Across sub-Saharan Africa, small farmers are the bedrock of national and regional economies—unless the weather proves unpredictable and their crops fail. The solution is insurance, at a vast, continental scale, and at a very low, affordable cost. Rose Goslinga and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture pioneered an unconventional wa...

Pamela Ronald studies the genes that make plants more resistant to disease and stress. In an eye-opening talk, she describes her decade-long quest to isolate a gene that allows rice to survive prolonged flooding. She shows how the genetic improvement of seeds saved the Hawaiian papaya crop in the 1990s — and makes the case that modern genetics i...

Embracing both genetically improved seed and ecologically based farming methods, Pamela Ronald aims to enhance sustainable agriculture.

Aruna Rangachar Pohl is an expert in creating systems to green economies, conserve environments and foster sustainable agriculture.

TED Studies, created in collaboration with Wiley, are curated video collections — supplemented by rich educational materials — for students, educators and self-guided learners. In Reworking the Western Diet, speakers examine how that diet — processed, high in refined sugars, and heavy in corn, soy, meat and dairy — is making us and the environme...

TED Fellow Su Kahumbu is working to improve farmer livelihoods and contribute to nutritional security and environmental sustainability.

Fahad Al-Attiya's job is to maintain food security in Qatar, a country that has no water and imports 90 percent of its food.

Jessica Whitaker Allen champions regenerative agriculture to streamline farming practices for her constituency and secure land resources for the future.

About 10,000 years ago, humans began to farm. This agricultural revolution was a turning point in our history and enabled the existence of civilization. Today, nearly 40 percent of our planet is farmland. Spread all over the world, these lands are the pieces to a global puzzle we're all facing: in the future, how can we feed every member of a gr...

Agriculture is key to solving the climate crisis, but most farmers don’t have the financial incentive to switch to more eco-friendly practices, says banker and farmer Berry Marttin. He explores how improving the systems around carbon and biodiversity credits could bolster the economic viability of a green transition, offering hope for a world in...

Our food systems have not been designed to adapt to major disruptions like climate change, says environmental journalist Amanda Little. In this eye-opening talk, she shows how the climate crisis could devastate our food supply -- and introduces us to the farmers, entrepreneurs and engineers who are radically rethinking what we grow and how we ea...

Black Label Movement is an explosively physical Minneapolis dance company.

Farming feeds all of us -- yet in rural communities, farmers are under pressure from mounting climate volatility and limited access to modern tools like the internet. How can agriculture stay resilient and grow with the times? Beth Ford, CEO of the farming co-op Land O'Lakes, shares her plan to establish broadband as a basic right nationwide and...

About this event: Ideas Worth Spreading! TEDxUW-Green Bay will travel to Theatre on the Bay located at the Herbert L. Williams Theatre on UW-Green Bay’s Marinette Campus for its fourth annual event. This year’s presentations include Sustainable Agriculture, Standing Out at Work, Healthcare and more.

Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu. With impeccable research and deadpan humor, he chronicles his pursuit of a sustainable fish he could love, and the foodie's honeymoon he's enjoyed since discovering an outrageously delicious fish raised using a revolutionary farming method in Spain.

Could the key to a sustainable food system already be growing in the world’s farms? Plant scientist Giles E.D. Oldroyd explores how a special quirk of soybean plants allows them to naturally partner with networks of fungi and bacteria to access essential nutrients in the air and soil — eliminating the need for synthetic fertilizers. He shows how...

About this event: This conference theme embraces a holistic view of sustainability--not just the importance of environmental & climate factors, but all ideas that take us to a future world in which everyone can live comfortably within the planetary boundaries. Our featured 2023 conference talks touch on the themes of mental health & compassion, growing au...

Through the forest restoration initiative Restore Local, Wanjira Mathai is working to catalyze the flourishing of both Africa's people and its landscapes.

About this event: This event brings together students from schools in New Mexico to talk about issues important to them. Our event is in its fourth year, and includes students from Albuquerque Academy, Bosque School, and Sandia Preparatory School. Presentations run the gamut between ideas for supporting sustainable agriculture to starting a business, to issues ...

Genetic engineering and organic farming are often set up in opposition to one another. After all, how could one agricultural practice that eschews any influence other than Nature coexist with another that is cultivated in a lab? Well, in the household of Pam Ronald (TED Talk: The case for engineering our food) and Raoul Adamchak, they live toget...

A skyrocketing demand for food means that agriculture has become the largest driver of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental destruction. Jonathan Foley shows why we desperately need to begin "terraculture" -- farming for the whole planet.

How does a biscuit make it from the farm to your plate? Sustainable development leader Aruna Rangachar Pohl unpacks the long journey of one of India's most beloved snacks, revealing how the current industrial farming model is eating the planet. Learn about the foundation she started to promote eco-friendly agricultural practices — and hear the s...

Many people across the world don't have access to healthy food -- while in other places tons of food go to waste. Social entrepreneur Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli thinks we can take bold steps to fix this problem. She lays out what it would take to build a more equitable, sustainable food system that nourishes all people and asks us to widen our perspe...

Bees have been rapidly and mysteriously disappearing from rural areas, with grave implications for agriculture. But bees seem to flourish in urban environments -- and cities need their help, too. Noah Wilson-Rich suggests that urban beekeeping might play a role in revitalizing both a city and a species.

Chika Esiobu wants to see Africans unleash their suppressed creative and innovative energies by acknowledging the significance of their indigenous, authentic knowledge. In this powerful talk, she shares examples of untapped, traditional African knowledge in agriculture and policy-making, calling on Africans to make progress by validating and dig...

There's something amazing growing in the city of Detroit: healthy, accessible, delicious, fresh food. In a spirited talk, fearless farmer Devita Davison explains how features of Detroit's decay actually make it an ideal spot for urban agriculture. Join Davison for a walk through neighborhoods in transformation as she shares stories of opportunit...

Jacqueline Novogratz shares stories of how "patient capital" can bring sustainable jobs, goods, services -- and dignity -- to the world's poorest.

About this event: Our era is often said to be a time of rapid technological change, but at the same time we are facing changes that are equally dramatic. Our communities, both locally and globally face many challenges today when it comes to social matters, politics, health, sustainable consumption, global warming or sustainable agriculture to name just a few. Sol...

Fresh food free of chemicals and pesticides is hard to come by in China: in 2016, the Chinese government revealed half a million food safety violations in just nine months. In the absence of safe, sustainable food sources, TED Fellow Matilda Ho launched China's first online farmers market, instituting a zero-tolerance test towards pesticides, an...