Allan and John Williams represented the Australian

cotton industry at a workshop on environmental management

systems in agriculture, in Denver, Colorado, from 8-10th January, 2003.

The workshop was organised as part of a project titled

Partnerships for Livestock Environmental Management Systems

(PLEMS). The PLEMS project is piloting the use of

environmental management systems (EMS) in Livestock

operations in nine states.

Thye Plems project is funded by the US Department of Agriculture and the US Environment Protection Agency. Implementation of the project is being co-ordinated by the University fo Wisconsin. It is a four year project to explore the potential of agricultural environmental management systems to resolve community and regulatory concerns by supporting the development of strategies to reduce impacts of livestock manure on the environment and public health.