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HIGHLIGHTS FROM AGRI-PULSE'S AG & FOOD SUMMIT
Mar. 19, 2019
Agri-Pulse reports:
A coalition of four multinational food giants - Danone, Mars, Nestle and Unilever - will be stepping up pressure on Congress for U.S. action to address climate change, and the group also will try to influence the development of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
"We've got to get some action on climate change. You'll see us ramping up significantly," Brad Figel, vice president of public affairs at Mars, said at the Agri-Pulse Summit. He said the coalition would also be filing comments soon on the dietary guidelines.
The summit's focus was on the future of agriculture over the next 20 years, and it's going to be a period of continued turmoil for the egg industry. "What is conventional (caged egg production) now will no longer be in business. We will have another conventional," said Chad Gregory, president and CEO of the United Egg Producers. Producers are being forced to convert to cage-free so the food service and retail industry can meet commitments that they've made.
By the way: Labor shortages are a challenge for farmers all across the country - across commodities, and across generations. John Shepherd, a 34-year-old grain grower in southern Virginia, said one of the biggest challenges he's faced as a young farmer is finding reliable workers: "The key is to find good labor and good help. Good luck."
She said it: "We ask so much of our farmers. Are we going to keep asking them to do more and more and it's not going to be valued?" That was Tina May with Land O'Lakes Sustain, addressing the question of whether farmers will eventually get compensated for meeting sustainability requirements.
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