Editor:

Recent news has very much been about food and our food system. The concerns about how we produce our food, where we get it and what characteristics we emphasize when we buy are increasingly showing themselves across our state. To help interested citizens, professionals and legislators explore these issues, the 2009 Consumer Issues Conference is focused on food.

The Food Safety, Security and Sources conference will have:

-- Nationally recognized speakers,

-- Concurrent and plenary sessions,

-- A free screening of current documentary film on food,

-- Tours,

-- Poster sessions, and

-- Informational exhibits.

Speakers include Sandra Eskin of Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute, food law expert Donna Byrne, State Epidemiologist Tracy Murphy, strategist Mike McCallum of the National Restaurant Association and Devin Koontz of the FDA, among many others. Session topics include local food, food safety law, healthy eating, community supported agriculture, food labels, health/food fraud issues, and more.

Tours in the afternoon will be available -- one in Laramie (the UW Meat Lab, UW ACRES farm, Big Hollow Food Coop and the Laramie Farmer's Market), and one to Grant Family Farms in Colorado. The full program is at www.uwyo.edu/consumerconference.

The conference is Sept. 24-25 in Laramie at the UW Union.

COLE EHMKE, Laramie

Cooperative Extension Service

Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics,

University of Wyoming