Professor David Hughes, Imperial College London
(Monmouthshire, Wales, UK)
Assessing Global Agriculture And Food Trends: What Are Consumers Demanding And What Must Producers Supply? David will open and close the FROM COMMODITIES TO HEALTHY CONSUMERS Symposium.

David is a much sought-after speaker at international conferences and seminars on global food industry issues, particularly consumer trends, and is a strong proponent of building vertical alliances between key chain members in the food industry - farmers, life science and input companies, ingredient firms, food and beverage manufacturers, retailers and food service. If you enjoy being challenged and stimulated David will do it an energetic, enjoyable and humorous way.

Dr. David Hughes is Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at the Centre for Food Chain Research, Imperial College London, and Visiting Professor at the Royal Agricultural College, U.K.

Mr. Ian Longson - Director General,
Department of Agriculture Western Australia
(Perth, WA, Australia)
Australia's goal is to radically increase international competitiveness and add $3 billion annually to the Australian agri-food sector by the application of frontier technologies to high-potential industries. It is also their goal to improve the health and well-being of Australians and save $2 billion in annual direct health costs by 2020 through the prevention and early detection of chronic diseases. Both of these initiatives have direct and indirect benefit for the Australian agri-food industries. Ian will outline how Australia plans to reach these goals.

Dr. Peter Jones, Director,
Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals
(RCFFN), Canada
Dr. Peter Jones is a pioneer in developing foods that can combat high cholesterol and other life-threatening conditions and has published over 180 peer-reviewed research articles and reviews in international journals, as well as chapters in leading nutrition textbooks. In addition to his responsibilities as Director of RCFFN, he was recently appointed the Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Functional Foods whose primary role is to fight obesity, heart disease and cancer by developing new, healthier versions of common foods.

Mr. Alan Ellis, Business Manager,
Grain Foods CRC - North Ryde, Australia
The Grain Foods CRC (Cooperative Research Centre) develops and commercializes high value grains and grain food products, new ingredients, nutraceutical products and innovative processing and manufacturing technologies.

The centre manages a wide range of development projects with leading Australian research and manufacturing organizations. Priority is given to healthy grain food products as well as sources of industrial and pharmaceutical compounds. Alan will share information about the projects they have underway at the Grain Foods CRC and where they are looking for international partners.

Dr. Peter Zuurbier, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Wageningen University and Research Centre is at the centre of much of the private-public research that is taking place in The Netherlands. Centered around the university is a concentration of food and science based companies such as Unilever, DSM Nutrition, Campina, Friesland Dairy & Drinks, Numico, Cosun and Avebe. These companies share public food research laboratories with each other and with Wageningen University, working on developing high-value products for the agri-food industry.

Peter Zuurbier ,Senior Advisor of the Executive Board of Wageningen University and Research will share their experiences on how to make these private-public partnerships for both sides.