Our friends at Farm Foundation have a couple of upcoming key events.
First, this Friday, June 26, there’s a Farm Foundation workshop at the Waugh Auditorium of USDA’s Economic Research Service, 1800 M Street NW, Washington, D.C. entitled Local Food Systems: Emerging Research & Policy Issues that will, as the name implies, look at locally grown food and the impact of this small, but rapidly growing, market:
Despite growing interest in local foods, many questions remain about the impacts of local food systems on environmental and human health, food safety, marketing arrangements, and rural development. It also remains unclear what types of economic tradeoffs are associated with growth in local foods, and no consensus exists on the appropriate role for Government programs and policies in local food systems.
The goals of this workshop are to:
* Describe the size and scope of local food systems and discuss how the performance of local food markets is evaluated.
* Critically examine measures of local food market performance, including price and product availability, impacts on rural economic development, environmental consequences and sustainability, food safety and quality, and social welfare issues.
* Assess the economics of local foods by discussing supply and demand issues related to local food systems, as well as marketing considerations involved in the industry;
* Explore the range of current government involvement in local food systems, including existing programs that foster local food distribution at the federal, state, and local levels, potential unintended consequences arising from public sector involvement, and barriers to growth in local food systems;
* Examine the appropriate role for future government involvement in local food systems.
The room is filled up, so Farm Foundation will be providing this video link so you can register and can still take it in.
And then next week, on June 30-July 1, Farm Foundation will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas for the final in its conferences looking at agriculture issues and the bioeconomy.
The Transition to a Bioeconomy: The Role of Extension in Energy conference will be held in the city’s Doubletree Hotel:
The program features experts working in renewable energy, biofuels, energy efficiency and new energy technologies. Presenters include industry leaders, staff from USDA and the U.S. Department of Energy, and researchers working in energy efficiency, renewable energy and new energy technologies.
Plenary sessions will address the important role of Extension educators in providing consumers with timely information on energy-related programs and research findings. An outlook on renewable energy technologies will also be featured. In addition to plenary sessions, six workshops are planned to allow participants to focus in on specific areas of interest. Workshop topics are:
* Risk Management for Energy Investments
* Making Energy Efficiency Choices
* Energy Crop Agronomics
* Forestry
* Harvest, Storage and Logistics
* Extension and Other Delivery Methods
You can find more information at this Farm Foundation Web site.