Nourishing a Healthy Future: The Role of Irrigation in a Changing World

Sustainable, healthy diets are essential for improving human health. Irrigation plays an increasingly important role in supporting greater access to varied and nutritious diets, particularly by enabling the production and supply of fruits, vegetables and animal-source foods—key contributors in the affordability of healthy diets. This presentation explores the key linkages between irrigation and healthy diets and highlights opportunities and challenges to improving irrigation’s role in nourishing a healthier future amid growing competition over water resources and other constraints. Claudia Ringler, PhD, director of natural resources and resilience at the International Food Policy Research Institute, will deliver a keynote speech. A moderated panel will follow and include Abbie Raikes, MPH, PhD, director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Center for Global Health and Development; and Brandon Hunnicutt, a fifth-generation Nebraska farmer and chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board. Jesse Bell, PhD, director of water, climate and health at the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, will moderate the panel discussion.