlin Welsh to discuss Ireland’s food-systems approach to balancing its environment, health, and food-policy priorities. Mr. Arnold reviews Ireland’s experiences with famine, the development of its agriculture sector after World War II, and the policy priorities that have shaped Irela...

Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and Rein Paulson, Director of the UN FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience, join CSIS GFSP Director Caitlin Welsh and Humanitarian Agenda Director Jacob Kurtzer to discuss how the FAO’s response to the Russia-Ukraine War has evolved since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Ms. Bechdol explains the FAO’s co...

Gabriel Rugalema, regional director of the World Vegetable Center (World Veg), joins GFSP Senior Adviser (Non-resident) Julie Howard on this episode of Reset the Table to explore the role that African youth can play in reinvigorating vegetable production and consumption worldwide. Mr. Rugalema discusses World Veg’s efforts to engage women and youth in vegetable production and nutrition promotion,...

Anders Dalsgaard (ICARS) and Paul Plummer (NIAMRRE), two experts in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), join GFSP senior associate Kimberly Flowers to explore solutions to AMR in low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Dalsgaard and Dr. Plummer share global examples of previous successes in combatting AMR but note that sustained attention to the issue, and swift action, are required to meaningfully addr...

Gregory Jaffe, director of the Project on Biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, joins Caitlin Welsh in this episode to share his expertise on biotechnology in the U.S. food system and the relevant policies surrounding bioengineered crops, commonly known as GMOs. Mr. Jaffe and Ms. Welsh discuss the public perception and misconceptions of bioengineered foods. Mr. Jaffe emph...

In this episode, Purdue’s Military Family Research Institute director Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth and CSIS Global Food Security Program director Caitlin Welsh discuss food security in the military community. Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth describes the various causes and stressors that are unique to veterans experiencing food insecurity, especially veterans living in rural areas. Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth ...

Danielle Nierenberg, president and co-founder of Food Tank, joins GFSP senior associate Kimberly Flowers this episode to examine the role of technology in food systems. The conversation explores how innovation in technology could address climate change and respond to inequity challenges in our global food and agriculture systems. To that end, Ms. Nierenberg stresses the importance of including far...

In this episode, Dr. Agnes Kalibata sits down with Kimberly Flowers, CSIS GFSP senior associate, to discuss the outcomes of the UN Food Systems Summit. As the UN secretary general’s special envoy, Dr. Kalibata provided key guidance and leadership at the summit, which was held on September 23. Dr. Kalibata explains the key issues affecting food systems that drove her to lead the summit and talks th...

FAO Senior statistician and economist Carlo Cafiero joins GFSP director Caitlin Welsh and senior associate Andrew Rzepa to examine the 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report. Dr. Cafiero, one of the authors of the report, highlights critical takeaways and explains the challenges to collecting and reporting food security data globally. Dr. Cafiero also emphasizes the i...

In the final episode of our Washington Series, Dreaming Out Loud founder and executive director Christopher Bradshaw joins GFSP program manager Eilish Zembilci to illustrate how the long history of racism and inequality in the United States influences present-day food security. Mr. Bradshaw shares the organizational priorities of Dreaming Out Loud and how his team is striving to reverse the harm o...

In the second episode of our Washington Series, Caitlin Welsh interviews Radha Muthiah, president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank, the largest hunger relief organization in the Washington metro area. Ms. Welsh and Ms. Muthiah discuss the state of food security in the region both prior to and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly how the pandemic has changed the demographic makeup of...

In this first episode of our three-part Washington Series, Washingtonian magazine food editor Jessica Sidman joins Caitlin Welsh to discuss the D.C. restaurant industry and the challenges it has faced amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Ms. Sidman comments on the resilience of D.C. restaurants and how they have adapted to the abrupt changes caused by the pandemic. Ms. Sidman and Ms. Welsh consider choices...

In this episode, guest hosts Kimberly Flowers and Jacob Kurtzer are joined by Alex DeWaal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and a Research Professor at The Fletcher School of Tufts University, to discuss the current humanitarian crisis and famine in Ethiopia. Dr. DeWaal describes the historical context that led Ethiopia to its current crisis, explaining how Ethiopia’s prior success...