(August 1, 2012) The Animal Agriculture Alliance works to connect stakeholders across the food chain, educate the public about agriculture’s importance and protect consumer choice.

Headquartered in Arlington, Va., the alliance’s membership is diverse and includes national agriculture associations, agricultural businesses, animal health companies, other allied stakeholders, veterinarians, animal behaviorists, as well as individual farmers and ranchers.  Thanks to American Sheep Industry Association for its longtime support.

Today the alliance actively defends the future of American animal agriculture by providing science-based resources and promoting the truth about activist organizations. Recent efforts include providing members with intelligence from activist conferences, coordinating a coalition response to the ongoing Meatless Monday campaign, and a new online legislative tracker tool that monitors state legislation. The alliance also partnered with Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan in October 2011 to launch realfarmersrealfood.com to celebrate American agriculture.

The alliance’s Adopt-a-Teacher program provides agriculture resources to teachers in urban areas grades K-12 and its scholarship competition College Aggies Online empowers college students to advocate for agriculture using social media.

In order to connect stakeholders, the alliance hosted its eleventh annual Stakeholders Summit to explore the theme of “Real Farmers Real Food: Celebrating Tradition and Technology.” About 200 industry leaders from across the food chain attended the event, which featured 16 dynamic speakers who encouraged attendees to embrace transparency with consumers and the media.

The need for the alliance has never been greater. It is vital that everyone involved in food production educate themselves on the issues and unite to show the importance of animal agriculture to our nation. If you would like more information about the alliance, please contact info@animalagalliance.org or visit animalagalliance.org.