Great Lakes Now Connect: Freshwater & Farming

Detroit Public Television and The Nature Conservancy  presented a Great Lakes Now Town Hall Event that focused on freshwater, farming and the agriculture industry’s impact on the Great Lakes.  Watch it now or download the program from iTunes.

Download the program from iTunes –

What’s fresh in the market today? You’ll find a bountiful harvest of food from the Great Lakes basin, from cherries and blueberries to potatoes and corn. But what impact does this diverse production have on the world’s largest freshwater system? How will the Great Lakes be affected by our growing population and the demand for more food? These are some of the questions we’ll be exploring in our next production of Great Lakes Now Connect.

This two-hour program, called Great Lakes Now Connect: Freshwater & Farming, will explore the increasing demands on agriculture and our freshwater resources as well as the potential solutions for improving the agriculture industry to address those challenges. The broadcast will consider how traditional agricultural practices have affected freshwater in the Great Lakes and examine new conservation practices that appear to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impacts, and discuss emerging trends in the supply chain market.

Panel 1:Moderated by Mary Fales, Saginaw Bay Watershed Project Director, The Nature Conservancy

• Jane Frankenberger, Professor of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University
• Paul Gross, Cover Crops and Bioenergy Educator, Michigan State University Extension.
• Terry McClure, 5th Generation Farmer and former President of Ohio Farm Bureau
• Albert Jones, Area Conservationist, USDA-NRCS

Panel 2: Moderated by Patrick Doran, Director of Science for Michigan and the Great Lakes, The Nature Conservancy

• Doug Busdeker, Area General Manager for Farm Centers in the Plant Nutrient Group, The Andersons Inc.
• Gail Hesse, Executive Director, Ohio Lake Erie Commission.
• William Schleizer, Managing Director, Delta Institute.