8:15am ET

Welcome

Susan Weinstock
President & CEO
Consumer Federation of America

Thomas Gremillion
Director of Food Policy
Consumer Federation of America

8:30am ET

Keynote Address: An Update from FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods

Speaker
James “Jim” Jones
Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

9:00am ET

Plenary Session: Rethinking the “F” in FDA

FDA’s role in regulating the food supply has received intense criticism in the wake of foodborne illness scares linked to products ranging from fresh produce to infant formula. The agency is currently undergoing a reorganization that its proponents claim will make the agency’s food apparatus more accountable and responsive in the event of a crisis, but stakeholders have questioned whether it goes far enough. What reforms are needed to improve FDA’s regulation of the food supply? Is the current plan adequate?

Moderator
Kristina Peterson
Reporter
Wall Street Journal

Panelists
Barbara Kowalcyk
Director of the Food Health Policy Institute
George Washington University

Peter Lurie
President and Executive Director
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Roberta Wagner
Senior Vice President, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs
International Dairy Foods Association

9:50am ET

Plenary Session Debate: How should the next Dietary Guidelines for Americans discuss consumption of ultra-processed foods?

A broad scientific consensus acknowledges that so-called ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption is associated with obesity and other diet-related diseases. The policy implications of this growing epidemiological evidence, however, remains controversial. Some nutrition researchers favor expressly discouraging consumption of UPFs. Others caution that so little is known about what specific qualities of UPFs may be problematic, and how they may cause observed associations, that guidance to avoid them could drive consumers to less healthy choices. In this debate, two renowned nutrition researchers will explore these opposing positions.

Moderator
Jeanne Blankenship
Vice President, Policy Initiatives and Advocacy
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Panelists
Richard Mattes
Distinguished Professor of Nutrition Science
Purdue University

Barry Popkin
W. R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor
University of North Carolina

10:30am ET

Networking Break

11:00am ET

Concurrent Session 1:

Breakout Session 1: Targeted Food Advertising: Causes, Consequences, and the Implications for Food Justice

Food companies spend billions marketing to children, and researchers have found that unhealthy food advertising disproportionately targets Black and Hispanic children. As consumers shift to new technological platforms for entertainment and education, new concerns have arisen regarding manipulative marketing practices. What is the food industry doing to counteract economic incentives for targeted advertising? What are the impacts of this advertising on public health, and health equity? What can policymakers do to protect consumers?

Moderator
DeAnna Nara
Senior Policy Associate
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Panelists
Alison Brown
Program Director
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

Frances Fleming-Milici
Director of Marketing Initiatives
Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health

Michelle Rosenthal
Senior Attorney
Federal Trade Commission

Concurrent Session 2:

Breakout Session 2: Climate Change and Food Safety

Rising temperatures are increasing the habitat of many pathogens’ natural habitats, straining refrigeration capacity critical to keeping dangerous microbes in check, compromising water supplies with the potential to transmit disease, and generally creating economic pressures for producers to cut corners when it comes to food safety.

Moderator
Caroline Smith Dewaal
Senior Manager
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

Panelists
Lee-Ann Jaykus
Professor Emeritus
N.C. State University

Barbara Kowalcyk
Associate Professor, Milken Institute School of Public Health
George Washington University

Lance Price
Co-director, Antibiotic Resistance Action Center
George Washington University

Concurrent Session 3:

Breakout Session 3: How to Lobby Me: A Conversation with Congressional Staffers

Lobbying can feel daunting, but despite the noisy headlines about congressional chaos and dysfunction, lawmakers continue to govern, and advocacy on food policy can make a difference. In this session, congressional staffers will talk about what is most effective in persuading their bosses, and how you can refine your lobbying strategy to best succeed.

Moderator
Sally Greenberg
Executive Director
National Consumers League

Panelists
Thomas Eagen
Senior Health Policy Advisor
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions
Chairman Bernard Sanders

Ruth McDonald
Senior Policy Advisor
Senator Amy Klobuchar

John Myron
Legislative Assistant
Representative Rosa DeLauro

12:15pm ET

Lunch

12:45pm ET

Keynote Address - The Rise of the Food Citizen: Advancing a Food Bill of Rights

Speaker
Tambra Raye Stevenson
Founder/CEO
WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics and Agriculture

1:30pm ET

Concurrent Session 1:

Breakout Session 1: Precision Nutrition: Cutting through the Hype

Start-up companies are harnessing new technologies to tailor diets based on individual’s blood sugar, vitamin levels, microbiota, and other variables. Significant federal research funding is now dedicated to advancing the understanding of individual responses to food and dietary patterns, with the stated aim of helping consumers and healthcare providers to adopt effective diet plans. But does healthy eating need to be so complicated? How do the proponents of precision nutrition seek to reform food policy like the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and how relevant is personalized nutrition to typical consumers?

