Global Town Hall Meeting to be Headlined by Ag Secretary
Former Iowa Governor and current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will be at Iowa State University October 12 to participate in a "Global Farmer Town Hall" meeting. It's one of several events associated with the annual World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines next week.
Rod Swoboda
Published: Oct 5, 2010
Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, will be at Iowa State University in Ames on Oct. 12, 2010 to participate in a "Global Farmer Town Hall" meeting. As part of the United Nations' International Year of Biodiversity, a panel made up of farmers and others from around the globe will convene at ISU to discuss sustainable agriculture practices and their role in biodiversity preservation.
The event will be held 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium in Howe Hall on the Ames campus. ISU is cosponsoring the event with Crop Life of America and Truth about Trade and Technology in conjunction with the World Food Prize week activities, which include the annual World Food Prize symposium to be held Oct. 13-15 in Des Moines.
Vilsack will present opening remarks and be available to answer questions from students and the audience. The panel will feature farmers from Asia, Latin America and North America explaining what they do daily to preserve the environment, plus experts will address how these practices benefit our world.
Truly global discussion, this event will be broadcast around the world
Pam Johnson, who is involved in a family farm operation near Floyd in north-central Iowa, is one of the farmer panelists. Other farmers are Rajesh Kumar, who grows vegetables in India, and Luis Rodriguez, a corn and cattle farmer from Honduras. Other panelists include Gary Munkvold, Seed Science Endowed Chair and chair of the Graduate Program in Seed Technology and Business at Iowa State, and Judy Chambers, director of the Program for Biosafety Systems at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
Orion Samuelson, host of nationally syndicated agricultural broadcasts, will facilitate the town hall meeting. For a truly global discussion, the event will be broadcast around the world via the Internet and the panel will take questions live via Twitter, email, Facebook and two-way video. Advance registration is recommended but not required, and is free. Register at ISUTownHall.Eventbrite.com. The event will be streamed live via Webcast at www.biodiversityworldtour.com/. To submit a question for the panel, go to: www.biodiversityworldtour.com/ISU.
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Tagged: farm, Iowa State University, the farmer, United Nations, sustainable agriculture
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