An international environmental conference is coming closer to Ames than ever before, and this year will feature an ISU faculty member as a presenter.

Fred Kirschenmann, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, is one of 15 speakers at the 14th annual Bioneers conference.

The topic of the conference has always been “the whole umbrella of sustainable living” as well as social justice, said Marie Silva, a tree crop farmer from Fairfield.

The conference takes place Friday through Sunday in San Francisco and is being broadcast live by satellite to 12 sites, which include New York City; Toronto, Ontario; Houston, Texas; and Fairfield. “It’s a phenomenal event and the fact that it’s even in Iowa is more phenomenal,” Silva said.

Kirschenmann, who will speak Friday, has written extensively about organic farming and is a leader in the sustainable agriculture movement, she said.

The Bioneers conference features entertainment and workshops in addition to speeches by “environmental visionaries” such as Kirschenmann, she said.

Fairfield, a town about an hour south of Iowa City, applied nationally to host a conference, said Diana Krystofiak, a Fairfield volunteer who organized the conference. Hosting the conference are the city of Fairfield and the Fairfield Sierra Club.

Organizers of the national conference were “very impressed” with Fairfield’s application, Krystofiak said.

“For a small community, Fairfield has a lot going on in terms of sustainable agriculture,” she said.

For example, the Fairfield satellite conference will be the first Bioneers conference to run on solar power. Krystofiak and other volunteers are bringing in equipment to generate electricity from sunlight to power the building.

Sixty people pre-registered for the conference in Fairfield, from high school seniors to retirees, Krysofiak said. While the sold-out San Francisco conference had a price tag of $350, students can come to Fairfield for $15 a day.

“The idea is to inspire people to get involved to restore this earth and heal this earth,” she said.

Krystofiak said there will also be workshops exclusive to the Fairfield conference that will complement the 15 speeches broadcast from California.

“We were looking for remarkable activists,” she said. For example, a group of nuns who built an environmentally sound retreat will lead a workshop at the conference in Fairfield.

“They have moved the Catholic Church to fund a facility where ecological standards and practices are given the highest priority,” Krystofiak said.

The retreat has a wetland septic system, solar water heating and restored prairie landscaping, she said.

In addition, Severn Cullis Suzuki, a 23-year-old activist who started the Environmental Children’s Organization as an 11-year-old, will speak Sunday.