CSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences kicks off its annual Ag Week with a celebration of Colorado agriculture. Ag Week will feature a number of events including a Career Fair Sept. 18, Ag on the Plaza Sept. 19, Shared Values of Agriculture program featuring CSU Professor Temple Grandin Sept. 20, and Ag Innovation Summit Sept. 20-21, then continues through CSU’s official Ag Day on Saturday, Sept. 22. Ag Day features a barbecue tailgate and the CSU vs. Illinois State football game at Canvas Stadium.
Ag Innovation Summit
Headlining the week-long celebration is the Ag Innovation Summit, Thursday, Sept. 20 through Friday, Sept. 21, in the Lory Student Center. The summit spotlights the vanguard of agricultural research, technology and policy addressing global food safety and biosecurity. This year will spotlight two keynote speakers: Kevin Shea, administrator of the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and Sally Rockey, executive director of the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research.
As the APHIS administrator, Shea carries out the agency’s multiple missions of protecting the health and value of American agriculture; mitigating the impact of human-wildlife conflict to protect agriculture, environmental and human health and safety; and ensuring the safe and timely availability of new genetically engineered technologies.
Rockey spent 19 years as an award-winning leader in federal research at the Department of Agriculture before the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research named her its inaugural executive director in 2015.
Along with Shea and Rockey, the summit will also feature industry luminaries such as Mindy Brashears, director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence; Blake Bextine, program manager within the Biological Technologies Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); and Tom Vilsack, CEO and president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture who is now affiliated with Colorado State University.
CSU president Tony Frank and the College of Agricultural Sciences Dean Ajay Menon will also speak, along with faculty from within the college.
The 2018 conversation will explore forces driving and shaping the future of food safety and agriculture biosecurity including innovation in prevention, prediction, mitigation and response.
37th Ag Day Barbecue
On Saturday, Sept. 22, Ag Week wraps with CSU’s official Ag Day Barbecue on intermural fields 12 and 13 across from Canvas Stadium. This festive football-day tradition showcases Colorado farm products with proceeds funding student scholarships in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Roughly 20 commodity groups serve the Ag Day feast of fresh, Colorado-grown food. The menu includes beef, lamb, pork, beans, potatoes, onions, wheat and dairy products, green salad, watermelon and more.
Visit the Ag Week event page for more information and to view the week’s schedule.
