National Air Emissions Conference to be Held in Iowa in 2008

AMES, Iowa - Planning is underway at Iowa State University for a national conference in 2008 on ways to reduce air emissions from livestock production facilities. The conference, which will be May 19-21 at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, is being coordinated and hosted by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Iowa State University Extension. The conference, "Mitigating Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations," is designed to provide practical information on what mitigation methods are available as well as the applicability and costs of each option. The target audience for the conference includes technical service providers, extension personnel, industry consultants and facility owners and operators. "Our goal is for consultants and producers to use the proceedings from the conference as a practical reference that identifies tools that are available when considering air emissions mitigation strategies for animal feeding operations," said Robert Burns, chair of the conference planning committee and associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State. In addition to technical sessions featuring presentations on current and developing mitigation technologies for air emissions from all animal species, the general session will include invited presentations from national and international experts. "While the conference is focused on providing practical information to U.S. industry consultants and producers, inclusion of the European perspective regarding regulations and mitigation technologies will be of value to the U.S. audience and industry," said Hongwei Xin, a member of the planning committee and professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering. "Because of the higher animal density in Europe and more stringent demand for emissions reduction, Europeans are further down the road in examining economic viability and application of potential mitigation technologies." Information about the conference, plus details on submitting a paper for presentation at the conference, are available online. Dec. 1 is the deadline for submitting an abstract outlining a proposed paper and presentation for the conference.