Approximately 50 million pounds of pesticides are applied to corn and beans in Iowa annually.  As troubles of escalating pesticide use in Iowa and the Midwest are becoming more visible (weed resistance, pesticide drift, crop damage, etc.), there is a paucity of easily accessible informational resources for Iowans about the environmental and public health impacts of pesticides in our state. Furthermore, the system of agriculture that relies so heavily on synthetic chemical inputs has many other implications on ecological sustainability that ultimately impact human health. This presentation will help attendees think critically about the downstream implications of current agricultural practices in the Midwest and their impacts on human and environmental health. 

Speaker Information:

Audrey Tran Lam

Audrey manages the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Energy & Environmental Education’s environmental health initiatives, working where human health and environmental sustainability meet. She oversees two statewide public health education initiatives; Good Neighbor Iowa (focused on elimination of cosmetic herbicide application in public spaces to protect child health, pollinator habitat, and urban water quality), and Farming for Public Health (a program that elevates organic regenerative agriculture as an upstream, land-based solution to the cascading environmental health issues stemming from industrial agriculture). In addition, Audrey also facilitates the Pesticides & Public Health Working Group. She holds a master's degree in Public Health (concentrating in occupational and environmental health) from the University of Iowa, and a Food Systems, the Environment, and Public Health graduate certificate from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Audrey currently serves on the boards of the Heartland Health Research Alliance, the Pesticide Action Network, and the Iowa Rural Health Association. 

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