A public conference on "Man and His Polluted Environment," sponsored by the Natural Food Associates, will be held today and tomorrow at the Sheraton Commander Hotel.

Natural Food Associates, a non-profit, educational organization based in Atlanta, Texas, is founded on the principle that each individual is entitled "to breath fresh air, drink clean water, and eat pure food."

"This nation has lost the freedoms of good air, water, and food," said John M. Whittaker, a veterinarian and one of the five conference leaders. "Most ofour food is over-preserved to the point where it is toxic or useless; we are prostituting our daily bread with over-use of chemicals."

The association, however, is not attempting to bring legal or political pressure on specific companies or individuals, according to Whittaker. They seek to inform the public of environmental dangers with the hope that once informed of the dangers, the public will act to eliminate them.

One of the major topics of the conference will be the harmful effect which modern agricultural methods have on soil and livestock.

"The soil is alive...good soil is anyway," Whittaker said. "But all the chemical fertilizers we're using are diluting it, killing it. Nobody knows for sure the full effect of killing the soil, but we've got pretty good evidence now that soil artificially enhanced with too much chemical fertilizer is producing plants that won't keep animals alive."

"For centuries we've been breeding meat animals toward faster growth and earlier maturity. There are great benefits for a protein-hungry world, but we're creating freaks that have very low natural tolerance to disease and infection, and the fodder crops won't sustain them," Whittaker added.

The conference opens at 9 a.m.