Please note, funding has now expired and we are not taking new applications for the IGERT program.

Food Systems Are Failing the World’s Poorest People

Food systems are dynamic, behavioral systems that encompass the production, distribution and consumption of food. They are characterized by complex interactions among biophysical, socioeconomic, political and technological subsystems; these in turn are influenced by factors such as climate change, degradation of natural resources, rapid urbanization and increasing globalization, amongst others. Currently, food systems are failing the world’s poorest people.

Interdisciplinary Tools for Combating the Problem

The Cornell Food Systems and Poverty Reduction IGERT is an interdisciplinary, two year Traineeship made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Its objective is to provide a new generation of natural and social scientists, policymakers, development practitioners, and educators with the conceptual and methodological tools needed to understand how inter-linkages and feedback loops among the subsystems can interact to perpetuate extreme poverty.

Towards Managing Food Systems For Poverty Reduction

Better preparing graduates to conduct scientifically sound, systems-based research will spur the development of food system interventions and strategies to reduce poverty.