 Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, economic, and social access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to lead active and healthy lives. You know, when we talk about global food security and climate, I'm really proud of the steps that have been taken the last seven years to equip American producers to be able to meet the challenge of a world population that will continue to grow. The need for more food, and to do it in a way in which we can deal with the adverse consequences of a changing climate. The greater the changes in climate, the greater effects on food security, and the greater effects on food systems. We've had a tendency in the past to only focus on how climate affects the growth of crops, how will climate change affect the yield of a crop, and can we take steps to adapt to those changes? And the story is so much more extensive, from the farm where food is produced, all the way through how it's stored, how it's processed, how it's transported, and ultimately how it's made available for us to consume. Climate change will affect global food security in two major ways. The first way is a direct impact of climate on agricultural production all around the world, which will then reduce the amount of food available, increasing prices. The second major way is through the global food system. Each of those elements may be very vulnerable to climate. So for production, changes in temperature, changes in precipitation, pests and disease can have a tremendous impact. Sea level rise and storm surge can have a profound effect on port function and grain storage and the ability of container ships to dock in different places, both in the United States but on the other end as well where food might be exported. All of that is a relatively complicated chain that is best examined as a system. And when climate changes occur, they will affect all of those lakes in the chain. Adaptation to climate change is changing the way you do things in order to lessen the impacts of climate change. For example, farmers can change the way they manage their crops. Irrigation is another adaptation measure that can have a positive impact, but it depends on the availability of water. But there are also biophysical limits. There are some temperatures that are just too hot for crops to grow. The good news is that there are a lot of adaptation options. The bad news is that adaptation capacity is closely tied to wealth. The wealthier a society is, the more capacity it has to adapt. The poorer a society is, the less capacity it has to invest in adaptation. It's important to recognize that adaptation potential has limits. Is climate change inevitable? Is it something that we can in some way influence? Yes and yes. For any given level of climate change that we might experience in the future, the impacts of that climate change can be made a lot worse or a lot better depending on the conditions of society. How vast population might grow, how much incomes might rise around the world, how fast technology might develop, how the nature of agriculture might change. All of these factors influence food security. And so considering a range of possible alternative futures is the best way we have of planning responses that would make sense however the future unfolds. Climate change is likely to be detrimental for global food security, but there's a lot more to it than that. Climate change will affect food security outcomes in ways that matter for the U.S. They'll matter for U.S. producers and they'll matter for U.S. consumers just as they matter for producers and consumers all around the globe. I think the fundamental responsibility of the U.S. is to lead and then because of our great university systems we are in a position to do a lot of research to be able to identify ways in which we can really move the dial. We've seen extraordinary productivity increases in the U.S. despite a changing climate. We need to share that information. We need to continue to be at the cutting edge of agricultural research and we need to do it in a sustainable way. So a lot of fronts where the U.S. has I think a leadership responsibility and duty.