FFAR Board of Directors 2023 Public Conversation

The FFAR Board of Directors held the Foundation’s ninth annual Public Conversation on October 5, 2023. This year’s event was held in-person and virtually with over 150 attendees. The Public Conversation is an opportunity for the public and members of the food and agriculture community to hear from FFAR’s leadership and interact with them during the public comment and Q&A session.

This year’s event provided an overview of FFAR’s impact, updates to the Foundation’s research strategy and great remarks from USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. It was a dynamic event with engaging comments and questions from the public.

A full recording of the Public Conversation is available on FFAR’s Youtube channel.

During this year’s conversation, FFAR’s Board Vice Chair and Vice President of Michigan State University’s Office of Research and Innovation Dr. Doug Buhler highlighted the key events FFAR participated in over the last year. USDA Secretary Vilsack provided prerecorded remarks on FFAR’s work in innovation and agriculture research and the important complementary collaboration between FFAR and USDA. Dr. Saharah Moon Chapotin, FFAR’s executive director, provided updates on FFAR’s work to date, the impacts of that work and an overview of where FFAR plans to grow. She also shared early results from the ongoing refresh of FFAR’s research strategy.

At the time of the event, FFAR had awarded 360 grants with a matching ratio to 1:1.4 and allocated $713 million in funding. FFAR’s 2022 Impact Report, Leveraging Bold Science, highlighted the steps FFAR has taken to diversify its stakeholder base. The report also highlights recent breakthroughs, including the quantification of adaptive multi-paddock grazing’s benefits to soil health and opportunities to control heat stress in dairy cattle.

FFAR received numerous thoughtful public comments from members of the food and agriculture community. All comments were forwarded to the FFAR Board.

View slides from the event.