Annual Environmental Event Focuses On Farming

The Hoosier Environmental Council is hosting the 6th annual Greening the Statehouse forum in hopes of teaching people about Indiana’s most pressing environmental issues. 

This year the group is focusing on a proposal that would prevent lawmakers from protecting Hoosiers from factory farming.  HEC Executive Director Jesse Kharbanda explains why this year's theme was chosen.

"We see the greatest challenge facing Indiana's enviroment to be a proposed constitutional ammendment called Right to Farm which could be called 'Right to Harm,'" says Kharbanda. "It would strip away the authority of local and state policy makers to safegaurd communities from industrial livestock, agricultural pollution."

Kharbanda says this large scale practice produces sludge lagoons that contain dangerous toxins that threaten the health and quality of lives for many Hoosiers.

"It could be a particulary troubling issues for elderly citizens, for school children for people with respiratory illnesses," Kharbanda says.

The goal of the yearly event is to get the public involved and interested in the legislative process as it relates to the environment. 

The keynote speaker, John Tuma is a lawyer and former Minnesota lawmaker who has been an outspoken advocate for sustainable agriculture.  Greening the Statehouse will be held Saturday at the IUPUI Campus Center.