The first day of the 2012 North American Ag & Food HR Roundtable is a wrap. Agribusiness representatives, university personnel and HR professionals have listened two to renowned speakers and already have had a fun evening networking with agriculture colleagues from across the country sponsored by ADM.

A big shout out to Tyson Foods for hosting the event. A pre-conference tour was offered where attendees had the opportunity to take a behind the scenes look into how Tyson’s works their magic. It is easy to tell we are all welcome on their campus because every employee I have seen has greeted me with a smile on their face.

Greg Honey, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Farm Credit Canada (FCC), took the stage after a warm welcome from Eric Spell, President of AgCareers. He discussed the importance of reinventing the image of agriculture and the food industry. FCC just launched AgricultureMoreThanEver.ca where you can share your agriculture story and listen to others.

Economist and futurist, Dr. Jay Lehr, has five decades of expertise in agricultural economics, agronomy, environmental science and business administration. He talked about how the price of ‘X’ impacts recruitment and retention in the agriculture and food industry. He challenged us all to spend two hours a month simply talking about what we know about agriculture to someone different. He shared this video of him doing just that in San Francisco, CA.

Follow the event on Twitter using #AgRT and check out our photo album for the 2012 North American Ag & Food HR Roundtable.