Over 50 industry professionals gathered in St. Petersburg, Florida, last week to participate in theAmerican Feed Industry Association’s(AFIA) annualEquipment Manufacturers Conference(EMC).
Hosted by AFIA’s Equipment Manufacturers Committee, this year’s conference focused on building an industry perspective on sustainability.
“The message from EMC this year is clear: sustainability is not going away,” saidGary Huddleston, AFIA’s director of feed manufacturing and regulatory affairs.
“消费者的需求意味着更可持续的产品ns sustainability is becoming an operational issue for all parts of the feed sector, including those manufacturing equipment used in feed mills.”
Sustainability will become the expectation, not exception
的conference included sessions on how AFIA members can navigate sustainability to support the feed industry and its stakeholders.
It also offered attendees an opportunity to hear about the Washington political environment, an update on feed machinery standards coming out of the国际标准化组织and discussions on best ways to communicate with government, customers and the public.
“Sustainability will continue to become the expectation rather than the exception,” saidLara Moody, theInstitute for Feed Education and Research’s(IFEEDER) executive director. “Surveys show roughly 80% of consumers feel environmental sustainability is important and want to live more sustainable lives.”
Golf tournament raises money for EMC scholarship
Twenty-four attendees participated in the annual golf tournament, which raises money in support of theEMC scholarship fund.
Administered byIFEEDER, this fund supports college students pursuing careers in the feed or grain sciences industries at seven universities, including Auburn University, California State Polytechnic University, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, North Carolina State University, North Dakota State University and West Virginia University. This year, the golf tournament and raffle raised a total of $4,158 to support the scholarship fund.
的AFIA congratulated the first-place winners of this year’s golf tournament: Dave Carpenter ofLaidig Systems, Inc., Ryan Dietzenbach ofCPMand Johnny Wheat of4B Components, Ltd.
的2023 EMC will take place November 8-10 in Tucson, Arizona.
