The Institute of Food Technologists' Brendan Niemira on Why Food Science Is Climate Science

About this episode

Brendan Niemira discusses the critical role of food science in addressing climate change and the importance of the food processing chain.

About a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the food system, but the public conversation about food and climate keeps getting stuck at the two ends of the chain — what farmers grow on one side, what consumers buy on the other. The middle of that chain — processing, packaging, distribution, storage — is where most of the practical climate levers actually live, and it is the part you almost never see. Brendan Niemira , Chief Science and Technology Officer at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), wants us to look there. Brendan spent more than 25 years at the USDA Agricultural Research Service leading a team of 30-plus scientists developing non-thermal treatments — cold plasma, high-intensity light, irradiation — that kill foodborne pathogens on produce, meat, poultry, and shellfish without cooking the food. He stepped into the IFT role on December 1, 2025, and joins Sustainability In Your Ear to walk through IFT's new white paper, Food Science & Technology Solutions for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change , which lays out a roadmap covering circular bioeconomy practices, AI-enabled supply chain resilience, reusing food waste, precision fermentation…

People in this episode

Host: Mitch Ratcliffe

Guest: Brendan Niemira

Topics covered

• food science
• climate change
• greenhouse gas emissions
• food safety
• supply chain
• circular bioeconomy

Keywords

• food science
• climate science
• greenhouse gas emissions
• food safety
• supply chain resilience
• circular bioeconomy
• food waste

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute of Food Technologists, USDA Agricultural Research Service

Books & works: Food Science & Technology Solutions for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change

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