CNR hosts Farm Bill discussion April 5

The US Farm Bill: What’s at Stake?

A panel discussion, “The United States Farm Bill: What’s at Stake?” at the University of California, Berkeley. UC Berkeley, state and national experts will give their own prescriptions for making the bill, coming up for renewal by 2012, as effective and relevant as possible in addressing current food security and agriculture issues.

WHO:

Michael Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma author, John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism, UC Berkeley

Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture

Ken Cook, President and Co-Founder of the Environmental Working Group

Patricia Crawford, Director of the Atkins Center for Weight and Health and Adjunct Professor, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley

Gordon Rausser (moderator): Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley

WHEN:

6:30 - 8:00 p.m. Thursday, April 5

WHERE:

Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley (see map for directions). The discussion will be videotaped and posted later here.

TICKETS:

This is a free, public event, but tickets are required for admission. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Free tickets are available at the Wheeler Auditorium Box Office at 5 p.m. on the day of the event. Doors open at 6 p.m. We recommend arriving early as the event is expected to be popular.

DETAILS: Congressional hearings have already begun on the US Farm Bill as its five-year cycle closes in 2012. In light of the approaching renewal and the bill’s significant impact on what Americans eat and how we farm, UC Berkeley faculty and experts from the Environmental Working Group and the California Department of Food and Agriculture will give their perspectives on the broad question of what is at stake in the new bill.

Speakers will address specific issues related to the federal food stamp program, which accounts for at least 75 percent of the total farm bill spending; crop subsidies; support for organic farming and regulation; food safety and security; and more.

The panel discussion is presented by the College of Natural Resources’ Spring 2012 Horace M. Alright Lecture in Conservation.

This discussion will be recorded and available at http://nature.berkeley.edu/site/albright.php after the event. 

A link to online event information can be found here.

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