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Environmental Progress - Spring 1998

Agriculture Focus of Convocation

Considers ways to reduce farm waste without sacrificing profits.

"Environmental Policy and American Agriculture" was the theme of the second annual environmental convocation held at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) on October 17, 1997. The convocation focused on reducing agricultural waste by developing alternative agricultural practices, without decreasing profitability.

Students from UIS and from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) were the only presenters during this year’s program. Presentations ranged from topics as specific as Swine Waste: The Other Resource to The Effectiveness and Implications of Voluntary Programs for Pollution Control. There were a total of eight presentations given by students, most of them developing materials for their masters projects.

Ten students had posters and/or projects on display. Dan Vaughn, a second year graduate assistant at UIS, had a multi-media slide show titled "The Manure We Ignore," a subset of his thesis topic on alternative toilet technologies.

Several faculty members from UIS and UIUC joined governmental professionals leading panel discussions on The Agroecosystem and Agricultural Waste. Professionals from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources participated as panelists. Dr. Charles Whitmore, U.S. Department of Agriculture, was the keynote speaker, discussing the future of agriculture and the need for more research on many of the new agricultural alternative technologies.

Jim Nelson, a graduate assistant in Public Affairs, said the convocation successfully highlighted "the desire to have farmers serve as policy makers for the environment and agriculture."