Here’s What’s on the Minds of the People Tasked with Keeping Agriculture Safe and Profitable
The sausage making behind the sausage making
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that to most people, even food-obsessed ones, spending a day at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture 2019 Winter Policy Conference in Arlington, Va., sounds about as fun as watching reruns of Miami Vice or Teletubbies: Pick your poison.
I am not most people. I spent a decade writing about food and another decade doing nonprofit food system work. When presented with the opportunity to report on the conference, I was excited but also a little cocky, assuming that I already had a solid grasp of the issues. What I did not realize was that attending the NASDA policy conference would be like traveling in a time machine for a sneak peek at what will be driving agricultural legislation in the upcoming years and likely, the next U.S. Farm Bill.
My past agriculture conference experience has been focused on small- to medium-scale sustainable farming of specialty crops (i.e., food), most recently the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Conference. NASDA’s policy conference, a gathering of federal and state leaders, definitely has a different vibe — business casual versus…
