I recently attended the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s 14th Annual Stakeholders Summit. It was a great summit with top-notch speakers, important and relevant topics, and great networking opportunities (you can find the agenda and full details here). This year the theme was the Journey to Extraordinary, focusing on transparency and opening the barn doors.
I wanted to share some of the messages that resonated with me, via my twitter account that was blowing up last week. These are just a few of the messages, to follow the entire conversation check out #aaa15. Also, you can listen to the presentation recordings here.
– Rising global temps will make it a challenge to provide a stable environment to grow food in the future.
– Hunger and food availability are very real issues in America!
– In depth look at food and ag by National Geographic.
– Lots of great Millennial research.
– The average U.S. family of four waste every 1 in 3 calories – Wow!
– 1 in 8 people suffer from hunger. Yet we still fight over safe Ag technologies (ie GMO).
– Retailers don’t like Ag to use a technology that they can’t defend to consumers.
– Mandatory GM labeling would add approx $500/yr/family in grocery costs!
– All food is local, it is just globally dispersed.
– Personable, passionate, and transparent people are good for Ag.
– Don’t throw your fellow producers under the bus for personal gain.
– Most animals get a perfect diet, they prob eat better than most people!
– Social media doesn’t replace one-on-one conversations with people – engage in person too.
– In order for teams to have a lot of innovation, they embrace the risk that comes with it!
– Stay calm and keep messages consistent! Good advice for a daunting interview.
– Start planning today if you don’t have a crisis management plan yet.
– Your employees are your best brand investors in the communities and at home.
As you can see the speakers, topics, and conversations were varied and diverse. There was some great information I can use instantly, and there is some stuff I will have to think on some more.
Do any of these message hit home for you?
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Dr. Lindsay can also be found on:
– Website (http://food.unl.edu/ag-and-food)
– Twitter/Instagram (agwithdrlindsay)
– Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/agwithdrlindsay)
– Pinterest (Lindsay Chichester-Medahunsi)
Agricultural with Dr. Lindsay 