When it comes to food, what makes the news? This was a topic that was discussed by a panel at the Bayer AgVocate Forum last week in New Orleans. On the panel were Agri-Pulse president Sara Wyant; Forbes contributor and author Kavin Senapathy; and freelancer Lorie Farrell.

When asked what is news to you, Lorie said she and her colleagues have been debating that, what is news? But she said news to her was anything people are talking about that relates to food and crop agriculture. Every morning Kavin looks at what’s trending on Facebook and Twitter and if it affects families their health or their wallets then it’s news. While Sara said you do have to see what’s happening each day but she tries to believe in the Wayne Gretzky theory of journalism and she wants to be thinking about where the puck is going and not where’s it’s been. So she and her team try to think a little beyond the news cycle but what’s going to be in the news as much as what’s hitting day to day.

So where is it going? The coverage of food in mainstream media? Sara said one big topic is the GMO labeling debate and the fact that the Senate Ag Committee has moved the ball and obviously the presidential campaign. Whereas Lorie said for her it’s pesticides. She lives in Hawaii and said pesticides, or crop protection, is a big concern on the big island. She also noted that consumers use pesticides while the industry uses crop protection and there is a huge fear among consumers around pesticides being driven by organizations such as Center for Food Safety, and the ag industry needs to address these concerns head on.

Kavin said when covering health and disease she usually finds a connection somewhere to agriculture. For example, she said when the Zika outbreak started hitting the news she had a feeling some sort of ag-related conspiracy was going to pop up and it did.

Learn more about food and the news by listening to the full panel discussion: Food News #AgVocate Panel

Here’s where you can find lots of photos: Bayer AgVocacy Forum Photos