GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON PRACTICAL FARMING
Have you ever heard of “multi-functional
agriculture” and the “working lands” concept? Did you know it
could have a big impact on the Iowa landscape in the coming decade?
Are you interested in learning about innovative and
successful ways sustainable farming and eco-marketing is being
developed in other regions of the world? Would you like to
understand how some of the latest global policy developments might
impact your farm in the coming decade?
Mark Ritchie will enlighten you as the keynote
speaker at PFI’s Annual Meeting and Winter Workshops on January
19, 2002. Ritchie is the President of the Institute for Agriculture
and Trade Policy, a non-profit and non-partisan research
organization, internationally recognized as a leader in the
development of innovative trade policy, especially in the fields of
environment and agriculture.
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Mark Ritchie, President of Institute for
Agriculture and Trade Policy, brings a global perspective
to the keynoter’s podium.
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Mark has spent the last twenty years working to
address a wide range of economic, social and environmental issues
facing family farms and small towns both in the United States and
around the world. Mark grew up in Georgia and Iowa, graduating with
honors from Iowa State University in 1971. He managed
vertically-integrated consumer cooperatives in Northern California,
then became Executive Director of the Center for Rural Studies, a
San Francisco-based agricultural policy research institute.
In 1981, Mark moved to Minnesota to serve as the
research and resource manager of Miller Meester Company, one of the
nation's largest agriculture-related communications firms. In
1988, Mark became President of the Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy. He says, “I’m thrilled to be coming back to
Iowa to speak with PFI.”
