In case you weren’t able to make it to New School last week for our Educated Eater panel discussion, Regional Farming in a Changing Climate, a video of the event is available below. Farmer Keith Stewart of Keith’s Farm, Sonali McDermaid of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Beatriz Beckford, New School faculty member, joined GrowNYC’s FARMroots director Challey Comer to talk about the impacts of the changing climate on regional agriculture, here in the northeast, globally, and how these changes effect our food security as city residents.

"Winners and losers, start to develop globally," said McDermaid, of farmers who are already being severly impacted by climate change. "A rethinking of how we define our markets is in order. Farmers need options. When you don't have options, you can't compete. And when you can't compete, you become disadvantaged in the global market."

"We do things that are insurance against these large scale climate events. Organic farmers grow diversified crops, so we don't have all of our eggs in one basket," noted Stewart. He also said, "We need to take farm preservation seriously. I think the city needs to start thinking not just about its water shed, but about its food shed."

Watch their full conversation below, and join us for the next Educated Eater on November 7, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at The International Culinary Center. We’ll be discussing the future of dairy farming in the Northeast.