Afton Halloran attends the Global Food Security Symposium 2015
Afton Halloran (PhD fellow at Paediatric and International Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, UCPH) has been invited to attend The Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Global Food Security Symposium 2015. She has been selected as part of a small group of The Chicago Council on Global Affair’s Next Generation Delegation, representing a new generation of emerging leaders in the global agriculture, public policy, food, health, and nutrition sectors. Afton was selected out of nearly 500 applications from students attending 252 universities in over 46 countries.
Afton Halloran, originally from Canada, graduated with honours from the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. She specialized in sustainable food systems and rural development during her Bachelor of Science. Afton completed her Master of Science in Agricultural Development in 2012, where she researched the institutionalization and legitimization of urban agriculture in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Copenhagen, Denmark. Her interests are farmers organizations, food policy, sustainable diets, rural and urban development, undervalued foods and sustainable food systems.
She is currently in the second year of her PhD research which is a part of the “GREEiNSECT: Insects for Green Economy” project funded by the Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU) of the Danish International Development Agency, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark. Her project is titled “the Socio-economic, nutritional and environmental impacts of cricket farming in Northeastern Thailand and Western Kenya.” Understanding the role that cricket production systems play in the local food system is essential in determining their overall sustainability. The objective of this project is to obtain a more systemic understanding of insect production systems and the relevant actors in their value chain.
About the Symposium:
Global Food Security Symposium discusses the US government's and international community’s progress on addressing global food and nutrition security. The Global Food Security Symposium 2015 will address food systems for improved health. The symposium will also be the platform for the release of a new Chicago Council study recommending ways the United States can leverage its research institutions, deploy development and trade tools, and engage with business to improve health and nutrition globally.
Read more about the Symposium here.