Search
September 26, 2007 - Acting Secretary of Ag Conner Joins Symposium Lineup
Chuck Conner's address to highlight first official trip to Iowa
Septemeber 26, 2007
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed that newly named Acting Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner will give a major address at the 2007 Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium on biofuels. It will be his first trip to Iowa as acting head of USDA.
Acting Secretary Conner will be the featured luncheon speaker on Thursday, October 18, at 12:00 p.m. He will join the leaders of agribusiness companies including DuPont, Land O’Lakes, Monsanto, and Syngenta, as well as foreign government officials, world-renowned biofuels experts and representatives of the United Nations in discussing “Biofuels and Biofood: The Global Challenges of Emerging Technology.”
The 2007 Borlaug Dialogue will be held at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown October 17-19 as part of the awarding of the $250,000 World Food Prize to Dr. Philip Nelson of Purdue University. Several hundred policymakers, industry officials and executives, and agriculture and science experts from around the world will attend.
“The USDA has shown a strong commitment to honoring the legacy of Dr. Borlaug,” said Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation. “We are extremely pleased that Acting Secretary Conner will join us as we discuss both the possibilities and challenges posed by the burgeoning biorenewable energy sector.”
An updated schedule of events and speaker list for the 2007 Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium can be found here.
The “Borlaug Dialogue” will include several side events on October 17, including a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service open session on Women in Science and Global Agriculture, a U.S. Agency for International Development open forum on Biofuels in Africa and an evening informational event and reception, the IowaBiofuels Expo, which will highlight Iowa’s leadership in bioenergy. The symposium will host 44 USDA Norman Borlaug International Fellows.