{"id":225404,"date":"2026-03-19T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T18:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/inside-usdas-agricultural-outlook-forum-trade-technology-and-the-road-ahead\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T15:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:10:12","slug":"inside-usdas-agricultural-outlook-forum-trade-technology-and-the-road-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/inside-usdas-agricultural-outlook-forum-trade-technology-and-the-road-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside USDA’s Agricultural Outlook Forum: Trade, Technology and the Road Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inside USDA’s Agricultural Outlook Forum: Trade, Technology and the Road Ahead<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.afia.org\/news\/afia-blog\/inside-usdas-agricultural-outlook-forum-trade-technology-and-the-road-ahead\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-19 14:47:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.afia.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by: Alison Foster<\/strong> \u00a0 | \u00a0 March 19, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUSDA,
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFederal agencies\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

I\u00a0recently\u00a0attended\u00a0the U.S. Department of\u00a0Agriculture\u2019s annual\u00a0Agricultural Outlook Forum\u00a0for the first time.\u00a0The event\u2019s\u00a030 breakout sessions covering current and emerging issues facing the food and agriculture sector\u00a0proved to be\u00a0a valuable and informative, if not a\u00a0bit\u00a0overwhelming\u00a0(in\u00a0a good way),\u00a0experience.\u00a0Adding\u00a0to the excitement, exhibitor booths\u00a0showcasing\u00a0all 29 USDA agencies\u00a0were stationed throughout the event space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my\u00a0favorite\u00a0parts\u00a0was a virtual reality experience\u00a0codeveloped by Boehringer Ingelheim and\u00a0USDA\u2019s\u00a0Agricultural Research Service.\u00a0I put\u00a0on the VR headset\u00a0and\u00a0was instantly transported to a farm where I met with veterinarians on the front lines\u00a0of\u00a0combatting\u00a0emerging diseases threatening the livestock and poultry operations across the country, such\u00a0as New\u00a0World Screwworm and highly pathogenic avian influenza.\u00a0It was\u00a0such\u00a0a\u00a0unique\u00a0hands-on\u00a0learning\u00a0experience.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0also\u00a0thankful\u00a0that\u00a0I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0bump into a wall\u00a0while I moved around\u00a0in the real world!\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first plenary session featured Julie Callahan,\u00a0chief\u00a0agricultural\u00a0negotiator\u00a0at the Office of U.S. Trade Representative\u00a0(USTR), who discussed\u00a0President\u00a0Donald\u00a0Trump\u2019s trade policies\u00a0and how\u00a0a new\u00a0paradigm\u00a0has seen greater collaboration between USTR and USDA,\u00a0resulting\u00a0in some early successes\u00a0such as\u00a0reducing\u00a0the\u00a0forecasted\u00a0trade deficit\u00a0by\u00a0$10 billion\u00a0over projected estimates and\u00a0instigating\u00a0dozens of simultaneous\u00a0trade negotiations with an\u00a0unprecedented\u00a0number of countries.\u00a0The conversation between Ambassador Callahan and\u00a0USDA\u00a0Under Secretary\u00a0Luke\u00a0Lindberg really homed\u00a0in\u00a0on the administration\u2019s\u00a0emphasis\u00a0on reciprocity and\u00a0the\u00a0use of tariffs to\u00a0strengthen fair\u00a0trade…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inside USDA’s Agricultural Outlook Forum: Trade, Technology and the Road Ahead https:\/\/www.afia.org\/news\/afia-blog\/inside-usdas-agricultural-outlook-forum-trade-technology-and-the-road-ahead\/ Publish Date: 2026-03-19…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.afia.org\/AFIA\/cache\/file\/4A2863D5-FD03-43DB-7DCFFA954B6CE161_opengraphsharingimage.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[66,85],"class_list":["post-225404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-emerging","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225406,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225404\/revisions\/225406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}