3rd annual

U.S. - China Agriculture Roundtable

Global Food Security

rise to the challenge

中美农业圆桌论坛

inspired by three legendary scientists

Norman Borlaug

Father of Green Revolution - Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Yuan Longping 袁隆平

Father of Hybrid Rice - Recipient of World Food Prize

George Washington Carver

American Agricultural Scientist and Inventor

The 2023 U.S.-China Agriculture Roundtable will convene leaders spanning government, business, trade association, nonprofits, education, and think tanks from both countries to focus on the critical global challenge of sustainably producing enough nutritious food to feed the growing population on our planet.

APRIL 4 -13, 2023 · St. Louis, Missouri & Online

2023 年4月4日-13日·圣路易斯,密苏里州及线上

Given the mutual benefit of continued bilateral collaboration in agriculture, we launched the first U.S.-China Agriculture Roundtable in 2021. Thanks to the support and participation of agriculture leaders from both countries, this annual event has grown to be the preeminent bilateral dialogue platform around agriculture, drawing leaders spanning government, trade, business, education, and think tanks from both countries.

Our belief is that U.S.-China cooperation is essential if our planet will be able to successfully deal with the many critical global challenges of our time.

This 3rd annual Roundtable will further strengthen the bi-lateral collaboration and people-to-people friendship around agriculture that have been cultivated through the virtual U.S.-China Agriculture Roundtable in 2021 & 2022, and the hybrid 2022 U.S-China High-Level Agricultural Dialogue.

Supporters & Partners

Sponsors

Advisory Committee

Bunge, ContiGroup Companies, Corteva Agriscience, Smithfield Food, US Grains Council, US Soybean Export Council, Syngenta

Chinese Co-Organizers

China Agricultural Association for International Exchange, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Agriculture University, Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

Perspectives from the Heartland Recap Video

2023 U.S. - China Agriculture Roundtable

Global Food Security

rise to the challenge

中美农业圆桌论坛

April 4, 2023

(Hybrid, with in-person option in St. Louis at Danforth Plant Innovation Center)

Morning

8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. CST

Perspectives from Governmental Representatives

Secretary Mike Naig
Secretary of Agriculture, Iowa

Minister XU Xueyuan
Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China

Perspectives from Business Leaders

Jim Sutter

Rebecca Doyle

Stan Born

Perspectives from NGOs

Dr. Marcus Bernard

Michael Doane

Dr. Marty Matlock

***

Lunch

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. CST

***

Panel 1
Plant and Crop Protection

Panel 2
Movement of Ag and Food Products

Panel 3
Farm Bill Panel

***

Cocktail Reception

5:15 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. CST

***

Friendship Celebration & Dinner

6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. CST

Think Tank Dialogue

April 11, 2023

8:00-11:00 p.m. EST

Agriculture Education Dialogue

April 13, 2023

8:00-10:30 p.m. EST

Governor Bob Holden,
USHCA Chairman and CEO Former Governor of Missouri

Gov. Holden

Bob Holden served as Missouri’s 53rd Governor, 2001-2005. Prior to being elected Governor, Holden served two terms as Missouri State Treasurer and three terms as a Missouri State Representative.

Bob Holden has been in public service his entire adult life. In addition to holding elective office, Holden worked for State Treasurers James I. Spainhower and Mel Carnahan, United States Senator Thomas F. Eagleton, and Congressman Richard A. Gephardt.

During Governor Holden's term in office, he chaired the Midwest Governors Association; opened Missouri’s first trade office in China; created Missouri’s first Hispanic Outreach Committee; moved Missouri from 41st to 5th in terms of women in leadership positions; appointed over 200 African Americans to prominent leadership roles; established the state's first Youth Cabinet; and built the first LEED certified state office building in Missouri.

Bob Holden is currently the Missouri Co-Chair for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, and is an Executive Board member of the Missouri State NAACP Chapter. After leaving office in 2005, Holden founded the Holden Public Policy Forum and was a professor at Webster University for ten years. While at Webster University, he helped bring the first Confucius Institute to Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri.

For over 40 years, Bob Holden has been an active participant in the American Legion Missouri Boys and Girls State Program. He led efforts to bring the first delegations of Chinese students to be participants in this historic program. Since that first delegation to Missouri Boys and Girls State, he has lead the efforts to continue these student delegations of Chinese students to Missouri and Missouri students to China with plans to initiate delegations from other states.

Bob Holden believes that long term economic success for the United States and China must be built on mutual respect, clear understandings and honest dialogue. This can be achieved by expanding our cultural ties, creating more educational partnerships, and creating bridges of opportunities for successful business in both countries.

Gov. Holden was recently inducted to the Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame. Watch his honoree video here.

About Governor Holden

Ambassador Kenneth Quinn,
President Emeritus, the World Food Prize Strategic Advisor & Member of US Heartland China Association

Ambassador Quinn

Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, assumed the leadership of the World Food Prize Foundation on January 1, 2000, following his retirement from the State Department after a 32 year career in the Foreign Service.

Inspired by the vision of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the founder of the World Food Prize, Ambassador Quinn has endeavored to build this annual $250,000 award into “the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture.” Held each October in Des Moines on or around World Food Day (October 16), the World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony, “Borlaug Dialogue” international symposium and Global Youth Institute have grown in size and stature under his direction.

With the support of the John Ruan family, Dr. Quinn has led the campaign which successfully raised over $30 million to restore the historic Des Moines Public Library and transform it into the World Food Prize Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates. He provided the personal leadership to have the building designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the highest possible level of energy efficiency and resource conservation.

During his diplomatic career, Ken Quinn served: as a Rural Development advisor in the Mekong Delta; on the National Security Council staff at the White House; as Narcotics Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Vienna; for four years as Chairman of the U.S. Inter-agency Task Force on POW/MIAs; and as Director of Iowa SHARES, the humanitarian campaign that sent Iowa doctors, nurses, medical supplies and food to starving Cambodian refugees.

A fluent speaker of Vietnamese, Dr. Quinn acted as interpreter for President Gerald Ford at the White House and personally negotiated the first ever entry by U.S. personnel into a Vietnamese prison to search for U.S. POW/MIAs. He was also a member of the first U.S. team to gain entry to a former Soviet prison in Russia.

Ambassador Quinn, a graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, has a M.A. in Political Science from Marquette University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Maryland. He and his wife Le Son have three adult children.

About Ambassador Quinn

Elizabeth Knup,
China Director, Ford Foundation

Elizabeth Knup

Elizabeth Knup is the foundation's regional director in China, overseeing all grant making in the country from Ford's Beijing office. Prior to joining Ford in 2013, she served simultaneously as chief representative of Pearson PLC, one of the world’s foremost education and publishing companies, and as president of Pearson Education in China.

Having dedicated her career to developing stronger ties between China and the rest of the world in the education, nonprofit, and business sectors, Elizabeth started out at the National Committee on US-China Relations where, from 1988-98, she focused on expanding educational opportunities and strengthening social institutions in Beijing. In 1998, she moved to Nanjing and served as the American co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, overseeing the establishment of the center’s Institute for International Relations and a summer immersion Chinese language program. Later, she joined Kamsky Associates, a business strategy and investment advisory firm in Beijing.

Elizabeth is on the board of the National Committee on US-China Relations. She has served on the boards of numerous nonprofits, including the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Capacity Building and Assessment Center, and the Global Environment Institute.

Elizabeth has a master's degree from the University of Michigan's Center for Chinese Studies and a bachelor's degree in political science from Middlebury College.

About Ms. Knup

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