Leadership and courage required to feed the world

CALGARY , Dec. 1 /CNW/ - Trends and fads come and go, economic cycles ebb and flow, but one thing that never changes is the need to feed people.

The Right Honourable James Bolger , chair of the advisory board of the World Agriculture Forum (WAF) and past prime minister of New Zealand , will speak about the need to return our focus to the ancient challenge of how to feed the tribe - a tribe currently sits at about 6.5 billion people and which will likely grow to over 9 billion by mid-century.

"The world has been distracted first by the dot-com boom and then by the crash of world financial markets, but we must refocus on the basic and fundamental challenge that continues to loom before us - how to feed all of these people," Bolger stated. "The only way is to harness the forces of nature and science, and that's going to require both courage and leadership."

"Food is not a luxury item," said Jim Wispinski, conference co-chair and president of Calgary-based Dow Agrosciences Canada Inc. "This conference brings participants in the entire food chain together. One thing we all agree on is that we need to find ways to meet the challenge of producing sufficient food to feed the world and to meet the others demands that are placed on agricultural production."

Mr. Bolger is the first speaker at the GrowCanada(R) Conference held Dec. 1-3 at the Hyatt Regency Calgary . His presentation will begin at 9:15 a.m. , December 2 .

GrowCanada(R) is a partnership of agriculture's most influential associations that was formed in 2006 to provide a national, value-chain driven vision to federal, provincial and territorial governments as they looked at renewing the national agricultural policy. This year's conference is an extension of the group's successful collaboration and will highlight the importance of the entire agricultural value chain working together to establish Canada as a world leader in developing new products and new solutions to challenges in the production of food, energy, and industrial products; both here in Canada and around the world.

Media are invited to attend any speaker session throughout the conference, which is being held at the Hyatt Regency Calgary , 700 Centre St. S.E in the Imperial Room. Please register in the Grand Foyer 1 upon arrival.

A full listing of conference speakers can be found at http://www.growcanadaconference.ca/2009/about.php

For further information: Nadine Sisk, Director Media Relations, P: [phone], [email protected]