Project Summary/Abstract
State Agriculture and Rural Leaders application to Food and Drug Administration_Research CFDMA
93.103, FDA Scientific Conference Grant Program
This proposal requests support for the Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit, an annual meeting of leading
state legislators and other related state officials that are passionate about issues related to the production of
food. The long term goal is to develop state policy makers with broader knowledge of issues related to food
and health that will provide for better policy decisions and support for the efforts of the Food and Drug
Administration.
The Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit began in 2002 through the efforts of a group of state legislators
that felt that the divide between food production and members of state legislatures was increasing. They
were concerned by the growing disconnect shown by state officials on knowledge of issues important to
food production and health. The Summit is bi-partisan and targets legislative leadership from all political
parties and as well as actively seeking participation from the National Legislative Black Caucus, the
National Caucus of Native American State Legislators and the National Foundation for Women Legislators.
Annual attendance has included more than 90 of the 101 state and territory (Puerto Rico & U.S. Virgin
Islands) legislative chambers in the United States.
The agenda of the Summit is broad, but focuses on many of the issues that lie within the Food and Drug
Agency’s responsibility. For example, just about every year since 2009, former Deputy Commissioner Mike
Taylor has participated as a plenary speaker, talking to attendees about various issues. Most recently it has
been about the Food Safety Modernization Act and the role of state legislation and regulation in enabling
the new regulations, but we also have had sessions on animal agriculture and antibiotic usage, “local food”
and “home based” food regulations, state support for scientific research, food labeling, state use of tobacco
funds, state regulation of dietary supplements, terrorist actions and our food supply, food import/export
safety, raw milk (our attendees are overwhelmingly against its sale), bottled water, and most recently we
have begun to look at opioid and related addiction in rural communities. Topics for each Summit are
selected by a large advisory board of legislators, food/industry employees and federal officials that seek to
keep legislators ahead of the curve on rising issues. The 2016 Summit agenda and speaker’s list is an
attachment on line 12.
Regardless of the topic, speakers focus on science based dialogue, and charged to actively engage the
legislators on every topic, seek solutions to the issues and provide attendees with action items.