19
May
Videos Offer Tools for Protecting Health and the Environment, Advancing Organic
(Beyond Pesticides, May 19, 2014) Beyond Pesticides is pleased to announce that videos from Advancing Sustainable Communities: People, pollinators and practices, the 32nd National Pesticide Forum, held April 11-12, 2014 in Portland, OR are now available to view online! The Forum, convened by Beyond Pesticides, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP), and Portland State University’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, and co-sponsored by local and regional organizations in the Pacific Northwest, brought together a diverse range of expertise to share the latest science and organic management techniques as the basis for urging action in communities and states. The videos cover the range of topics that were discussed at the Forum and include keynote speeches, panel discussions, and workshops. You can access the playlist, which includes all of the available videos of the 2014 forum, as well as previous years, on Beyond Pesticides’ YouTube page.
Notable presentations include:
Cultivating an Ecological Conscience, by Fred Kirschenmann. Dr. Kirschenmann is a longtime leader in sustainable agriculture, and was recently named as one of the first ten James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards which recognizes visionaries in creating more healthful, more sustainable, and safer food systems. He currently serves as both a Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, and as President of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. An author, fellow and soil scientist, he also helps manage his family’s 2600 acre organic farm in south central North Dakota.
Ecological Land Management with Goats by Lani Malmberg, who is a self-proclaimed “gypsy” goat herder, has spent her life working with goats that provide non-toxic noxious weed control, simultaneously reducing tinder for fires and building soil nutrients through fertilization. Owner of the goat grazing business Ewe4ic Ecological Services based in Lander, Wyoming, and long-time Beyond Pesticides board member, Ms. Malmberg has been working toward organic land management practices through goat herding since 1997 when she bought her first hundred head of cashmere goats. Now she has more than 2,000 head of goats and has had federal contracts with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service.
The Rise of Systemic Insecticides: What does it mean for agriculture, pollinators, and the environment at large? by Pierre Mineau, PhD, principal senior scientist at Pierre Mineau Consulting, Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Mineau is a world renowned environmental toxicologist who co-wrote the report,The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds.
Protecting Children from Pesticide Exposure, by James Roberts, MD, lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ landmark policy statement and report on the effects of pesticide exposure in children. Dr. Roberts is professor of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston, SC.
Also included are several workshops, including, Organic Land Management: Practical tools and techniques, Pesticides and Health: An In-depth Discussion, Social Justice in Sustainable Agriculture, and Protecting the Watershed. Be sure to visit the full playlist to see the rest of the videos.
While Beyond Pesticides encourages activists, community leaders, scientists, and policy makers to attend its annual National Pesticide Forum in person to get together, share information, and elevate the pesticide reform movement, the new online videos of many of the Forum’s sessions make a similar contribution for those unable to attend. Beyond Pesticides believes that sharing this information beyond the Forum as an educational and organizing tool will prove extremely valuable, and encourages readers of the Daily News blog to share the presentations with friends, community organizations, networks, and state and local decision makers.
The playlist, which includes all of the available videos of the 2014 Forum, as well as previous conferences are available on Beyond Pesticides’ YouTube page.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
