Environmental and rural development issues is the focus of the third conference in the series, Transition to a Bioeconomy. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer will address public policy challenges for the bioeconomy. Also featured on the program will be USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr.

The conference program will examine how the emerging bioeconomy may impact such things as domestic and global land use, water quality, jobs and local economies. Other sessions will focus on how this emerging bioeconomy may be shaped by green technologies, public policies or public attitudes.

This conference is a collaboration of Farm Foundation, and USDA's Office of Energy Policy and New Uses, Economic Research Service, Rural Development, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Forest Service.