Photo Stories
(March
14, 2003) The
21st National Pesticide Forum, Toxics in the Age of Globalization, will
be held April 25-27, 2003 at the University of Texas at Austin in the
Thompson Conference Center. The Forum will focus on adopting alternatives
to pesticides, as well as the challenges the pesticide reform movement
faces in a global business, policy and ecology context, with increasing
multinational corporate influence. This year's event is convened by Beyond
Pesticides, Chemical Connection, Clean Water Action Texas, Consumers Union,
Environmental Outreach, Public Citizen Texas, Texans for Alternatives
to Pesticides and University of Texas Campus Greens. Registration
is available online.
We have recently added a tour of the Boggy Creek Organic Farm and a plenary session focusing on the Union Carbide/Dow Bhopal tragedy and other international issues to the Forum agenda. The farm tour will be lead by farm owners Carol Ann Sayle and Larry Butler. The Bhopal/International plenary will feature a slideshow by Nityanand Jayaraman, a freelance Indian writer who has investigated toxics issues throughout Asia for years and spent months documenting stockpiled pesticides which had been donated under bogus international AID programs. He has also worked extensively with the victims of the Bhopal tragedy. He is joined by Krishnaveni Gundu of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. A complete schedule of events is available on the Forum webpage.
Other featured speakers include: Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC); Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older Than Words, and The Culture of Make Believe; Routt Reigart, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at MUSC and co-editor of EPA's Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings; Percy Schmeiser, Canadian farmer sued by Monsanto after his crops were contaminated by "Round-Up Ready" canola; Brent Blackwelder, President of Friends of the Earth; Mary Bottari, Director of Public Citizen/Global Trade Watch's Harmonization Project; Angus Wright, author of The Death of Ramon Gonzales; Warren Porter, professor of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin.
Workshop topics will include: Impacts of Globalization on Worker Rights and the Environment, West Nile Virus, Farmworker Issues, Corporate Control of the Food System, Pesticides and Children, Genetic Engineering, Wood Preservatives, Chemical Injury, Least-toxic Pest Management, Health Care, Organic Food, Skills Building, Impacts on Wildlife and Habitat and much more.
For more information or to register, visit the National Pesticide Forum webpage. Please contact John Kepner, Forum Coordinator, if you have any questions at 202-543-5450.
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