Registration is now underway for USDA’s 102nd annual Agricultural Outlook Forum. And according to World Agricultural Outlook Board Chair Mark Jekanowski:
“This year, the event itself is going to be live, in person, at the Crystal City Gateway Marriott, Arlington, Virginia. But every session will be live-streamed. If you can’t make it into D.C., you can still take in the full content of the program — every session.”
The Feb. 19-20 event includes several panel discussions and events, such as traditional fare during the opening session on the Thursday morning of the forum.
“We’ll have a session on the agricultural economic outlook, and this year we are excited that that’s going to be done by our brand-new chief economist, Justin Benavidez.”
While the focus of this year’s plenary session is on:
“Agricultural trade agenda, the Trump administration — that’s going to be featured prominently on the first day.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins provides a keynote address during the forum, and multiple breakout sessions are planned for the two-day event. Some are familiar topics, like:
“Farm income, food prices, all of the standard commodity outlook sessions that we always include, and looking forward to the commodity outlook for the new crop year.”
Other topics featured with the ag outlook forum programming include:
“We’re going to have a session this year on biofuels. We’ll have a session on farm security and national security as one of the breakout sessions. Some topics on innovations in ag production. Sessions on animal diseases. We’ll have a session on HPAI and New World screwworm.”
And on-site at the forum in Crystal City:
“We have a large room set aside for all of the agencies and mission areas within USDA to highlight the things they’re working on. And we’ll also have a large innovations exhibit — an opportunity to highlight some of those innovations that USDA scientists are working on.”
Registration and more details about this year’s forum are available online at www.usda.gov/oce. Click on the link to the Agricultural Outlook Forum.