Fleetwood will discuss the North Carolina Farm-to-School Cooperative, created in 2008. The co-op’s 30 farmer-members supply 12 commodities – ranging from strawberries to sweet potatoes – to 67 school districts in North Carolina.

Research suggests that in the short run, the production, distribution, and consumption of ethanol will create about 20 percent fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than the equivalent processes for gasoline. In the long run, the result is less clear. If increases in the production of ethanol led to a...