Moderator
Milton Stokes
Senior Director, Food & Nutrition
International Food Information Council

Panelists
Ahmed El-Sohemy
Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences University of Toronto

Pamela Starke-Reed
Deputy Administrator
USDA Agricultural Research Service

Diana Thomas
Professor of Mathematics
West Point

Concurrent Session 2:

Breakout Session 2: Regulation of Food Ingredients and Novel Foods: What’s the Path Forward?

Federal regulators have struggled to maintain consumer confidence in the safety of existing food additives, not to mention new food ingredients and manufacturing techniques. Critics have seized on policies such as FDA’s “Generally Recognized as Safe” notification program as lacking rigor and transparency, and raised questions about what level of review is needed as novel technologies are brought to market. Unsatisfied with FDA’s slow review of existing food additives’ safety, state policymakers have recently acted to ban some of them. Can federal reform offer better assurance to consumers? If so, what are the barriers to achieving better regulation of food ingredient safety?

Moderator
Caitlin Boon
U.S. Public Affairs Director- Health & Nutrition
Mars, Inc.

Panelists
Sarah Gallo
Vice President, Product Policy
Consumer Brands Association

Kristi Muldoon Jacobs
Director, Office of Food Additive Safety
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Tom Neltner
Executive Director
Unleaded Kids

Concurrent Session 3:

Breakout Session 3: Food Worker Exceptionalism

Labor is in high demand across the U.S. economy, and food workers—from farms to processing plants to restaurants—are advocating for better treatment. This panel will explore the special challenges that workers in the food and agricultural sector have had to contend with over the years, and the state and federal reforms underway or under debate that will affect the future of food work.

Moderator
Leah Douglas
Agriculture and Energy Policy Reporter
Reuters

Panelists
Alexis Guild
Vice President, Strategy and Programs
Farmworker Justice

Rachel Lyons
Legislative Director
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

Teófilo Reyes
Chief of Staff
ROC United

2:45pm ET

Plenary Session: Evidence-Based Food Policy Through a Health Equity Lens

For the first time, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has been charged with adopting a “health equity lens” in its scientific review. The goal is to formulate nutrition advice that is “relevant to people with diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds,” but more broadly, disparities in the burden of diet-related disease have fueled calls for integrating equity considerations into food policy writ large. This panel will explore the rationale for applying a health equity lens to food policy, and the impact on specific areas such as school meals, nutrition education, advertising regulation, and federal food assistance programs.

Moderator
Sakeenah Shabazz
Senior Policy Advisor
USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Panelists
Alison Brown
Program Director
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

Sherry Frey
Vice President Total Wellness
NielsenIQ

Stephanie Goodwin
Director, Nutrition Policy
Danone North America

Donald Warne
Co-Director
Center for Indigenous Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

3:40pm ET

Networking Break

4:10pm ET

Plenary Session: Agricultural and Nutrition Policy: Working at Cross Purposes?

Half of the federal MyPlate nutrition guidance is devoted to fruits and vegetables, yet these foods receive only a tiny fraction of agricultural subsidies. Some advocates have argued that redirecting insurance supports and other payments away from commodity farmers to so-called “specialty crop” producers would support healthier diets. Others argue that ag subsidies have a negligible impact on food prices, and federal policy reform efforts should instead focus on incentives for healthier eating in food assistance programs like WIC and SNAP. What is the best way to get Americans to eat their vegetables, and also support the farmers that grow them?

Moderator
Randy Green
Principal
Watson Green LLC

Panelists
Joseph W. Glauber
Senior Research Fellow
International Food Policy Research Institute

Christian Lovell
Senior Director of Programs
Farm Action

Emma Sheffert
Policy Analyst
Bipartisan Policy Center

5:00pm ET

Adjourn

8:25am ET

Welcome

Thomas Gremillion
Director of Food Policy
Consumer Federation of America

8:30am ET

Keynote Address - An Update from the Administrator of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Speaker
Cindy Long
Administrator
USDA Food and Nutrition Service

9:00am ET

Concurrent Session 1:

Breakout Session 1: Obesity Care: Reforms to Improve Health Outcomes for Patients with Diet-Related Disease

Nearly 40% of U.S. adults suffer from obesity, which is associated with significantly increased risk of various chronic diseases and health conditions, dramatically increased mortality, and skyrocketing healthcare costs. This panel will explore the tools available to medical practitioners for treating patients with obesity, reforms to healthcare policy currently under debate, and the implications for the food system.

