The topic for the 2014 Camden Conference is truly as important as any one the Conference has ever tackled. “The Global Politics of Food and Water" will take place February 21-23 at The Camden Opera House, with live-streaming at two other locations and promises to be a provocative look into the global dynamics of managing the world’s food and water resources at a time when the challenge to meet the ever increasing demand for them has never been more critical.

Now in its 27th year, the mission of the Camden Conference is to promote informed and civil discourse on global issues and in addition to the three-day February event, the Conference will be offering wide-ranging and numerous other Community Events dealing with food and water. These will offer the Midcoast community an opportunity to learn first-hand about the issues, dilemmas and solutions facing both the world, America and Maine.

More extensive than ever, events this year range from traditional library lectures to special day-long symposia with partnering organizations, to a new short-read discussion series, plus the ever-popular Tom & Mac Show.

Community Events Special Events kick off this year at the Common Ground Fair with seminar on farming and climate change (September 22). The Penobscot East Resource Center in Stonington hosts a day-long symposium on community-based fisheries management with a boat tour of East Penobscot Bay (October 5); and a discussion about European agricultural practices and policies in partnership with the Maine Farmland Trust will take place in Camden (October 12).

A tour and talk at the Medomak Valley High School Heirloom Seed Project (October 19) will be followed by a two-part lecture series at The Strand in Rockland with Farnsworth Director of Education Roger Dell and Dr. Keith Collins. “Bon Appetit! Food Goes Global” (November 6) and "Salud! A History of Drink” (November 13) will entertainingly connect art to this year’s topic.

With so many well-known experts in the Midcoast, the library lecture series this fall has a stellar line-up of speakers. To start, Rockland Public Library will host “Feeding the World in the Face of Climate Change” with Jonathan Woolley, an expert on agricultural development, who will speak on farming and climate change in developing countries (October 28). Then, James Merkel, a sustainability expert and author will talk about “Sustainability and Resilience” (November 14).

At Camden Public Library, Graham Shimmield of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Boothbay will speak on “The Future of the Oceans” (November 12); Kerry Emanuel, a noted climate scientist at MIT, will discuss “Climate Change Effects on Weather” (December 19); Harvard lecturer Mark Van Baalen will present “A Short History of Water” (January 14); and internationally recognized desalination expert James Birkett will speak on “The History and Future of Desalination” (February 14).

The lineup at the Belfast Free Library will include Keith Blizzard, creator of the website Green Blizzard, who will offer some simple steps each of us can take to reduce our carbon footprint and conserve energy and resources.

In addition a new Community Events Discussion Series will host a set of facilitated discussions at the Rockport, Camden, Rockland and Belfast libraries, focusing on a number of key themes. The series kicks off on September 17 at Camden Public Library at 7:00 pm with “The Coming Food Crisis: How Do We Feed the World in 2050?” and on September 21 at 10:00 am at Rockport Public Library the discussion is titled "Fresh Water Scarcity.”  Short articles and videos (available for download on the Camden Conference website) make the tools to participate in these discussions accessible to all.  So come “Join the Conversation!”

The Camden Conference is a nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization whose mission is to foster informed discourse on world affairs through year-round community events, public and student engagement, and an annual weekend Conference featuring distinguished speakers focusing on a central theme related to U.S. foreign affairs.  For more information, please visit www.camdenconference.org or call 207-236-1034.