Greg Barron-Gafford

Greg Barron-Gafford, the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Southwest Borderlands Food and Water Security, is an Earth System Scientist. He and his collaborators have been building the field of agrivoltaics – the co-location of an ‘understory’ of agriculture below an ‘overstory’ of renewable energy production. This is a novel way of linking the societal needs of food and energy in a way that benefits both – all while reducing dependence on irrigation. Through this agrivoltaics approach, Barron-Gafford’s team is directly targeting simultaneous sustainable development goals with a singular system. The understory gets protection from the summer sun and winter freezes, and solar panels are cooled by the transpirational water loss from plants below. Greg began this work in the borderlands of southern Arizona to study the benefits across the food-energy-water nexus. Today, he and his team are building an international network of community-driven agrivoltaic installations that creates resilience in food and water resources and brings renewable energy to many who still lack consistent and stable access. The team is connecting researchers and rural community leaders across the American Southwest, Mexico, Kenya, Tanzania, Israel, and Morocco. More recently Greg has been working with food system leaders across Arizona to coordinate climate-smart food transitions with Arizona farmers, utilizing best and new practices to grow regionally adapted foods that require less water. Working to develop science-based solutions to help people adapt to the increasing pressures that come from a changing climate is a personal and professional goal.