Moderator
Krystal Register
Vice President, Health & Well-being
FMI – The Food Industry Association

Panelists
William Dietz
Director of Research and Policy, Global Food Institute
George Washington University

Scott Kahan
Director
National Center for Weight and Wellness

Tanya Wolfram
Chief Operating Officer
Reinvestment Partners

Concurrent Session 2:

Breakout Session 2: A New Look at Fresh Produce Safety?

Industry and consumer advocates alike have expressed dissatisfaction with the current food safety regime for fresh produce, including FDA’s implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, USDA’s research and extension programs, and a private audit system whose benefits to growers and consumers have increasingly come into question. How can federal policy better prevent foodborne illness risk in fresh produce? How can government and industry collaborate more effectively to improve produce safety? What are the barriers to more widespread adoption of best practices to minimize microbial contamination? And what are the solutions?

Moderator
Shauna C. Henley
Family & Consumer Sciences Senior Agent
University of Maryland Extension

Panelists
De Ann Davis
Senior Vice President, Science
Western Growers Family of Companies

James Gorny
Senior Science Advisor for Produce Safety
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Jennifer McEntire
Founder
Food Safety Strategy

Michael Taylor
Board Member Emeritus
Stop Foodborne Illness

Concurrent Session 3:

Breakout Session 3: The Demise of the Global Food Trade?

As extreme weather and the war in Ukraine have disrupted global food markets, countries across the globe have implemented export restrictions on food, feed and fertilizer. In the United States, federal legislation may soon block China-based businesses from purchasing American farmland, and a wide range of stakeholders continue to oppose trade agreement provisions that impose restrictions on consumer, labor, and public health policies. Is the era of free trade coming to an end? How should U.S. trade policy confront the challenges of rising world hunger and political instability?

Moderator
Tara Scully
Director of Curriculum Development, Global Food Institute
The George Washington University

Panelists
Abiola Afolayan
Co-Director, Policy and Research Institute
Bread for the World

Gregg Doud
President & Chief Executive Officer
National Milk Producers Federation

Calvin Manduna
Senior Trade Policy Analyst
Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy

Caitlin Welsh
Director, Global Food and Water Security Program
Center for Strategic and International Studies

10:15am ET

Plenary Session: New Frontiers of School Meals

Over a decade ago, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, whose new nutrition standards for school meals formed the centerpiece of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to reduce childhood obesity. In the years since, attention on school meals has waned, but across the country, innovative strategies to improve access to healthy foods, implement scratch cooking, and source ingredients from local food producers have flourished. What makes for an effective school meal program, and what can federal policymakers learn from these success stories?

Moderator
Jane Black
Food Journalist

Panelists
Lola Bloom
Wellness Consultant
DC Bilingual Public Charter School

Chris Derico
President
School Nutrition Association

Donna Martin
School Nutrition Consultant

Katie Wilson
Executive Director
Urban School Food Alliance

11:05am ET

Networking Break

11:35am ET

Plenary Session: The Politics of Food Policy

In recent polling, voters across the political spectrum express “foodflation” fatigue and say the food system can do a better job of making healthy foods more widely available and affordable, protecting the environment, and serving the interests of workers and rural communities. Despite the broad consensus on the need for reform, however, agreement on the character of food policy reforms remains as elusive as ever. How are shifting popular perceptions of the food system affecting the way policymakers act? A panel of experts will discuss whether increased attention to the food system’s shortcomings may pave the way for updating key legislation like the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act and the Farm Bill, or alternatively, contribute to even worse gridlock.

Moderator
Scott Faber
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs
Environmental Working Group

Panelists
Abby J. Leibman
President and CEO
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger

Aaliyah Nedd
Director of Government Relations
National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA CLUSA)

Ricardo Salvador
Director and Senior Scientist, Food & Environment Program
Union of Concerned Scientists

Jonathan Voss
Partner
Lake Research Partners

12:30pm ET

Adjourn