Events

Please join us for a reading and conversation with Beth Hoffman to celebrate the release of her new book Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America. She will be joined in conversation by Chuck Offenburger. 

John Piotti, President of the American Farmland Trust says of the book, "Honest and authentic, Beth Hoffman accomplishes what few authors who write about farms ever achieve: conveying amid the hard work and simple pleasures, the realities of running a tough business. Readers seldom get to view farming so accurately."

Beth Hoffman has been reporting on food and agriculture for over twenty years, airing on NPR, The World, Latino USA, Living on Earth, and others. She blogged for Forbes as the Hungry Hack and studied the food system in depth as a student, fellow and co-lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism. She has completed several documentary projects including a year cooking with immigrant women in their homes and telling their stories. She was an Associate Professor in Media Studies at the University of San Francisco for six years. Two years ago, in her late 40s, she and her husband left San Francisco and moved to rural Iowa to take over his family’s farm. Bet the Farm looks at the economics of American agriculture, told through Hoffman’s personal story of becoming a farmer.

Chuck Offenburger is a mostly-retired Iowa writer who had a 26-year career covering Iowa and its people for the Des Moines Register. His "Iowa Boy" column in the Register took him all over the state, across the nation and around the world. He now lives and writes at his "Simple Serenity Farm" outside the tiny town of Cooper (pop. 30, maybe) in west central Iowa, "surrounded by some of the most interesting farming operations you could find anywhere."  His writing -- on a wide range of topics -- now appears first on his website www.Offenburger.com which is one of the oldest news and opinion sites in Iowa.

Swamplands such as peatlands, bogs, fens, marshes, and swamps have been demonized and dismissed as dismal, unhealthy “wastelands,” with little ecological value. But these underappreciated ecosystems are home to many rare and newly discovered species They also play a critical role in mitigating floods, filtering water, slowing wildfires, and regulating climate change. These ancient peatlands have cooled the planet for thousands of years. If the world’s peatlands are disturbed and degraded as they have been in many parts of the world, they will release rather than store carbon, accelerating the warming that is already taking place.

The Hudson Bay Lowlands comprise one of the largest intact natural peatlands left on the planet. Some parts of this vast region store 4 to 5x’s more carbon than the equivalent area in the Amazon Rainforest. Currently, there are more than 17,000 active mining claims held by 18 companies and individuals in the Lowlands known as the Ring of Fire.

The Omushkego Cree, the Indigenous people who have lived in this area for thousands of years, know the importance of these ancient peatlands. The Mushkegowuk Council, the senior representative for 7 First Nations in the northern James Bay and Hudson Bay region, is working on a conservation plan for part of the Lowlands. The National Audubon Society, Wildllands League, and other nonprofits are working with them to make that happen.

Join the conversation to better appreciate why we should preserve our peatlands. Learn how the Mushkegowuk Council of Hudson Bay Lowlands are leading in understanding and communicating the importance of these globally significant sites in the face of many competing interests. 

Participants include:

• Edward Struzik, author of Swamplands, as well as Future Arctic and Firestorm
• Vern Cheechoo, Director of Lands and Resources, Mushkegowuk Council
• Anna Baggio, Director of Conservation, Wildlands League
• Moderated by Jeff Wells, Vice President for Boreal Conservation at Audubon