Food Protection Trends - July/August 2020 - 222

COMMENTARY
FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

Kalmia Kniel

Our lives all look quite different
now than they did a few weeks ago.
As I remarked to my class when we
completed our semester at the end of
May, not one of us started this course
imagining how we would complete
final exams and assignments. I am
thinking about you and your families
during these unprecedented times
(as they have come to be called).
Like many, I am doing my part to
flatten the curve, including participating in physical distancing,
and caring for those in my community. I know that many of you
are actively protecting the food supply through a myriad of ways.
And we are so thankful!
While the world has been nearly flipped upside down, the food
industry remains strong and essential. My family and families
around the globe are thankful for workers at all levels within our
complex food supply chain. It is quite an amazing feat and if there
is a silver lining within this crisis, it may be that consumers have
had time to reflect on the reality of the depth of the food supply
chain. This semester, while teaching from home in my newly
created office space, I often included moments of the coronavirus
crisis in recorded lessons. Comparisons of enveloped SARSCoV-2 to nonenveloped norovirus for example, and tips for safe
grocery shopping among others. My students, within a class of
343, asked nearly as many questions, and provided just as many
reflections on our food supply. In the end, we agreed that it boils
down to thinking about the people; those affected by COVID-19
and those who support our food supply. An op-ed published in
Civil Eats (5/6/20) by Mas Masumoto, summarized this beautifully. The author celebrated farmers and the way that food connects us all. Regardless
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with so many casualties, including growing food insecurity issues.
As the author genuinely reflects, this "current situation is making
each of us think hard about how we eat."
Throughout the past many weeks, I have relied on science for
comfort during this crisis. Science provides me with answers to
help others and a way to reinforce changes that have occurred
throughout the pandemic. I am an avid listener of podcasts, and
one of my favorites is TWIV (This Week in Virology). One of the
TWIV hosts recently commented on the fact that as scientists, we
are fairly comfortable in the realm of the unknown, but even for
many excellent scientists, so much unknown can be overwhelming. We are asking ourselves, when will the IAFP Annual Meeting
look like we remember? When will classes for our students and
our children be held in school classrooms? Even if you have been
at work each and every day, you may be wondering when your life
will resemble what it did in the past. Science provides a way to address these answers, at least in part, and there is comfort in that.
This is an essential time to rely on science and on organizations
like IAFP which provide us with opportunities to network, learn,
and promote science. If you cannot attend the Annual Meeting
this year, please don't miss the chance to renew your membership.
As an organization, we benefit tremendously from each member and the relatively inexpensive membership fee is certainly
worthwhile, including FPT online, IAFP Report, IAFP Connect,
and access to real-time webinars along with the webinar archive.
We must work together as members of the premiere International
Food Protection Association protecting the global food supply.
Food safety and protection of our food supply is at the forefront
of our lives and I am so grateful for the work our members are
doing to ensure the food supply remains uninterrupted and safe.
While we will not meet this August for our Annual Meeting, I
look forward to seeing you all in the future and until then, stay
safe and healthy and be sure to wash your hands well and often.

FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

David W. Tharp

FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

David W. Tharp

To say the year 2020 has been
challenging is an understatement.
As everyone knows, coronavirus
turned the world upside down at
the beginning of the New Year. For
the USA, it took until mid-March
to realize the possible affects to
our health and we then saw many
states issue "stay at home" orders
and closing of restaurants and nonessential businesses. There were many differing versions of these
orders within the 50 states and to look further around the world,
countries also took different approaches to shutting down.
These factors led to our decision to cancel the IAFP European
Symposium on Food Safety scheduled for early April. This

222

Food Protection Trends July/August

Symposium is now rescheduled to April 26-28, 2021 in Munich,
Germany. Fast forward to May when we were faced with a
decision on whether to hold IAFP 2020 as scheduled (August
2-5). Board Members had multiple "face-to-face" meetings
(via video conferencing) to review circumstances related to
the Annual Meeting. Travel, lodging, attendees' health and
well-being, contractual agreements, exhibitors and sponsors,
speakers and presenters all were open for discussion. By June 2,
contracts had been renegotiated, facilities had been reserved, and
all interested parties were notified of new dates for IAFP 2020:
October 25-28.
We will closely monitor health conditions and announcements related to conferences and large gatherings to keep you
informed regarding IAFP 2020. We are hopeful the Annual
Meeting will take place as planned where IAFP can showcase the
best practices as we enter a new way of holding meetings.

Food Protection Trends - July/August 2020

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