Leaders in nutrition, biotechnology, farming and ranching will assemble to discuss food issues

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — Americans continue to have questions about how food is grown and raised. In response, the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, which was created to lead the dialogue and answer questions consumers have about food production through unique events, social media, access to farmers and ranchers, and content on its website, www.fooddialogues.com, will host The Food Dialogues: New York .

Recently, USFRA announced the list of panelists who will assemble at The Times Center in Midtown Manhattan Nov. 15 for panel discussions on some of today’s most pressing issues concerning food — antibiotics, biotechnology and media, marketing and food.

Topics

The panel discussions, which will stream live at www.fooddialogues.com, will focus on three separate topics. USFRA has assembled a group of panelists who are experts in their respective fields with various points of view on the panel topics, including Tracie McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating, representatives from Consumers Union, the American Veterinary Medical Association and farmers and ranchers from across the country.

Following is the current roster of participants and topics that will be covered Nov. 15: The Media, Marketing and Healthy Choices panel will examine how the media’s coverage of food and its health benefits has impacted consumer choice.

This discussion also will address what more can be done to answer Americans’ questions about how their food is grown and raised.

Panelists

Expert panelists include: Tracie McMillan, author; Debbie Beauvais, New York School Nutrition president and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson; Blake Hurst, president, Missouri Farm Bureau; Craig McNamara, California organic farmer; Richard Ball, New York vegetable farmer.

Experts will discuss antibiotics and its use and application in animal agriculture. USFRA has secured: Dr. Christine Hoang, DVM, MPH, CPH, assistant director of the Division of Scientific Activities of the American Veterinary Medical Association; Jean Halloran, director of Food Policy Initiatives, Consumers Union; Keith Ayoob, pediatric nutritionist, Alert Einstein School of Medicine; Dr. Karen Jordan, Brush Creek Swiss Farms, North Carolina – dairy farmer and veterinarian.

The food panel will include experts who are well-versed in the use of biotech seeds, including the benefits and concerns related to long-term health and food labeling including: Pamm Larry, the leader of California’s Prop 37, “GMO labeling” initiative; Dr. Bob Goldberg, plant molecular biologist currently using genomics to identify all of the genes required to “make a seed”; UCLA Jerry Slocum, Mississippi soybean farmer; Julie Howard, chief scientist, Food Security, USAID.

In addition to the panel discussions, USFRA has plans to announce farmers and ranchers who are semi-finalists for its Faces of Farming and Ranching program.

Registration

To attend an event in-person, go to http://fooddialogues.com/ny-food-dialogues/rsvp or call 888-258-7372 for additional details. For information about USFRA and to see footage from past Food Dialogues events, visit www.fooddialogues.com. To join the conversation online, visit www.facebook.com/USFarmersandRanchers and follow USFRA on Twitter @USFRA using #FoodD.