Connecting Agriculture and Health virtual conference set Jan. 5

AgriLife Extension’s ‘From the Ground Up’ event will be online

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service with be holding the “Connecting Agriculture and Health – From the Ground Up” conference on Jan. 5 from 8:50 a.m.-4 p.m. online.

The event is designed for health professionals, registered dietitians, registered nurses, educators, students and consumers.

The cost is $50 or $25 for fulltime students and includes lunch. Once registered, participants will receive the online link. The registration deadline is Dec. 29.

“Our goal for the Connecting Agriculture and Health – From the Ground Up conference is to present health professionals, educators and consumers unbiased, research-based information focused on the important role that agriculture plays in our daily lives,” said Dana Tarter, AgriLife Extension regional program leader for family and community health, Stephenville. 

Tarter said the information provided at the conference is intended to help individuals as they make decisions related to agriculture and health. Participants will receive a certificate of attendance, and continuing education hours are available for some organizations and fields. For more information, refer to the registration page.

Topics and speakers include:

• What is A2 Milk and Why Do We Care? — Barb Jones, Ph.D., director, Southwest Regional Dairy Center, jointly appointed to Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Tarleton State University, Stephenville.
• Urban/Suburban Fertilizer Use and Non-Point Source Pollution — Jake Mowrer, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension soil fertility specialist in the Texas A&M Soil and Crop Sciences Department, Bryan-College Station.
• Challenges in the Food Supply Chain — Tracy Tomascik, associate director, Commodity and Regulatory Activities, Texas Farm Bureau, Waco.
• Commercial Vegetable and Strawberry Production in Texas — Russ Wallace, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension horticulturist, Lubbock.
• How Farmers and Ranchers Are Responding to Trending Consumer Preferences — Jason Johnson, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension economist, Stephenville.

“We have an excellent line up of presenters for our conference,” Tarter said. “Each presenter brings to this conference a wealth of knowledge on specific aspects of agriculture and the connection to our health.”

She said conference participants will get information they can use to make informed decisions as consumers and can share with others to help extend the outreach of factual and reliable information related to the connection between agriculture and health.

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