The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture held its 2016 Winter Policy Conference this week in Washington, D.C., to discuss topics affecting food and agriculture. The policy conference, themed “Agriculture Amplified,” brought together state agriculture secretaries, along with representatives of trade associations, state government officials and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

IDFA helped sponsor this year’s NASDA conference. According to Dave Carlin, IDFA senior vice president of legislative affairs and economic policy, “The conference provides an excellent opportunity for our organization to stay engaged at the state level on important policy issues such as the labeling of genetically modified organisms and trade.”

The conference agenda included sessions on the impact of the 2016 elections on agricultural policy, along with an update on the agricultural policy priorities in Congress and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative were on hand to provide updates on the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act and international trade, while the Attorney General of Arkansas discussed current and emerging legal issues affecting agriculture today. Read the full agenda here.

The conference concluded with remarks by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Carlin and John Allan, IDFA vice president of regulatory and international standards, attended several sessions of the conference, which began Jan. 31 and ended today.

For more information, contact Carlin at dcarlin@idfa.org.