41st National Forum Series - 2024 - Session 1 скачать в хорошем качестве

41st National Forum Series - 2024 - Session 1

Imperatives for a Sustainable Future Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency Session 1 - featuring keynote speaker Felix zu Löwenstein, PhD. Followed by Roundtable Discussion: Transitioning to Universal Adoption of Organic Land Management, featuring Alan Lewis, Colehour Bondera, Linley Dixon, with special guest Chip Osborne, and moderated by Jay Feldman. This event took place virtually on October 30th 2024. There is an increasing understanding that we must urgently face existential threats to health, biodiversity, and climate for which petrochemical-based pesticides and fertilizers, among other products, are major contributors—at the same time that solutions are currently available and operational. The threats are real and scientifically defined, and so are the solutions. The goal of the Forum is to contribute to the adoption of a holistic worldwide strategy to reverse the existential crises in the production of our food and the management of land and ecosystems. The 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future, offers us an opportunity to elevate our understanding of the petrochemical threats and the critical need to adopt practices and policies that eliminate one of the major sources of the problem, petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers. Among the significant changes that are taking place, but must occur at an accelerated pace, is the transition to organic land management, from agriculture, landscapes to playing fields, as part of a holistic strategy that recognizes the multidimensional nature of the problem and solution. The two major imperatives for sustainability and a livable future are community and decision maker understanding of and action on: 1. The threats to human health and ecosystems and the dire consequences of inaction or measures that fall far short of what is necessary; and 2. The path forward to eliminate reliance on petrochemical-based products, including the constellation of toxic materials associated with chemical-intensive practices—from food production to the management of homes, gardens, parks, and schools. Session 1 Felix zu Löwenstein, PhD, KeynoteWe begin the Forum Series with an agronomist who has been farming organically on his family farm in Germany since the 1990’s, bringing a wealth of hands-on experience that informs the technical information that transformational change requires. In Dr. Löwenstein's book Food Crash: Why Organic Is the Only Way Forward, just released in the United States by Acres USA, the case is made that organic land management with “ecological intensification” provides society with a social good, as opposed to chemical-intensive (conventional) practices that have externalized health and environmental costs. The book’s thesis on the organic imperative is rooted in the facts about the adverse impacts of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture on human health, food sovereignty, the environment, animal welfare, soil erosion, and soil health. https://www.beyondpesticides.org/