2002 Biennial Meeting

Greetings to all Conference of Food Protection members! The conference meeting in Nashville this past April was a resounding success and I would like to thank all of the people who worked so hard. I would like to give special thanks to our past Chair, Lydia Strayer, our Conference Secretary and his partner, Trevor and Linda Hayes and the seemingly tireless work that was done by the Local Arrangements Committee led by Jerry Rowland and Opal Fritscher. Also, all of the Council Chairs, Vice-Chairs, members of the Councils, the Committee Chairs and their members and every single person attending, deserve to be recognized in making the Conference so successful.

These next few years promise to be critical to food safety everywhere. The issues that have arisen and continue to surface pose monumental challenges for those of us working in the field. How can we respond to these challenges? I feel that we can respond by staying on course with the Conference's mission of bringing together representatives from the food industry, government, academia and consumer groups to identify and address emerging problems of food safety and to formulate recommendations. In support of the Conference's mission, all members, regardless of affiliation, have a responsibility to bring food safety issues of concern to the Conference. Then partnerships and collaborations can be developed, agreements can be reached and those things that may get in the way of our achieving our goal can be addressed and resolved.

Glenda M. Christy, Chair
Conference for Food Protection