Future of Agriculture: Science, Stewardship & Sustainability

August 7-9, 2006
Sacramento, California

Conference Overview

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov) (EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/), and the Center for Hazardous Substance Research (http://www.engg.ksu.edu/chsr/) (CHSR) at Kansas State University, a consortium member of the Midwest Hazardous Substance Research Center (http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~mhsrc/) (MHSRC), hosted the International Conference on The Future of Agriculture: Science, Stewardship, and Sustainability (Integrating Science, Technology, and Policy to Address Environmental Challenges in the Agricultural Setting) on August 7-9, 2006 at the beautiful Hyatt Regency in downtown Sacramento, California.

The west coast of North America and the Pacific Rim area present a unique blend of challenges and innovative solutions at the confluence of agriculture and environment.

Kansas State University (http://www.engg.ksu.edu/chsr/) organized this conference as part of its Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov/) (EPA) Hazardous Substance Research Center (HSRC) outreach and technology transfer mission, in partnership with U.S. EPA ORD Hazardous Substance Technical Liaisons Program (http://www.epa.gov/osp/hstl.htm) , the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), California EPA, and the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). The conference is also being sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/) (NIEHS), whose Superfund Basic Research Program (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/sbrp/) supports research at the University of California, Davis (http://www.ucdavis.edu/index.html) , among other institutions.

The conference built on the success and lessons of the 2002 conference, Application of Waste Remediation Technologies to Agricultural Contamination of Water Resources, held in Kansas City, MO, sponsored by KSU and EPA; while also incorporating the latest developments.

Conference Objectives

• To discuss success stories in the areas of: air quality, water quality, waste management, and environmental stewardship; linking promising research, and lessons learned from EPA's Superfund Program and other arenas (state of the science) with on-the-ground agricultural activities (state of the practice).
• To exchange knowledge on best management practices and technical solutions for the agricultural setting.
• To bring agriculture and environmental managers together to advance environmental stewardship.
• To integrate consideration for sustainable practices into planning, policy and regulations development, and decision-making.

This includes consideration of win-win opportunities for the Urban Agricultural interface.

Participants included innovative producers and processors, regulators and policy experts, environmental and remediation professionals, research and extension faculty and students, industrial exhibitors, and community leaders.

Sponsors

• United States Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov) (U.S. EPA)
• ORD, Hazardous Substances Technical Liaisons (http://www.epa.gov/osp/hstl.htm) (U.S. EPA)
• U.S. EPA Region 9 Agriculture Program (http://www.epa.gov/region09/ag/index.html)
• California Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.calepa.ca.gov/)
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/)
• United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/main.htm)
• Agricultural Sustainability Institute, University of California, Davis (http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/)
• California Department of Food and Agriculture (http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/) (CDFA)
• Center for Hazardous Substance Research (http://www.engg.ksu.edu/chsr/) (CHSR) at Kansas State University
• University of California, Davis (http://www.ucdavis.edu/index.html)
• Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (http://www.itrcweb.org/) (ITRC)
• International Petroleum Environment Conference (http://ipec.utulsa.edu/conferences.htm) (IPEC)
• Auksuciai Foundatione (http://www.aukfoundation.org/)
• U.S. Landcare

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