WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 8, 2014 - Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, will be one of the featured speakers at the USDA's annual Agricultural Outlook Forum next month in Arlington, Virginia. 

Joining Shah on the panel discussing the Future of Agriculture will be Cathy Burns, president of the Produce Marketing Association, and Kellee James, founder and CEO of Mercaris, a market trading platform for organic commodities. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will moderate the discussion, scheduled for the morning of Feb. 20, the opening day of the two-day conference.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Krysta Harden will open the forum and later moderate an afternoon panel on Women in Agriculture. Speakers include Autumn Veazey , director of government relations for Land O' Lakes; Debbie Hamrick, director of specialty crops for the North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation, and corn and soybean farmer Kate Danner. 

During the forum, USDA also will release preliminary data from its new Census of Agriculture.  Joe Glauber, the department's chief economist, will deliver the 2014 Agriculture and Foreign Trade Outlooks, while U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will be the forum's opening day dinner speaker.

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