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Joel K. Bourne Jr.  

Author, Award-Winning Journalist & Consultant for Documentary Films & TV

Joel Bourne is an award-winning journalist and frequent contributor to National Geographic. As a former senior editor for the magazine, he's covered major environmental issues, including the global food crisis of 2008, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and California's recurrent water woes. With a degree in agronomy, Bourne frequently reports on the global food system. Most recently he contributed two articles to National Geographic's ground-breaking eight-part series, "The Future of Food," reporting on the agricultural land rush in Africa, as well as new sustainable methods of aquaculture being practiced around the world. His new book, The End of Plenty: the Race to Feed a Crowded World, (W.W. Norton, June 2015) is an in-depth exploration of the future of food and ways we can feed the world without destroying it.

Bourne has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including CNN's American Morning, CNN International, the National Geographic Channel and the Diane Rehm Show. Prior to his tenure at National Geographic, Bourne's work appeared in National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Audubon, Science, Outside and many other publications. He lives in Wilmington , North Carolina.

Speech Topics


The Expensive Cost of Cheap Oil

As the easy oil dwindles and the price at the pump continues to rise, the push to explore for oil in deeper, or icier, or more dangerous waters is relentless. Bourne has been on the front lines of the oil wars with researchers and roughnecks, and brings to the discourse an authoritative, science-based perspective on the environmental and social impacts of this quest as well as a peek at more sustainable solutions.

Biofuels—the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Not long ago, biofuels were all the rage—proponents were saying that homegrown fuel was going to wean us off foreign oil, help cure climate change, and ignite our moribund rural economy. Other researchers called it a total waste of the nation’s tax dollars and food resources. Bourne explores the heavily subsidized corn-ethanol industry of the U.S., its trickle down impact on food exports to hungrier nations, and the next generation of biofuels that have the potential to restore some balance to the system.

Not So Many Fish in the Sea

The world’s oceans—once thought to be a virtually limitless resource for healthy protein—now contain only 10 percent of their predatory species. Nearly every major fish stock is either depleted or on the verge of collapse as we eat ourselves down the food chain. Bourne, who has spent decades researching the issue, shares the latest advances in aquaculture.

The End of Plenty

There are more than a billion people on the planet today that do not have enough to eat—more than at any other time in human history. Join Bourne as he explores some of the brightest ideas being considered in response to this crisis.

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