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Vice president Communications and Government Relations, National Grain and Feed Association
Managing risk in volatile markets, major legislative and regulatory initiatives on food and feed safety, advancements in biofuels technology and rail transportation will headline the program when the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) conducts its 112th annual convention on March 26-28 in Scottsdale, AZ.
More than 500 top executives from the grain handling, feed, grain processing and grain exporting business are scheduled to attend the three-day event, which will be conducted at the Westin Kierland Resort.
Invited to keynote the NGFA convention is Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, who has spearheaded the Bush administration’s development of a multifaceted Import Safety Strategic Framework; a science- and risk-based Food Protection Plan; and two separate Memoranda of Agreement with China on the safety of food, feed and pharmaceutical products exported to the United States.
Meanwhile, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., has been invited to provide a congressional update on the farm bill and other major legislative issues. Fernando Palacios, president of Land O’Lakes Purina Feed LLC, North America’s largest commercial feed manufacturing enterprise, will present a thought-provoking address on the major challenges facing the feed industry. NGFA Chairman Ron Olson, vice president, grain operations, General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., will preview industry challenges and report on accomplishments as he concludes his two-year term. And federal Surface Transportation Board Chairman Charles Nottingham is scheduled to address a major Rail Open Forum during the convention. Other major speakers are scheduled to be announced soon.
Several major panel discussions also will be featured at the NGFA convention. One will focus on the factors that commodity fund traders — a growing and increasingly important factor in grain and oilseed futures markets — will be evaluating when making investment decisions in the coming year.
Another will examine innovative over-the-counter risk-management tools that the grain and feed sector may be able to utilize to hedge against price and inventory risk. A third panel will preview the advancements in biofuels manufacturing technology that will be needed to meet congressional renewable fuels mandates for the use of cellulosic ethanol production.