Vice-Chairman of the Miami City Commission, Ken Russell was re-elected for a second term in November 2019 and is currently running for US Senate. He is an avid advocate for solutions to climate change. After realizing the need for action within his own community, he stepped forward and began a life in politics. With passions centered around nature, such as professional kite surfing and woodworking, Commissioner Russell realized the importance of using political power to impact the environment in a lasting and positive way.

During his time in the Miami City Commission, he spearheaded the clean-up of Biscayne Bay, addressed sea-level rise and storm surge mitigation, and structured and campaigned for the Miami Forever Bond, which provides $100M in affordable housing and $200M for sea-level rise resiliency.

In this episode, Commissioner Russell addresses how he got started, shares his successes and challenges, and outlines future plans for addressing climate change in the current partisan political climate.

Join VoLo Foundation for the 4th Annual Climate Correction™ conference in Orlando, FL. This event focused on food systems and the agricultural processes that will not only feed populations into the next generation but provide ecological solutions to our climate crisis. Learn from farmers, home growers, and business leaders working to sustain our food systems.

The 2022 Climate Correction™ conference was set to be a net-zero event. VoLo Foundation partnered with the environmental nonprofit We Are Neutral to reduce and offset the event's comprehensive carbon footprint.

Climate change and its potential effects can increase uncertainty about how our food systems will adjust to new and changing conditions. In this session, four UF professors highlight transformative research to build an adaptive and thriving agricultural sector into the future. Lessons from Florida and across the globe can teach us to work with nature and build resilient agroecosystems that resist, recover and adapt to a surprising and dynamic world.

Speakers:

• Gregory Kiker - University of Florida, Professor and Graduate Coordinator
• Gbola Adesogan - University of Florida, Director, Food Systems Institute and Director, Livestock Systems Innovation Lab
• Yiannis Ampatzidis - Associate Professor, University of Florida
• Ziynet Boz - University of Florida

A conversation on climate, food and equity with Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy and Rod Braun, Florida Climate Strategy Director, The Nature Conservancy.

Rep. Kathy Castor (FL-14) is the chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which unveiled its 500-plus-page Climate Crisis Action Plan in 2020 to give Congress a roadmap for solving the climate crisis. Castor is a longtime national leader on protecting the environment and finding climate solutions. In 2019, she was the lead sponsor of the Climate Action Now Act (H.R. 9), the first major climate bill to pass the House of Representatives in a decade. She started her professional career enforcing environmental and growth management laws in Florida, helping protect the state's coastline, wetlands and endangered species. A Democrat, Castor was first elected in 2006, when she became the first woman to represent the Tampa Bay area in Congress.

Introducing We Are Neutral and explaining Climate Correction's commitment to carbon neutrality. Offsetting your carbon footprint shouldn't be a one-time transaction. It's not meant to be a guilt-free write-off, but rather one piece of a much larger puzzle.

Britt Groosman is Vice President of Climate-Smart Agriculture at Environmental Defense Fund, where she helps create environmentally effective and economically sound solutions for working landscapes, including farms, ranches and forests. Her experience spans from reducing deforestation in Brazil to low carbon rural development in India.

This distinguished panel discussed the growing role for Florida's farms, ranches, and woodlands in delivering high value and scalable solutions to climate change and other pressing global sustainable development goals.

• Ernie Shea, President, Solutions from the Land, outlined the work underway in the Florida Climate Smart Agriculture Initiative and moderated the session.

• Jim Strickland, Owner, Strickland Ranch, discussed climate smart agriculture (CSA) systems and practices Florida ranchers are deploying to maintain sustainability, improve resilience and reduce GHG emissions.

• Dr. Maria Lucia Silveira, Professor, Soil and Water Quality, University of Florida, shared research on nutrient management strategies that result in optimum forage production and profitability, while protecting Florida water resources.

• Dr. Carlos Messina, Professor, Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, discussed the evolving role of artificial intelligence in measuring and monitoring the delivery of ecosystem services from farms, ranches, and forests.
• Fred Yoder, Co-Chair, Solutions from the Land, provided global context outlining CSA enabling policies, programs and investments evolving across the world.

Chris Castro is a renowned public official serving as the Senior Advisor to Orlando Mayor, Buddy Dyer, Director of Sustainability & Resilience, and "Future-Ready" steering committee member at the City of Orlando.

In his role, Chris works to advance a comprehensive set of policies & programs that has turned Orlando into one of the leading cities in America accelerating sustainability, resiliency, and climate action.

Hops, an essential ingredient of beer, are a perennial crop adapted to temperate climates, with more than 90% of production occurring in the Pacific Northwest. Shinsuke Agehara, Professor, University of Florida, shares how they are evaluating the adaptive capacity of hops to Florida's humid subtropical climate through cultivar selection, breeding, environmental manipulation, and optimization of crop management practices.