Emerging food crisis topic of discussion in Quebec City from September 17-21 - Leading figures focus on a single issue: feed the world

MONTREAL, Aug. 21, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - In less than a month leaders from the scientific, economic, political and professional communities implicated in the challenge of feeding the world will be gathered in Quebec City, with the emerging food crisis as backdrop. These decision-makers, from Quebec and around the world, will join together at the 2012 World Congress of Agronomists & Agrologists to present the current situation, the issues to be considered and potential solutions. In effect, it will be five days of stimulating discussion that await the participants of this global event open to all.

"The context is unfortunate but at the same it has prompted a greater awareness of the place and role of food in our societies. Its accessibility, its production methods, its economic and policy impacts as well as the utilization of the natural resources required to produce food are all elements that are crucial to discuss at this moment. The time is now in many of these areas and, to be able to do the most possible, a profound discussion on these issues is required," says Michel Saint-Pierre, agronomist and Chair of the 2012 World Congress of Agronomists & Agrologists.

As proof of the pertinence of this event, when the Ordre des agronomes du Québec made its bid to host the V^th World Congress back in 2008, the first world food crisis was raging... Four years later, a second one is on our doorstep.

"This Congress is an extraordinary occasion to initiate collaboration between professionals from various backgrounds essential to proposing realistic and sustainable solutions regarding the most important challenge facing society in the 21^st Century - feeding our world. This unique gathering in the agronomic history of Québec - a milieu directly impacted by the challenges of producing food - is a call for the driving forces of society to work together, from the consumer to professionals," emphasized René Mongeau, agronome and president of the Ordre des agronomes du Québec.

Held every four years, the World Congress of Agronomists & Agrologists is being held in a French-speaking and Northern country for the first time ever. The Ordre des agronomes du Québec has as its mission the protection of the public through the certification of the practice of agronomy. The organization groups together 3,300 agronomists who practice their profession in all agriculture and agri-food sectors in Québec.

SOURCE: Ordre des Agronomes du Québec

Johanne Dufour
Ordre des agronomes du Québec
C : 514 234-0622

Diane Jeannotte
T : 514 284-2860, ext. 2
C : 514 772-8019
[email protected] 

Diep Truong
514 524-7348
514 436-2121
[email protected]