Alliance Welcomes Agri-Pulse's Sara Wyant as Summit Moderator
February 12, 2010 - The Animal Agriculture Alliance is excited to announce that Sara Wyant of Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc. will take on a new role as conference moderator at the ninth annual Stakeholders Summit on April 28-29, 2010. Every year, the Summit brings together stakeholders from across the food chain to address the most challenging issues facing animal agriculture, including animal welfare, public health, farm security, and the animal rights movement.

Wyant currently serves as the President of Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc., and is widely recognized both by policy makers on Capitol Hill and by agricultural organizations across the country for her thought-provoking reporting of farm issues. Her newsletter and Web site (www.agri-pulse.com) provide the latest updates on policies affecting food safety, commodity and conservation programs, and rural development.

In her role as moderator, Wyant will delve into the Summit's theme, "Truth, Lies, and Videotape: Is Activism Jeopardizing Our Food Security?" in order to facilitate discussion between panel members and attendees. As a past president of the American Agricultural Editors' Association and a recipient of an "Oscar in Agriculture" award for excellence in agricultural reporting, Wyant brings with her a deep understanding of the critical challenges facing todayﾑs agriculture sector. She also gained first-hand knowledge of crop and livestock production while growing up on her family's farm in Iowa.

"Summit attendees will benefit from Sara's depth of knowledge of agriculture issues," Executive Vice President Kay Johnson Smith said. "We look forward to hosting a thought-provoking discussion that will help develop strategies to protect our nation's food supply from animal rights extremists."

For the past three years, Mike Adams, host of AgriTalk and one of America's best-known agricultural journalists, has excelled at moderating the Summit. The Alliance is thankful for Adams' continued commitment to American agriculture but looks forward to this opportunity to partner with a new segment of the media.

A full 100 percent of the 2009 Summit attendees rated the program "excellent" or "good." The Alliance will build on this success in 2010, featuring new, high-profile speakers to discuss the threat that animal activists pose to food security in the United States. The Summit offers a unique forum for constructing new, proactive tactics to counter activists' campaigns against America's food producers.

The Summit will be held at The Westin Arlington Gateway hotel in Arlington, Virginia. Attendees should book rooms in the "Animal Agriculture Alliance" block at the special rate of $239 by visiting the hotel's Web site at http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/animalagrialliance or by calling (703) 717-6200. Early registration for the one-and-a-half day event is $325 for Alliance members and $375 for non-members. The Alliance is offering a special rate of $275 for those in government or academia. Registration materials are available on the Alliance's Web site at www.animalagalliance.org.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance, a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, is a broad-based coalition of individual farmers, ranchers, producer organizations, suppliers, packer-processors, private industry scientists, veterinarians and retailers. The Alliance's mission is to communicate the important role of animal agriculture to our nation's economy, productivity, vitality and security and that animal well-being is central to producing safe, high-quality, affordable food and other products essential to our daily lives.