Contact Victoria Broehm, Senior Director of Communications
The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) held its annual Purchasing and Ingredient Suppliers Conference (PISC) last week, bringing together 580 animal food ingredient buyers and sellers from across the country to Orlando, Fla., for three days of educational programming, business meetings and networking opportunities.
“In all aspects – PISC 2023 proved to be a roaring success,” said Rebecca Kane, CMP, AFIA’s director of meetings and events. “Animal food industry buyers and sellers showed up ready to meet colleagues, do business and learn about current trends. PISC truly is where business gets done.”
The conference included several networking opportunities and educational programming, with a diverse lineup of topics, including how feed manufacturers can navigate ongoing supply chain challenges happening on America’s rails and at its ports; what’s new in research on African swine fever; how to communicate about agriculture more effectively; and how to navigate sustainability to support the feed industry and its stakeholders. The conference concluded with discussions on the current market outlook for grain trading and, animal economics.
Spokespeople from the World Wildlife Fund and Institute for Feed Education and Research shared a new report that explains how the U.S. animal food industry and its supply chain partners can work together to decrease the environmental impact of feed production, leading to a more sustainable, climate-resilient global feed system.
“Leaders in the feed industry have been implementing innovative and environmentally responsible practices for a while, but they just have not been getting attention for it,” said Ellen Dierenfield, WWF’s lead specialist in sustainable feed innovations. “Now, we have the opportunity to elevate feed’s potential positive impact and show it can make a big difference,” particularly for farmers and producers of livestock and poultry. We must consider the ingredients and also the technologies that will make it possible to reduce agriculture’s overall environmental impact.”
Also at the conference, the AFIA and Feedstuffs named Animix LLC’s Juneau, Wis., plant as its 2022 Premix/Ingredient Feed Facility of the Year.
The AFIA thanks its PISC sponsors: diamond level sponsor Arm & Hammer; platinum level sponsors Biocycle and Nutrien; gold level sponsors Adisseo, Animal Agriculture Alliance, Ardent Mills, Cargill, CJ Bio America, Inc., Feed Strategy, Huvepharma, Inc., and World Grain; silver level sponsors Baymag, Inc., Premier Magnesia, LLC, and Selko USA LLC; and bronze level sponsors Diamond V, FNF Ingredients USA, Inc., FeedInfo News Service, Feedstuffs, Grain Journal, International Nutrition, Inc., Mosaic, Novus International, and Phileo by Lesaffre.
PISC 2024 will be held in San Antonio, Texas, March 12-14. For the latest AFIA calendar of events, visit?afia.org/events.