I just returned from my first Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, which is the annual meeting of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. FNCE is attended by more than 10,000 registered dietitians, nutrition researchers, healthcare providers and other industry leaders.

At the Animal Ag Alliance, we’ve focused a lot of our efforts over the past few years in building connections with dietitians and nutrition experts, as we know they are getting more and more questions from consumers about where food comes from and how its raised. We had a booth at FNCE for the first time this year, and the conversations we had proved our time has been well spent.

Many consumers look to dietitians for information about all aspects of food. The conversation is no longer just about whether food is nutritious – questions about the ethics of certain production practices and the environmental impact of our food choices are happening with increasing frequency.

In addition to many, many booths on the Expo floor promoting every food buzzword you can think of (non GMO, vegan, gluten free, no antibiotics ever), the educational programming included several sessions on sustainable food production. One focused on the EAT-Lancet report from earlier this year that called for a “Planetary Health Diet” that includes zero to miniscule amounts of animal proteins.

Several speakers noted how dietitians receive no formal education in farming and food production, which should be alarming to us in the industry. They must seek out learning opportunities on their own (which many do), or they turn to online resources, which as we know can be a minefield of sorting fact from fiction.

We knew dietitians would be hungry for resources on animal welfare, sustainability and other hot topics in animal agriculture, but we underestimated their appetite. We ran out of sustainability handouts midway through the show and had to get more printed, and all of our supplies were dwindling by the end of the event.

This audience was truly interested in having in-depth conversations, perhaps the most of any trade show attendees that I’ve encountered. We had a few skeptics with pointed questions about CAFOs and antibiotic resistance, but even most of them seemed open to dialog and checking out what we had to share.

We aren’t the only ones recognizing the value of reaching dietitians. HSUS and PCRM both had booths at FNCE as well, with PCRM promoting a “Power Plate” with only four food groups represented – fruits, grains, vegetables and legumes. While the meat industry and animal agriculture are working quite hard to dispel myths and build consumer trust, activist groups are working just as hard to turn people away from our products.

The Alliance will be continuing our efforts to reach dietitians and other influential groups to make sure they are hearing both sides of the story – I hope you will join us in the effort.

Discussing meat with dietitians

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