March 9
Event Looks at Obstacles and Aids to Sustainable Food System in Michigan
Less=More Coalition Convenes Experts, Farmers
and Consumers during MSU Ag & Natural Resources Week
What: Farming
Our Future: The Forces and Faces of 21st Century Agriculture
When: Monday,
March 9, 2015, 9am‐4pm
(registration opens 8am)
Where: Kellogg Center Auditorium, 219 S.
Harrison, East Lansing
Admission: $25 general; $20 students with school
ID (admission includes lunch)
Register: http://tinyurl.com/
A
groundbreaking conference exploring the political, legal, and historical forces
that shape farming in Michigan today and how to chart a path to a more
sustainable food system takes place March 9, 2015 on the campus of Michigan
State University during MSU’s historic Agriculture and Natural Resources Week.
Presented by
the Less=More Coalition, Farming Our Future: The Forces and Faces of
21st Century Agriculture will channel diverse national, regional and
local conversations about the environmental, economic and social impacts of
modern agriculture into a comprehensive forum to facilitate joint efforts to
build a better food system. The event
takes place from 9am‐4pm on Monday, March 9, at the Kellogg Center Auditorium, 219 S.
Harrison, East Lansing. Admission is $25; $20 for students (with school ID). To
register, visit: http://tinyurl.com/
The
conference will feature keynote addresses by Tim Gibbons, communications director of the Missouri Rural Crisis
Center, and Danielle Nierenberg,
president of Food Tank in Chicago, and will bring together agricultural policy
and legal experts, farmers, consumers and researchers in two panel discussions.
Gibbons will
open the conference with the morning keynote, The Forces Shaping 21st Century Agriculture, which examines the
past, present and potential future of farming and explores the role of the
federal Farm Bill and other policies in creating the industrial food system we
have today. Gibbons has led successful efforts in Missouri to shift Farm Bill
subsidies from support of factory farm practices, which include systems to deal
with the huge amounts of animal waste they generate, to those of sustainable
livestock farmers. Pollution from agriculture has been blamed in part for toxic
algae blooms in Lake Erie that last year contaminated drinking water used by
residents in Toledo and southern Michigan.
Gibbons’
talk will be followed by a panel featuring Dr.
M. Jahi Chappell, director of agroecology and agriculture policy at the
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy;
Pete Kennedy, president of the Farm-to‐Consumer Legal Defense Fund; and Phil Howard, an associate professor in
Michigan State University’s Department of Community Sustainability.
Nierenberg
will present the afternoon keynote, The
Faces of 21st Century Agriculture, about sustainable farming and emerging
trends such as urban agriculture and non‐traditional farmers from the
African American, Hispanic and veterans communities. She will also explore
obstacles and opportunities for sustainable farmers today. Nierenberg is an
expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues who has written extensively
on the spread of factory farming in the developing world and innovations in
sustainable agriculture.
Nierenberg’s
talk will be followed by a panel including Joe
Maxwell, a hog farmer and vice president of outreach and engagement at The
Humane Society of the United States; Michelle
Jackson, a fourth‐generation
African American urban farmer in Detroit; and Michael Vandenbrug, a sustainable farmer in West Michigan and
agricultural operations director in the community outreach department of the
YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids.
Less=More is
a sustainable agriculture coalition tackling the inequity of Farm Bill
subsidies in Michigan that favor polluting factory farms over safe, sustainable
livestock farms at the expense of the environment and public health. In 2013,
the coalition released a report, Restoring
the Balance to Michigan’s Farming Landscape, that explores the relationship
between Farm Bill subsidies and factory farm pollution in Michigan. To download
Restoring the Balance, visit: http://tinyurl.com/L‐Mreport.
Less=More is comprised of national, state
and local organizations and farmers, including: Beery Farms of Michigan, the
Center for Food Safety, Crane Dance Farm, ELFCO Food Cooperative,
Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan, Food & Water
Watch, Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council, Groundswell Farm, Humane
Society of the United States, Michigan Small Farm Council, Michigan Student
Sustainability Coalition, Michigan Voices for Good Food Policy, Michigan Young
Farmers Coalition, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter and Socially Responsible
Agricultural Project.
Less=More is made possible in part by
support from the Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation.
Less support for polluting factory
farms means a more sustainable
Michigan. For more information, visit, www.MoreforMichigan.org.
