On Wednesday, Minnesota House Agriculture Committee co-chair Rick Hansen, DFL-S. St. Paul, participated in The 2025 Harkin On Wellness Symposium, as part of a panel which focused on the Future of Clean Water.
What was the symposium? From the website:
This year’s theme was chosen to highlight and synthesize the progress being made around the country in protecting and improving water quality through community engagement, environmental education, watershed protection, water conservation initiatives, and innovative water quality monitoring programs.
Clean water is fundamental to public health and environmental sustainability and is increasingly under threat from climate change and other human-caused risks. Community-based initiatives that protect and improve water quality have been shown to have lasting, positive impacts on both human and environmental health. Furthermore, programs that engage communities in hands-on water quality improvement and conservation can foster environmental stewardship that benefits current and future generations.
This year’s event will recognize groups working to preserve clean water, including nonprofit organizations, environmental groups, and community organizations, for the tremendous role they play in protecting this vital resource.
Update 4/17: Republished from Iowa Capital Dispatch, an overview in Iowa Environmental Council launches project on relationship between cancer and environment. [end update]
Watch Hansen's talk from the event's panel on Agriculture, Water, and Public Health Across the United States. It's a good historic review of ag and water policy in Minnesota, which ends with a lovely discussion of the Lawns to Legumes pollinator program, as a model for individual citizen and community involvement.
The entire event can be watched on Youtube here, The Harkin Institute YouTube channel.
According to its website, "The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement exists to inform citizens, inspire creative cooperation, and catalyze change on issues of social justice, fairness, and opportunity." The institute honors its namesake, Senator Tom Harkin who represented Iowa in the United States Congress. He served Iowa’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985 and was a U.S. Senator from 1985 to 2015.
Image: The symposium's logo.
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- is far from over
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