November Conference to Focus on State's Changing Rural Landscape

AUBURN, Ala. — The changing face of rural Alabama will be the focus of the Auburn University College of Agriculture’s third annual Butler/Cunningham Conference on Agriculture and the Environment, set for Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 8 and 9, at the Embassy Suites in downtown Montgomery.

The conference, “Rural Redesign: the Transformation of Alabama’s Rural Landscape,” will be a forum for farmers, forest landowners, lawmakers, the media, environmental advocates, local and state planning and economic officials and the general public to examine and discuss such crucial issues as federal farm policy and its impact on Alabama agriculture, new markets and opportunities for Alabama farmers, the growing non-farm population in rural areas, the latest ag statistics for Alabama and the nation and environmental challenges confronting agriculture.

“Our overall goal is to look at the different phenomena fueling the metamorphosis in Alabama’s rural areas and in agriculture in the state and to explore ways to sustain and protect the state’s family farms, rural landscapes, natural resources and ways of life,” conference organizer Claude Boyd said. Boyd is an Auburn University fisheries professor and AU’s Butler/Cunningham Eminent Scholar of Agriculture and the Environment.

Featured speakers will include national farm policy expert Barry Flinchbaugh of Kansas State University, who will share his perspectives on agriculture, economics and politics; Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund and Rebecca Goldburg of the Environmental Defense Fund, voicing their views on agriculture’s environmental responsibilities; and USDA senior economist Carol Goodloe and federal ag statistician Linda Hutton, who will interpret the numbers from the latest Census of Agriculture.

The registration fee of $95 ($50 for students) includes two breakfasts, two lunches and refreshments at all breaks.

For more information on the conference, call Claude Boyd or June Burns at 334-844-4078, email Boyd at ceboyd@acesag.auburn.edu or visit the Butler/Cunningham Web site at www.ag.auburn.edu/BC and click on 2004 conference. Participants can register online or at the conference.

The Butler/Cunningham conference series is funded through an endowment to AU’s College of Agriculture by the late Eugene Butler, a pioneer editor of Progressive Farmer magazine, and the late Emory Cunningham, founder of Southern Living and a long-time president of Southern Progress Corp, which published Progressive Farmer and Southern Living. The conference was established to address issues related to agriculture and forestry, the environment, and rural life in Alabama.

The first conference, held in 2002 in Birmingham, examined the status of Alabama agriculture. The 2003 conference in Montgomery focused on trends and opportunities for rural land use.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

10/07/04

For immediate release