"Food Politics and Projects in the Heartland"
13th Annual Community Food Security Coalition Conference
Dates: October 10-13, 2009
Place: Polk County Convention Center, Des Moines, Iowa

The Community Food Security Coalition is a non-profit, North American organization dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times. We seek to develop self-reliance among all communities in obtaining their food and to create a system of growing, manufacturing, processing, making available, and selling food that is regionally based.
The Community Food Security Coalition’s annual conference is the nation’s primary food systems networking and educational event. More than 700 participants will gather in Des Moines for four days of presentations, workshops, networking opportunities, local foods, and a variety of field trips around the state.
The 2009 conference will include a special one-day gathering of state and local food policy council organizers and practitioners, as well as plenary sessions on building networks for food system change, labor and immigration policy, and strategies for change of the industrial food system. Also featured will be 50 workshops, a food-film festival, six field trips, the first annual Food Sovereignty Prize Award presentation, business meetings, structured networking time, lunch-and-learns, and a trade show.
Des Moines hosts multiple food and agriculture events the week of October 10. Overlapping the Community Food Security Coalition Conference is the Iowa Hunger Summit on October 13 followed by the 2009 World Food Prize “Borlaug Dialogue” symposium on October 14-16. The theme of the Borlaug Dialogue is “Food, Agriculture, and National Security in a Globalized World,” and several hundred global leaders from more than 65 countries are expected to attend. For more information, visit the website.