25
Feb
Greening the Community Conference Update, New $25 Registration Rate
(Beyond Pesticides, February 25, 2010) To include more grassroots activists and community members in Greening the Community: Green economy, organic environments and healthy people, Beyond Pesticides announced a new $25 “recession rate.” The conference, Beyond Pesticides’ 28th National Pesticide Forum, will be held April 9-10 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. To take advantage of the reduced registration, register online today.
We are also pleased to announce exciting additions to our speaker list including: journalist, author, democracy and environmental activist Harvey Wasserman; ecologist, ecological engineer and 2004 Stockholm Water Prize laureate William Mitsch, PhD; and several others. These speakers join Jeff Moyer, organic farming and gardening expert with the Rodale Institute; Melinda Hemmelgarn, award-winning “Food Sleuth” journalist who encourages people “think beyond their plates”; David Hackenberg, beekeeper who first discovered colony collapse disorder; Canadian organizers who played a key role in the effort that banned cosmetic pesticide use in Ontario in 2009; and, cutting-edge scientists focusing on endocrine disruption, cancer, learning disabilities, and the link between birth defects and season of conception.
Harvey Wasserman is a journalist, author, democracy activist and environmental advocate. He is author of a dozen books, including Solartopia! Our Green Powered Earth. Harvey helped found the communal/organic Montague Farm, now home to the Zen Peacemaker Community. He also co-founded the Great Blue Heron Alliance and numerous other grassroots groups which, among other things, shutdown a trash-burning power plant, stopped a regional radioactive waste dump in Ohio, shut a McDonald’s, and saved the city of Bexley’s Jeffrey Park. Read recent entries at the Huffington Post, including this post on what the U.S. must do to go truly green.
William Mitsch, PhD is an ecosystem ecologist and ecological engineer who was co-laureate of the 2004 Stockholm Water Prize as a result of a career in wetland ecology and restoration, ecological engineering, and ecological modeling. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State University and director of the University’s Olentangy River Wetland Research Park. Dr. Mitsch played a key role in the development of the field of ecological engineering as an author of the first book on this subject and the founder and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Ecological Engineering.
The Forum will begin Friday afternoon with a tour of the Cleveland Botanical Garden, with sessions officially starting Friday at 5:30pm, and will conclude Saturday at 10:30pm. Founded in 1930, Cleveland Botanical Garden is now made up of 20 exquisite specialty gardens and exotic indoor biomes. The Garden’s community involvement extends beyond its 10 acres into city neighborhoods through its Green Corps program, which has enlightened area youth with the opportunities of urban farming. Please RSVP to attend this tour.
We hope that you are able to join us at this important event to discuss the latest information on pesticides and alternatives, meet scientists and community leaders, and network with other activists working to change policies at the local, state and national levels. Register online and download the Forum flyer to help promote Greening the Community.
