The University of Wisconsin, River Falls hosted CFACT’s Gabriella Hoffman as part of its “Faith, Freedom, & Farming” event on campus where Hoffman spoke about agriculture and conservation issues to a good-sized crowd during finals week.
Student organizers of the event pose with Hoffman (4th from left, bottom row) after the speech.
“I recently concluded my spring 2023 speaker tour at UW-River Falls where I discussed the role agriculture plays in conservation,” Hoffman said. “I was the group’s first-ever speaker. Despite it being finals week, 35 students and community members showed up to hear me discuss how climate alarmists get ranchers and farmers wrong. I also showed our CFACT reporting work from Florida – ‘How Cows Keep Florida Green’ – to contextualize the good the ag industry does. The attendees came away from my remarks inspired and enthused to learn more about true conservation.”
The Collegians-focused event comes soon after Earth Day to show students, professors, and the public that conservative and libertarian-leaning students have a great passion and care for environmental issues, but they want to address these issues in a way that doesn’t trample over freedoms and liberties.
Too often, especially on college and university campuses, matters of agriculture, the environment, and conservation are approached from a “big-government solutions” only perspective that threatens private property rights and access to energy freedom. CFACT and Hoffman attempt to provide an alternative to such conversations.
For example, the “How Cows Keep Florida Green” segment Hoffman mentioned is an episode of CFACT’s Conservation Nation YouTube series. That episode showcases how ranching cows creates an economic incentive for the ranchers to maintain their land so that it remains sustainable for the cows each year. Without the ranchers, the State of Florida would be forced to come in and manage the land at much higher cost and administrative headache. That video can be seen here.
This event wraps up Hoffman’s outreach tour on conservation issues. She had also talked to student groups at George Mason University in Virginia, Texas A&M University, and Indiana University, Bloomington.
Stay tuned for more outreach updates from CFACT to Collegians across the country!