International Agriculture and Food

Date:  April 21, 2009 Time:  2:45 PM - 6:00 PM Location:  7200 Lubar Commons, Law School Email:  saatapattu@wisc.edu Web Address:  http://www.law.wisc.edu/gls/outreachworkshops.html Contact:  Sumudu Atapattu Sponsor:  Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), Global Legal Studies (GLS) and the International Practice Session of the State Bar of Wisconsin

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Listen to a recording of this event online.

Speakers:

   Dr John Greenler, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, UW-Madison
   View PowerPoint Slides

   Secretary Rod Nilsestuan, Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection

   Attorney Erik Ibele, Neider & Boucher, S.C., Madison
   View PowerPoint Slides

   Professor Stephanie Tai/Vicky Bier, UW-Madison
   View PowerPoint Slides

Please register by April 15, 2009 to faciliate planning.  We welcome walk-ins too.

Workshop Flyer
Agenda

Agenda:
2:45-3:00 --  Registration
3:00-3:05 --  Welcome, Professor Heinz Klug, Evjue-Bascom Professor in Law, UW Law School & Director, Global Legal Studies Center
3:05-3:30 -- "Cellulosic  Biofuels: Sustainability and Food Security Considerations," Dr. John Greenler, Director, Education and Outreach Program, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center
3:30-3:50 -- Governor's Bioenergy initiative, Rod Nilsestuen, Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
3:50-4:10 -- Question & Answer Session
4:10-4:20 -- Break
4:20-4:45 -- Geographical Indications, Attorney Erik Ibele, Neider and Boucher, S.C., Madison
4:45-5:00 -- Question & Answer Session
5:00-5:20 -- Food safety and regulation, Professor Stephanie Tai, UW Law School     
5:20-5:30 -- Q&A
5:30-6:00 -- Reception

Biographies of Speakers

Erik Ibele is an Associate at Neider and Boucher, S.C. and an Adjunct Professor at the UW Law School. His areas of practice include Business Transactions, Intellectual Property, and Immigration within which he focuses on Copyright and Trademark, Software and Technology Licensing, International Transactions, and Business Immigration.

Professor Ibele received his B.A. from Lawrence University in Political Science, obtained his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School and then went on to do Graduate Study in Comparative Law and Private International Law at the University of Bonn in Germany. He speaks German and Pashto in addition to English and worked for the U.S. Peace Corps in Afghanistan from 1973 to 1975. He cites pro bono representation of clients seeking political asylum in the U.S. and teaching at the UW Law School as his proudest accomplishments.

John Greenler is the Director of Education and Outreach for the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC).  Previous to joining GLBRC, Dr Greenler was faculty in the Biology Department at Beloit College for eight years.  His PhD from UW-Madison was in Plant Molecular Biology, and he also has research experience in ecology and conservation biology.  Dr Greenler has led several national science education programs, and has directed research and education programs in East Africa.

Rod Nilsestuen is the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Recognized as a visionary, Mr. Nilsestuen has received numerous awards for excellence, including: “Policy-maker of the Year” award 2007 for land conservation leadership, Gathering Waters Conservancy; Best of Madison Business Award, Madison Magazine, 2007; “Ten of the Best” award for extraordinary effort to establish effective policies to promote agriculture in Wisconsin, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, 2007; and induction into the National Cooperative Hall of Fame, National Federation of Cooperatives, 2003.  He was elected president of a new North Central Bio-Economy Consortium 2007.

He served as President and CEO of the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives (WFC) for 24 years.  For the last ten years, he has also headed the Minnesota Association of Cooperatives, which has worked in an alliance with WFC. He founded Cooperative Development Services, spearheaded the overhaul of the Wisconsin Agriculture Marketing Act, and played a pivotal role in the creation and establishment of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, as well as the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board and the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board.

He is a founding chair of the National Rural Cooperative Development Task Force, and was on the Governor’s Commission on Agriculture.  He also served as initial chair of the Coalition for Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching and the UW Board of Visitors. He is a 1970 graduate of UW-River Falls and received his JD Degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1974.

Stephanie Tai is an Assistant Professor at the UW Law School and focuses her scholarly research on the interactions between environmental and health sciences and administrative law. She has written on the consideration of scientific studies and environmental justice concerns by administrative agencies, and is currently studying the role of scientific dialogues before the judicial system. She was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University from 2002-2005 and a visiting professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law during the 2005-06 academic year. Her teaching interests include administrative law, environmental law, property, environmental justice, risk regulation and comparative Asian environmental law.  At Georgetown, she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review and was a member of the Georgetown Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Team.

After graduating from Georgetown, Professor Tai worked as the editor-in-chief of the International Review for Environmental Strategies, a publication by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan. She also served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Ronald Lee Gilman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She then worked as an appellate attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she briefed and argued cases involving a range of issues, from the protection of endangered cave species in Texas to the issuance of dredge and fill permits under the Clean Water Act.

During the summer before joining the UW Law School faculty, Professor Tai teamed up with several other law professors to work on two Supreme Court amicus briefs: one for a group of legislators in Environmental Defense v. Duke Energy Corp., No. 05-0848, and another for a group of scientists in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 05-1120.