Future Trends in Animal Agriculture, 2011

If you’re around our nation's capital next week, we suggest you stop by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Not for a tour, but for a symposium.

Every year the USDA hosts the “Future Trends in Animal Agriculture” symposium featuring top speakers from the field of animal welfare, and often an animal rights activist or two. We’re not speaking this year, but the lineup is appealing. Among other presentations, we’re looking forward to hearing about what’s been going on with Ohio’s livestock care standards board in the year following the “Buckeye Compromise.”

Two speakers come from the animal rights movement: HSUS’s Paul Shapiro (who runs campaigns designed to put livestock farmers out of business) and former HSUS vice president Miyun Park, who is now with Whole Foods-backed Global Animal Partnership. You might remember Park as the one who said, while she was with HSUS, that HSUS’s goal is “to get rid of the entire [animal agriculture] industry.”

Will she be so forthcoming next Wednesday? We’ll be sure to report on anything noteworthy that she (or Shapiro) says.

Click on the image below to see the full speaking schedule and location details. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, September 21. Preregistration is requested (but not required) and can be completed by emailing your name, address, preferred email, and affiliation (if any) to [email protected].