Power Shift 2011 (Registration deadline Sunday 3/27!)

Power Shift is absolutely crucial this year and it's going to be amazing. In 2009 the political climate was really optimistic following Obama’s election and with it looking like we’d get federal climate legislation. This year we’re on the opposite end of the spectrum. For example, Congressman Upton passed a bill through the house budget committee that would derail the EPA and its authority to regulate greenhouse gases. It's a battle right now and we need to all be there together.

Register today - www.powershift2011.org!

Some highlights about this year's Power Shift:

· EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is coming! She has outright stated that she needs our support in standing up to Congress. Be there!

· Keynote speakers include Al Gore, Bill McKibben, and Van Jones

· More focus on training, with much more intimate, personalized workshops and seminars to give you the skills you need to make a difference on the issues you care about most.

· 4 tracks so that you can customize your Power Shift experience to suit your interests and needs.

· Monday the 18th is shaping up to be the largest action and lobby day ever!!

· Job & Organizational Fair.

Let's make this year bigger and better than before!

Register today - www.powershift2011.org!

Will Allen keynote speaker at UDC Earth Day event

The University of the District of Columbia’s College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) celebrates Earth Day by hosting

UDC’s 2011 International Urban Sustainability Action Summit
on “Food--Sovereignty, Security and Justice”

Saturday, April 16, 2011 from 8:00 am – 5:30 pm
@ UDC’s Van Ness Campus (4200 Conn. Ave., N.W., WDC 20008)

The Summit will bring together experts, grassroots leaders and members of the community to share information about food deserts, sustainability in the urban environment and equal access to healthy food choices. The land-grant university is the ideal setting for thoughtful discourse exploring the issue and identifying cutting-edge and best practices.

The keynote speaker for the occasion is “Green” innovator and 2008 MacArthur Fellow, Will Allen, founder of Growing Power - a model urban sustainability program.

Will Allen is an urban farmer, who is transforming the cultivation, production and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations.

The day-long event will feature a collective of expert speakers, presenters and exhibitors to inform, engage and empower attendees to act. Be part of the discussion and part of the solution . . . REGISTER TODAY.

To register please visit www.udc.edu/CAUSES.

WWF Nature Seminar Series - Dr. Jerry Glover speaks about agriculture

World Wildlife Fund’s

Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Seminar Series

Farming’s Perennial Future

Dr. Jerry Glover

Science and Technology Policy Fellow, AAAS

*National Geographic Emerging Explorer

*Named one of the "Five Crop Researchers Who Could Change the World” by Nature

Please join us as we celebrate WWF’s 50^th anniversary!

Date: Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m. (lecture); 5:30-6:30 p.m. (reception)

Admission: FREE

Registration: http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/fellowships/fuller/item1816.html#register

Location: World Wildlife Fund Headquarters

1250 24^th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20037

Click Here for a Map

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What if farm fields hold the keys to saving biodiversity, polluted ecosystems, and starving people? According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment survey, agriculture is now the number one human threat to global biodiversity and ecosystem function. Seventy percent of the Earth’s farmland is planted with annual crops (wheat, corn, rice), which provide nearly seventy percent of the calories that sustain the world’s populations. The problem is that annual crops must be planted from seed every year. According to agroecologist Jerry Glover, “Preparing the farm fields every year for planting requires tremendous amounts of time, effort, and expense. Because they have relatively short growing seasons and tap into only shallow soil layers, annual crops often allow more than half of the nitrogen fertilizer farmers spread over fields to escape below the root zone or run off the soil surface.” Every year the same wear and tear takes place. The result is seriously depleted soil, excess agricultural run-off, and a looming food crisis.

Ecologists also increasingly recognize the off-farm impacts of annual crops. A prime example is the link between the U.S. "corn belt" and the Gulf of Mexico. After the yearly harvest, millions of acres of farmland have no living plant cover. Nitrogen fertilizer from that exposed soil is carried into waterways, creating an annual dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico more than 1,000 miles downstream. “We cannot cordon off our agricultural fields from cherished areas of biodiversity,” Glover warns. “Focusing more of our conservation attention on farmland could transform our ability to preserve sites we all treasure.”

On April 21st, Glover will take us on a journey from the birth and flowering of agriculture through a global snapshot of today’s stressed agricultural ecosystems, and then look into the not-too-distant future when our finite and depleted soil may become unable to sustain the projected increases in human population. Glover and his team of researchers believe they have the solution to a silent but looming catastrophe—perennial crops, especially perennial grains. These crops would have the power to drastically reduce wear and tear on the lands that sustain them, while providing a more nutrient rich and cost-effective answer to the world’s long term food security.

About the Speaker

Dr. Jerry Glover is a Science and Technology Policy Fellow working with the US Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Food Security in Washington, D.C. Prior to his work with USAID, Jerry directed The Land Institute’s ecosystem research program studying natural ecosystems and no-till, organic, integrated, and conventional agroecosystems with particular emphasis on perennial cropping systems. The cultural and ecological conditions on a High Plains farm in eastern Colorado fueled Jerry’s passion for farming and the environment.

Acknowledging the complex relationship between human behavior and ecological limits, he earned undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Soil Science. Jerry then completed his Ph.D. in Soil Science at Washington State University in 2001. From his dissertation, he published a cover story article in the journal Nature, which subsequently placed the paper on its list of “Classic” science articles.

In 2008, Nature recognized Jerry as one of "Five Crop Researchers Who Could Change the World.” In 2010, the National Geographic Society inducted him into its Emerging Explorers program. He has published articles on perennial cropping systems in Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Scientific American and other journals and magazines intended for the general public. Jerry has given more than 100 invited presentations on natural and managed ecosystems, energy use, and sustainability issues to national and international audiences.

