NIAA’s annual conference will focus on protecting animal agriculture

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The National Institute for Animal Agriculture will host its 2025 annual conference “Securing Our Future: Don’t Just Talk … Act!” at the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center in Kansas City. The agenda focuses on maintaining trust across animal agriculture’s value chain.

For more than 100 years, NIAA has convened animal agriculture leaders to address the most pressing questions and issues in animal agriculture.

Work from NIAA’s councils and working groups allow stakeholders to work on topic-specific issues that affect social license and trust in animal agriculture.

The 2025 conference theme and agenda will provide a space for deeper dives into topics like agriculture legislation, license to operate, the latest consumer insights and having a united voice to secure animal agriculture’s future.

“Year after year, we see new ballot initiatives taking steps toward ending animal agriculture,” said Karen Jordan, producer member with Dairy Farmers of America, former NIAA board member, Animal Disease Issues and Emergency Management Council co-chair and a member of the annual conference planning committee.

“The best way to move forward is with a united front from animal agriculture, and our agenda has pulled experts from our industry to help us come together. The goal of this year’s annual conference is to build on other organizations’ work on activism and trust in agriculture and provide guidance on creating an organizational plan for social license.”

In the spirit of the conference theme, Andy Curliss, vice president of strategic engagement for the National Pork Producers Council, will open the program as the keynote discussing the current state of activism against animal agriculture and how to create a collective voice to secure the future of animal agriculture.

Board members from the U.S. Agriculture Partnership Fund will also speak about their initiatives to preserve the industry.

Other confirmed speakers include:

• Rick Stott — Superior Farms.

• Jim Heird — Texas A&M University.

• Danette Amstein — Midan Marketing.

• Michael Schumpp — The Meat Institute.

• Julie Broadway — American Horse Council.

• Andrew Beardslee — NPPC.

• Joel Leftwich — U.S. Agriculture Partnership Fund.

• Justina Graff — U.S. House of Agriculture Committee.

The 2025 annual conference will commence on April 7, with NIAA’s council meetings and speakers. April 8 will host a majority of the annual conference agenda and will close with an awards gala.

There will be three post-conference convenings on April 9: “What’s Next After Scrapie Eradication?” facilitated by the American Sheep Industry Association, “Convening & Coalescing National Animal Disease Preparedness and Responses” facilitated by NIAA for U.S. Department of Agriculture National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program stakeholders, and the NIAA board of directors meeting.

For more information about the annual conference, visit AnimalAgriculture.org.

Early-bird registration ends March 15. For assistance, contact Morgan Young, director of communications and outreach for NIAA, at morgan.young@animalagriculture.org.