There is growing concern that Global Environmental Change (GEC) will further complicate achieving food security, particularly for more vulnerable sections of society. There is also concern that meeting society's rising demand for food will further degrade the environment which may, in turn, further undermine the food systems on which food security is based.

These issues are the focus of the international, interdisciplinary research project "Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS)" which is aimed at determining strategies to cope with the impacts of GEC on food systems and assessing the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of adaptive responses aimed at improving food security.

This conference will bring together the research and policy communities addressing food security, environmental change and food policy to promote wider international discussion on these issues and to progress the joint development of adaptation options by:

- Presenting and discussing research on GEC, food security and food systems, and decision support dialogues from the broad international community.
- Presenting and discussing findings from conceptual and regional research supported by the GECAFS project.
- Bringing together scientists and policy makers from diverse backgrounds to forge new partnerships.

Call for Papers
The conference will be comprised of plenary sessions by invited keynote speakers supplemented by parallel sessions of contributed oral communications and workshops further exploring the following main themes of the conference:

- Concepts and methods for research on food systems, vulnerability and adaptation, scenarios and decision support
- Regional research from the Indo-Gangetic Plain, Southern Africa, The Caribbean, Europe and elsewhere
- The development agenda and policy processes regarding GEC and food security
- Emerging issues and frameworks for analysis and policy development of adaptation options for food systems to GEC

Abstracts are invited for oral and poster presentation on the conference themes and should be submitted via the Conference Website by 31 October 2007.