The west coast of North America and the Pacific Rim area present a unique blend of challenges and innovative solutions at the confluence of agriculture and environment.

Kansas State University organized this conference as part of its Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Hazardous Substance Research Center (HSRC) outreach and technology transfer mission, in partnership with US EPA ORD Hazardous Substance Technical Liaisons Program, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), California EPA, and the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). The conference is also being sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), whose Superfund Basic Research Program supports research at the University of California, Davis, among other institutions.

The conference built on the success and lessons of the 2002 conference, Application of Waste Remediation Technologies to Agricultural Contamination of Water Resources, held in Kansas City, MO, sponsored by K-State and EPA; while also incorporating the latest developments.

The objectives of this conference were:

• To discuss success stories in the areas of: air quality, water quality, waste management, and environmental stewardship; linking promising research, and lessons learned from EPA's Superfund Program and other arenas (state of the science) with on-the-ground agricultural activities (state of the practice).
• To exchange knowledge on best management practices and technical solutions for the agricultural setting.
• To bring agriculture and environmental managers together to advance environmental stewardship.
• To integrate consideration for sustainable practices into planning, policy and regulations development, and decision-making. This includes consideration of win-win opportunities for the Urban – Agricultural interface.

Participants included innovative producers and processors, regulators and policy experts, environmental and remediation professionals, research and extension faculty and students, industrial exhibitors, and community leaders.

Click here to view the Conference Pogram and Abstracts.