Agriculture and Fracking

As the process of capturing oil and natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," expands nationally, it has come under fire for its impact on water quality and quantity, energy use, and climate change. Less explored, however, are the impacts of fracking on agriculture, the American food system, and public health. This panel will examine the direct and indirect impacts of fracking on sustainable agriculture, American farmland, rural communities, and the food supply. Are there ways to mitigate these impacts through regulation? What strategies can be employed to better protect the links between energy, agriculture and public health?

A panel discussion moderated by Edwin Dobb, Carnegie Lecturer, Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism, Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley. The panel will feature:

Seth Shonkoff, Executive Director, Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy; Environmental Researcher, UC Berkeley

Tom Frantz, Farmer, Kern County, California; Anti-fracking Activist

Hollin Kretzmann, Staff Attorney, Center for Biological Diversity