The Future of Food and Farming An Agriculture Day Dialogue
Is technology in agriculture creating environmental improvements and economic growth or perpetuating public fears?

3:30pm
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Hart Senate Office Building, Room 902
Washington, DC
Agri-Pulse Reception Immediately Following

Agenda

Moderator

Alan Bjerga, Bloomberg News

Agriculture Policy Reporter, Bloomberg News
Author, "Endless Appetites: How the Commodities Casino Creates Hunger and Unrest"

Alan Bjerga is the author of the book "Endless Appetites: How the Commodities Casino Creates Hunger and Unrest" and the 2010 president of the National Press Club. He covers agricultural policy for Bloomberg News and in 2010-2011 was also the president of the North American Agricultural Journalists.

In 2012, Mr. Bjerga joined the faculty of Georgetown University as an adjunct instructor. In 2009, he was recognized for his work covering U.S. food aid and the famine in Ethiopia. He received awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the New York Press Club, the Kansas Press Association, the North American Agricultural Journalists, and the Overseas Press Club for this work. Before working for Bloomberg News, Bjerga won the NAAJ's top writing award in 2005 while working for the Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau. Mr. Bjerga grew up on a family farm in northern Minnesota.

Panelists

Dr. Eileen Langdon

North Carolina Family Farmer and Veterinarian

Dr. Eileen Langdon is a full-time practicing veterinarian, a family farmer and a mother of three children. Eileen, along with her husband John and their children live on a working farm in Benson, North Carolina where they raise pigs, cattle and a variety of crops. Dr. Langdon values her role as a long-term steward of the land and takes responsibility for the care of their farm, in the interest of their family, neighbors and industry. The Langdon family strives to inspire and set an example for others on raising future family generations on a farm.

The John M. Langdon Farms won the National Pork Board’s 2011 Environmental Steward Award. In 2011, the Korean Ambassador to the United States toured the farm and discussed the benefits of the proposed U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement to create jobs. The trip was conducted by a partnership between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Korean embassy and Triangle-area business and government leaders.

Dr. Roger Beachy

Former Director National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA
President Emeritus, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Dr. Roger Beachy was the first Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) from October, 2009 through May, 2011 and served as Chief scientist in the USDA from January – October, 2010. He served as founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, 1999-2002, and headed the Division of Plant Biology at The Scripps Research Institute as the Scripps Family Chair in Cell Biology from 2001-1998. Dr. Beachy was Professor in the Biology Department at Washington University in St. Louis, and Director of the Center for Plant Science and Biotechnology from 1978-1991. Dr. Beachy is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Wolf Prize in Agriculture (2001). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology, Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Science India, the Indian National Science Academy, and The Third World Academy of Sciences, and is a Fellow in the Academy of Science of St. Louis. He received the Bank of Delaware's Commonwealth Award for Science and Industry (1991) and the Ruth Allen award 1990 from the American Phytopathological Society (1990), among other awards.

Bryan Dierlam

Director of Government Affairs at Cargill

Bryan Dierlam joined Cargill in 2009 and supports the company’s goal of being the global leader in nourishing people by focusing his work on risk management, sustainability, environment, tax, labor, energy and renewables. Bryan has worked for the House Committee on Agriculture and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. He worked on the 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills, food and feed, futures market regulation, transportation and disaster programs, commodity programs, crop insurance, agriculture appropriations, country of origin labeling, mandatory price reporting, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, and beef trade with Japan. He has testified to the U.S. Congress. Bryan has traded grain and oilseeds, worked in feed yards and packing plants and grew up farming and ranching in Victoria, Texas where him family continues to own a farm and ranch supply store.

Dave White

Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service

Dave White was named Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in 2009. He began his 35-year career with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as a conservation aid in Missouri. Since then, he has served the agency in South Carolina, Montana and its Washington, D.C. headquarters. From 2002 to 2008, Mr. White was assigned as the NRCS State Conservationist in Montana. For much of 2007 and 2008, he was also detailed to Senator Tom Harkin’s Capitol Hill office, where he helped the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry craft the Conservation Title of the 2008 Farm Bill. His earlier jobs in the Washington, D.C. area include two details to the staff of Senator Richard Lugar, in support of agriculture committee work on energy and alternative fuels and the 2002 Farm Bill, and a tour in the White House Task Force for Livable Communities. NRCS provides leadership in a partnership effort to help America's private land owners and managers conserve their soil, water, and other natural resources.

Patrick O’Toole

Wyoming-Colorado rancher

Patrick O’Toole is a rancher and farmer on the Little Snake River along the Wyoming-Colorado border. His public lands ranch, Ladder Livestock, is a six generation family operation raising cows and sheep, and has been recognized for its role in balancing agriculture production and conservation values. Mr. O’Toole served in the Wyoming House of Representatives for six years and shortly after was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission where he authored a minority report. He currently serves as president of Salisbury Livestock Co. and president of the Family Farm Alliance working to ensure the availability of reliable, affordable irrigation water supplies to Western farmers and ranchers. Most recently, Mr. O’Toole has participated in evaluating water sharing on the Colorado River in a national freshwater initiative sponsored by the Johnson Foundation, and is working on a Blue Ribbon committee for the Conservation Title of the new Farm Bill. O’Toole is also active in the Partners for Conservation, an organization that works to fill the gap between the western rural communities and government entities.

About U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA)

U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) is an alliance consisting of a wide range of prominent farmer- and rancher-led organizations and agricultural partners. Currently, we have more than 70 affiliate organizations. This marks the first time agricultural groups at the national, regional and state levels have collaborated to lead the dialogue and answer Americans’ questions about how we raise our food – while being stewards of the environment, responsibly caring for our animals and maintaining strong businesses and communities.

For more information about USFRA, visit www.fooddialogues.com or contact info@fooddialogues.com.