Durham, NC - A free public forum to address what new federal climate and energy legislation could mean for North Carolina farmers and foresters takes place Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the Sampson County Agri-Exposition Center in Clinton, N.C.

The daylong forum is intended to give producers and landowners a chance to share their concerns and hear the latest analysis about climate and energy policies' likely economic effects from scientists, policy experts, and representatives from the N.C. Farm Bureau Federation and other key stakeholders.

"There's a lot of speculation about how the passage of climate policies in coming years could affect North Carolina's farming and forestry producers," says event organizer Christopher Galik, research coordinator at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. "Our goal is to provide a balanced assessment, based on nonpartisan science and analysis, as well as a venue for discussion."

Presentations, panel discussions and Q&A sessions will focus on five key topics:

-- The role of agriculture and forestry in climate and energy policy;
-- The potential costs and benefits of climate and energy policy;
-- Making the transition from existing markets to a cap-and-trade system;
-- Carbon markets and offsets; and
-- Opportunities in biofuels, biomass, swine/manure, and forestry.

The forum is sponsored by the Nicholas Institute, North Carolina State University Extension Forestry, the Sampson County Cooperative Extension Service, and 25x'25, a public policy initiative of agriculture, forestry, business, labor, conservation and religious leaders.

For more information, go to www.nicholas.duke.edu/agmeeting.

Registration deadline is Sept. 14. To reserve a seat, contact David Cooley at (919) 684-1133 or david.cooley@duke.edu.