Croft Visiting Speaker: South America as a Global Breadbasket: China, Europe and the Environmental Implications

Tuesday, October 6, 2015 - 7 p.m. - The Joseph C. Bancroft Conference Room (Croft 107) - Dr. David Cleary

On Tuesday, October 6, the Croft Institute is proud to host Dr. David Cleary. Dr. Cleary is the current director of global agriculture for The Nature Conservancy in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cleary received his doctorate in anthropology from Oxford University in 1988 and held several research posts at the universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge, and Harvard. He then moved to Brazil for four years to direct a large project assessing mercury contamination linked to gold mining in the Amazon. Dr. Cleary joined the Nature Conservancy in 1999, where he set up the Conservancy’s Amazon program. Subsequently, Cleary was based in Rio de Janeiro as director of conservation strategy for Latin America, leading work with the private sector, especially agribusiness, along with a focus on eliminating deforestation from supply chains, especially in the beef and soy industries.

Dr. Cleary returned to the United States in 2010, where he took up a new position as the Conservancy’s director of global agriculture. While in this position, he has helped the organization develop a sustainable intensification approach to food security issues. Author of several books and articles on development and environmental issues, and a frequent media commentator, he is based in Boston where he lives with his wife and three children. Dr. Cleary also maintains an active blog: http://blog.nature.org/author/dcleary/.

Co-sponsors:  Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and the Office of Sustainability.