Global warming will have a direct impact on crop yield levels and variability, causing international agricultural markets to become increasingly volatile. Professor Naylor will discuss how rising growing-season temperatures in tropical and temperate regions will likely lead to grain yield declines, globally synchronized production shocks, and more widespread agricultural pest infestations. These combined shocks, even if they occur in high-productivity temperate areas, will influence trade, global food prices, and food security, particularly among the world’s poorest populations who spend the majority of their incomes on food. Naylor, who is trained in economics, will also examine how government policies aimed at stabilizing domestic food prices in a world of volatile production could further destabilize international grain markets.

Roz Naylor is the William Wrigley Professor of Earth Systems Science, Professor (by courtesy) in Economics, and Founder of the Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE) at Stanford University. She is a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford. Naylor received her PhD from Stanford University in applied economics, her Masters in economics from the London School of Economics, and her Bachelors degree(s) in economics and environmental science from the University of Colorado. Her research focuses on policies and practices to improve global food security and protect the environment. She works on issues related to agriculture, livestock, aquaculture, and fisheries, as well as on policy and market forces that drive change in these industries. Her work also focuses on the role of climate variability and climate change on food security. Naylor and her students have field research projects in several countries throughout the world. In addition to her many peer-reviewed papers, Naylor has recently published two new books on her work: The Evolving Sphere of Food Security (Naylor, ed., 2014), and The Tropical Oil Crops Revolution: Food, Farmers, Fuels, and Forests (Byerlee, Falcon, and Naylor, 2017). She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Aspen Global Change Institute and serves on advisory boards for Oceana, The Nature Conservancy (California chapter), and the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program. Professor Naylor loves interacting with students at Stanford and teaches courses on “The World Food Economy”, “Human Society and Environmental Change”, and "Food and Security".