The first in the series of 2013 National Ag Day activities is an Agri-Pulse sponsored session titled, “Farm to Fork Politics: An Insider’s look at the year ahead for food and agriculture”

Join us for this panel discussion moderated by Sara Wyant of Agri-Pulse and featuring J.B. Penn of John Deere, former USDA Chief Economist, Dr. Keith Collins and B. Hudson Riehle, the Senior Vice President of the Research and Information Services Division for the National Restaurant Association.

I spoke with Sara before we got started tonight and asked about her perspective of what the year ahead will hold. Sara is very optimistic about agriculture and food. She sees heightened interest in these subjects here on Capitol Hill. She says it’s a time of fiscal austerity with budget cutting and a need to figure out what’s best to maintain a sustainable ag industry and work to feed a growing population.

We’ve got a big crowd here tonight. There were over 330 pre-registered and we’re expecting House and Senate leadership to join us for the reception following this session.

You can listen to my interview with Sara here: Interview with Sara Wyant

I’ll be saving a lot of photos to my online photo album: 2013 National Ag Day Activities Photo Album