BERKELEY - President Janet Napolitano announced a major University of California initiative intended to marshal resources across the UC system to address global challenges related to food.

Napolitano noted that by the year 2025, the world’s population will grow by another billion people. Already, she said, 1 billion people go to bed hungry every night, while another half billion suffer from obesity.

“Our goal is far-reaching,” Napolitano said. “It is to do all we can to help the world learn to feed itself in ways that are healthy and sustainable in the use of resources.

The initiative’s reach, Napolitano said, will be both external and internal, on campuses, among faculty and students, in research labs and in communities through UC outreach. It will build on efforts already under way. It will identify best practices and share them widely within UC, California, and, ultimately, the nation and the world.

“The idea,” she said, “is to provide the intellectual and technical firepower, as well as the operational examples needed for communities in California and around the world to find pathways to a sustainable food future.” (UC)

Story Date: July 8, 2014