Week in Preview: Washington Conference

We’re changing things up a little this week. Instead of a review, here’s a preview of next week’s IFPA Washington Conference.

At the annual event next week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is scheduled to address IFPA members for the first time, Tuesday, June 9.

In addition to Rollins, scheduled to address attendees are Senator John Boozman (R-AR), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee; Congresswoman Shontel Brown (D-OH), Vice Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee; Justin Benavidez, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture; and more.

See the speaker lineup here.

IFPA lists the following as issues that attendees will advocate for:

• Labor: Push for passage of guestworker visa reform legislation to ensure a reliable workforce.
• Trade: Safeguard trade by encouraging lawmakers to ensure trade policy is rules-based and avoids broad measures.
• Nutrition & Consumption: Improve public health by increasing fruit and vegetable consumption using federal policy levers.
• Food Safety:  Ensure robust resources for FDA and state food safety programs and advocate for harmonized science- and risk-based standards.
• U.S. Farm Bill: End the delays. Make Congress act and deliver the investments needed to grow demand, strengthen markets, and protect specialty crop competitiveness.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): Encourage development of a federal preemption and exclusions for fragmented state EPR requirements.

Blue Book leadership plans to attend the conference, as I will be joined by our CEO Kirk Soule and CFO Dan Wywrot.

Please find us and say hello.