Keynote: Eaarth; Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
Presenter: Bill McKibben, Author, Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet and
DEEP ECONOMY: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future

Bill McKibben says that global warming is no longer a philosophical threat. It’s our reality. In fact, the earth has changed so much that it merits a new name: “Eaarth.” With climate change underway, we now live on a far less hospitable planet than our ancestors, with much less diversity, vanishing ice, dying forests, encroaching deserts, acid oceans and diminishing food crops. The “cascading effects” of climate change are alarming, but do not have to be devastating, says McKibben. At the Iowa Environmental Annual Conference, McKibben will chronicle these events and demonstrate how innovative, proactive individuals and groups can and are embracing more desirable and resilient food and energy systems, and more creative and conscious ways of living.

Iowa Air Quality – Presentation Title and Description to be announced
Presenter: James A. Merchant
Merchant is one of the foremost experts on air quality in Iowa, with an emphasis on the health effects of agricultural air pollutants. His general area of study is in occupational and environmental health, with specializations in the epidemiology of lung disease, rural health, agricultural disease and injury, international health, and public and rural health policy. He served as dean of the College from 1999 to 2008. Dr. Merchant’s work has appeared in a joint study of CAFOs and air quality (2002), a Pew Charitable Trusts study of industrial meat production (2008), epidemiological research on rural health in Keokuk County (various dates), and in a study of farm children’s asthma (2005). Jim has numerous awards and recognitions for his work in pulmonary health, and he has served as an officer for several professional associations and an editor for several peer-reviewed journals.

Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy
Presenter: Mark Langgin, Campaign Manager, Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy
Iowa voters will have a historic opportunity on November 2,2010, to vote in support of a Constitutional amendment establishing a trust fund to preserve Iowa’s natural resources and outdoor recreational opportunities. Trust fund revenue will aid in conservation of agricultural soils and improve water quality and natural areas in Iowa, including parks, trails, and fish and wildlife habitat. Langgin will answer questions about the trust fund and tell us what Iowans can do to help get out the vote.

Barriers to Implementing Sustainable Farm Practices – Iowa Farmer’s Perspectives (Film)
In her book, From the Corn Belt to the Gulf, Joan Nassauer says that unintended societal and environmental costs can be avoided in the future if policymakers are able and willing to anticipate the consequences of new technologies and policies.  That means that policy advocates, like the Iowa Environmental Council, must work together with farmers and others to understand why current farm policies are not resulting in desired outcomes and how policy advocates, farmers and others can work together to support a vision for agriculture that creates robust rural livelihoods AND healthy ecosystems.  As a first step towards this goal of working together, the Iowa Environmental Council has invited five Iowa commodity crop farmers to share with us their challenges and successes when attempting to farm sustainably given current federal farm policy and under the current market pressures. This summer, farmer interviews are being recorded and made into a video presentation.

Revisioning the Corn Belt
Presenter: Joan Nassauer
Author of From the Corn Belt to the Gulf; professor at School of Natural Resources and Environment University of Michigan

Is it possible to have a healthy U.S. agricultural economy, a healthy food supply, healthy rural communities, healthy agricultural ecosystems and healthy streams? Should we have to compromise any one of these environmental and societal goods to achieve another? Can this be achieved while the United States helps to feed the world, aims to achieve greater energy independence, and trades equitably with other nations? Can agricultural landscapes be reclaimed as desirable places to live and delightful places to visit? Is each of these a legitimate goal of federal agricultural policy? Joan Nassauer addressed all these questions in her research for the book, From the Corn Belt to the Gulf, using two watersheds in Iowa as the basis for her studies. She will share what she discovered at our annual meeting in October.

Barriers to Implementing Sustainable Farm Practices – A Policy Perspective
Panel Moderator: Lois Wright Morton
Panel Members: Policy Experts to be Announced

Policy experts will share comments regarding the two previous presentations (film and Joan Nassauer’s presentation) and their thoughts about possible public policies that would support agricultural production that creates robust rural livelihoods AND healthy ecosystems.