Missed a talk? Check out the Science for Nature Summaries to watch interviews with past Fuller Seminar speakers.

To unsubscribe from this email list, please reply with ‘Unsubscribe’ in the subject heading.

2nd Annual WCL-CIEL International Env Law Conference (3/21)

Cosponsored by the Program on International and Comparative Environmental Law, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and

the Sustainable Development Law and Policy Publication

March 21, 2011

1:00 pm – 5:30 pm, followed by reception

American University Washington College of Law

4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Room 603

1:00 pm Registration

1:15 pm Welcome Remarks:

David Hunter, Director of the Program on International and Comparative Environmental Law, American University Washington College of Law, and

Carroll Muffett, President and CEO, Center for International Environmental Law

1:30 pm Keynote Speaker:

Daniel Magraw, President Emeritus and Distinguished Scholar, Center for International Environmental Law

2:00 pm Developments in International Environmental Law/MEAs

Moderator: Dr. Marcos A. Orellana, Director, Human Rights and the Environment Program, Center for International Environmental Law

Panelists:

Niranjali Amerasinghe, Staff Attorney, Climate Change Program, Center for International Environmental Law (Climate Change)

Serena Corbetta, Associate, Butti & Partners Avvocati (Italy) (the European Union’s Steps to Regulate E-Waste)

Margaret Spring, Chief of Staff, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce (CITES and Fisheries)

John M. Fitzgerald, Policy Director, Society for Conservation Biology (the Convention on Biological Diversity)

3:30 pm Coffee Break
3:45 pm Global Environmental Governance

Moderator: Philip Vergragt, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Technology Assessment, Delft University, and Senior Associate, Tellus Institute

Panelists:

Tseming Yang, Deputy General Counsel for International Affairs, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Brennan Van Dyke, Senior Advisor to the CEO, Global Environment Facility
Lalanath de Silva, Director, The Access Initiative, World Resources Institute
Tatiana R. Zaharchenko, Visiting Scholar, Environmental Law Institute

5:15 pm Closing Remarks:

Carroll Muffett, President and CEO, Center for International Environmental Law, and David Hunter, Director of the Program on International and Comparative Environmental Law, American University Washington College of Law

5:30 pm: Reception

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General registration is free but required. Please register by going to www.wcl.american.edu/secle/registration. 3.5 CLE Credits will be applied for –

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registration fee is $75. For further information, please contact:

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Office of Special Events & Continuing Legal Education, American University Washington College of Law. Phone: 202.274.4075; Fax: 202.274.4079; or secle@wcl.american.edu

Conf: "Rebuilding the American Economy-One Heirloom Tomato at a Time"

United States Studies and the Environmental Change and Security Program
of the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Chesapeake Bay Trust invite you to
a conference:

Rebuilding the American Economy-One Heirloom Tomato at a Time

Friday, March 4, 2011
6th floor Flom Auditorium
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
1300 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20004 USA
Webcast live at www.wilsoncenter.org

The food system of the United States is currently witnessing a
remarkable shift, with the revival of small farms and artisanal
producers working with restaurants, institutional food services, and
retail outlets to make locally-sourced, sustainably-produced food more
widely available. This shift has both stimulated and is now responding
to a growing demand from "locavore," health-conscious consumers in
ways that are affecting America's economy as well as its eating habits
and well-being. Join us for a day-long conference to explore this
conjuncture.

8:45 a.m. Welcome

9:00 a.m. Keynote Addresses:
Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center, Iowa State
University
Kate Clancy, Visiting Scholar, Center for a Livable Future, the Johns
Hopkins University

9:45 a.m. Panel I: Our Bodies, Our Food, Our Culture

Erik Assadourian, Senior Fellow, Worldwatch Institute

Ed Bruske, Independent author and journalist, Washington, DC

Devora Kimelman-Block, Founder, KOL Foods, Silver Spring, MD

Amy Trubek, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences,
University of Vermont

11:30 a.m. Panel II: The Challenges of Sustainable Food Production

Anthony Flaccavento, Certified Organic Farmer and Food System
Consultant

Miles McEvoy, Deputy Administrator, USDA National Organic Program

Rosalie Koenig, Lecturer in Agronomy, University of Florida

Angela Miller, Founder, Consider Bardwell Farm, West Pawlet, Vermont

Angela Sanfilippo, President, Gloucester Fishermen's Wives
Association, Cape Ann Fresh Catch program

2:00 p.m. Panel III: Feeding the Locavore

Erin Barnett, Director, LocalHarvest

Pierre Desrochers, Associate Professor of Geography, University of
Toronto

Andrea Northup, Coordinator, DC Farm to School Network, Capital Area
Food Bank

Dean Gold, Owner/Chef, Dino's Restaurant, Washington, DC

Ellen Holtzman, The Food Trust

Rafi Taherian, Executive Director, Yale University Dining Services

3:45 p.m. Panel IV: Food and Finance

Andrew Caplin, Professor of Economics, New York University

Gary Matteson, Vice President, Young, Beginning and Small Farmer
Programs and Outreach, Farm Credit Council

David Swenson, Regional Economist, Iowa State University

Stephen Vogel, Agricultural Economist, Resource and Rural Economics
Division, Economic Research Service, USDA

5:15 p.m. Wrap-Up

Directions are available at our web site at
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/directions/
This is a free public event, but RSVPs are requested.
Please respond with acceptances only to usstudies@wilsoncenter.org

Reception co-sponsored by Consider Bardwell Farm, West Pawlet, Vermont,
and Dino's Restaurant, Washington, D.C.