Summit to address critical animal welfare issues

The day and a half conference will be held on April 8-9 at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. This year's theme will be ''Animal Welfare: Building Bridges Across the Food Chain.''

For the second year in a row, Mike Adams, host of rural American radio programme AgriTalk and one of America's best-known agricultural journalists, will moderate this event.

Special topics to be addressed at the Summit include:

• Animal welfare's impact on the future of food retail;
• Meeting restaurant and retailer expectations;
• Legislation, regulation and government initiatives;
• Legislation's unintended consequences;
• International animal welfare regulation and their potential impact on trade; and
• The Pew Commission on industrial farm animal production.

In addition, the Summit breakout sessions will feature speakers focusing on connecting the food chain, educating consumers and protecting American agriculture.

Kevin Murphy, President of Food Chain Communications, will focus on the importance of building relationships across the food chain and then present ways to strengthen these ever more critical relationships. The importance of this topic is underscored by an increasing number of statements on animal welfare made by major grocers and restaurants over the past year.

Johnson-Smith, executive vice president of the Alliance, commented that "our goal is to provide attendees from around the world the insight and information to successfully meet future challenges.''

To register on the web, visit the Alliance website at www.animalalliance.org.

Related website:

• AgriTalk

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