Food safety, the public health and natural resource impact of biofuels, health care affordability and the ergonomically safe ways of harvesting fruits and vegetables are the focus of the 2007 Agricultural Health Conference to be held Nov. 14-16 in Omaha.
It will feature new information on public and occupational health issues of three leading edge movements in U.S. agriculture – biofuels, food safety and alternative agriculture.
Featured speakers include: Richard Raymond, M.D., the under-secretary for food safety with the United States Department of Agriculture, who will talk about security for meat and poultry; and Sally Shaver, associate counselor for agricultural policy with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who will talk about biofuels.
“We are privileged to have speakers of national prominence join us for this conference,” said Susanna Von Essen, M.D., with the UNMC College of Public Health. “We also will have a unique opportunity to tour a pioneering ethanol refinery and to visit an area winery to learn about health and safety issues faced by people who grow grapes and make wine.”
The conference will be held at the Embassy Suites, 555 S. 10th St., and begins on Nov. 14 with a networking dinner, followed by a full day of seminars on Nov. 15. The conference continues on Nov. 16 with a tour of the E2 BioFuels Genesis plant near Mead, Neb., the world’s first closed loop system for energy production using ethanol from corn and methane from manure. The meeting will conclude with a lunch and tour of the Soaring Wings Vineyard in Springfield, Neb.
For more information about the conference log on to the Web site at www.unmc.edu/rhen and click on the 2007 Ag Conference link.
The conference is sponsored by tThe North American Agromedicine Consortium, Iowa Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, the University of Iowa Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health and the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health.