Advancing Sustainable Communities: People, pollinators and practices
The 32nd National Pesticide Forum
April 11-12, 2014
Portland, Oregon
Thank You!
Thanks to everyone who attended and helped organize our 32nd National Pesticide Forum, and a special thank you to our Forum sponsors! Read below for highlights from the Forum, or download the program.
Miss out on the Forum? See Beyond Pesticides' Youtube page for videos of all the speakers, panels, and workshop discussions from the 32nd National Pesticide Forum!
Were you at the Forum? Please fill out an evaluation survey to let us know what you think. Click here if you would like to be added to the forum participants list to get in touch with other participants and speakers at the forum (this list will only be shared with other participants, and not be published publicly).
More on the Issues
We learned a lot from the speakers at this years conference, and are eager to keep up the momentum. Learn more about the issues Beyond Pesticides is working on that were discussed at the Forum, and take action to protect health and the environment:
- Save Our Organic
- Protect public trust in the organic food label by voicing your concern through the Save Our Organic campaign.
- BEE Protective
- Download educational materials and pledge your yard or park as an organically maintainted, pollinator-friendly Pesticide Free Zone.
- Databases that Support Action
- Whether its learning about chemicals and the harms they pose, or choosing which foods to eat, Beyond Pesticides has the tools needed to increase environmental action in your community.
Program Highlights
The Forum provides an opportunity for grassroots advocates, scientists, and policy makers to interact and strategize on solutions that are protective of health and the environment. Keynote presentations, workshops, and plenary panels will focus on solutions to the decline of pollinators and other beneficials; strengthening organic agriculture; improving farmworker protection and agricultural justice; and creating healthy buildings, schools and homes. By working with a range environmental, health, consumer, and farm organizations, we expect to bring together a diverse crowd in order to share our efforts to build local, state and national strategies for strength, growth and health—in line with our conference theme, Advancing Sustainable Communities.
Speaker Spotlight
Fred Kirschenmann, PhD, is a longtime leader in sustainable agriculture. 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 provides management over his family’s 2600 acre organic farm in south central North Dakota. 
Dr. Kirschenmann 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. His book of essays which track the development of his thought over the past 30 years, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays by a Farmer Philosopher, will be available for sale at the forum.
Other notable speakers, included:
- "Maverick" Scientist Michael Skinner, Ph.D., author of the landmark study that links exposure to DDT with multi-generational effects, ultimately contributing to obesity three generations down the line;
- World-renowned environmental toxicologist, Pierre Mineau, PhD;
- George Kimbrell, who is leading litigation on neonicotinoids and honey bees as well as the deregulation of genetically engineered food;
- Goat herder Lani Malmberg, who uses her heard of over 2,000 goats to manage invasive plants and land organically;
- Lead author of American Academy of Pediatrics' landmark policy statement and report on the effects of pesticide exposure in children, James Roberts, MD;
- Mace Vaughan, pollinator program director for The Xerces Society;
- and so much more! For a full list of speakers from this year's Forum, check out our program. click here.
Organizers
The conference was convened by Beyond Pesticides, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides and Portland State University's Institute for Sustainable Solutions.
Co-sponsors include Beyond Toxics, Center for Food Safety, John A. Green MD III-The EverGreen Center, Healthy Bees=Healthy Gardens, Lewis & Clark Law School, Oregon Environmental Council, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregon Sustainable Beekeepers, Oregon Tilth, The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI), Pestcide Action Network, PCUN (Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste), Portland Urban Beekeepers, University of Portland's Environmental Studies Department, and The Xerces Society. If your group is interested in co-sponsoring next years' forum please feel free to email us.
Videos from the 31st National Pesticide Forum last year in Albuquerque, NM are available to watch on our YouTube Channel. For more information, including the speaker line up and schedule of events from last year's conference, click here.
THANK YOU! The generosity of our sponsors helps make conferences a great event year after year. The sponsors listed below contributed to the 32nd National Pesticide Forum scholarship fund, making it possible for people from around the country to participate in one of the most important grassroots pesticide meetings of the year. Learn more about becoming a sponsor. Click on the logos for more information.
