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USDA Announces Upcoming Annual Partners Meeting

USDA will hold its Fourth Annual Partners Meeting on August 1-3, 2007, at the Double Tree Hotel Crystal City, located at 300 Army Navy Drive, in Arlington, Virginia. Leaders of more than 300 community-based organizations (CBO) and USDA agency administrators and program staff are expected to participate in the meeting.

The Partners Meeting is an annual event coordinated through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. It presents an opportunity for representatives of CBOs and USDA agencies to exchange ideas and explore solutions to challenges faced by traditionally underserved farmers, ranchers and rural communities. The Partners Meeting also serves as a "call to action" for CBO leaders to work with USDA Agency Heads and their staffs to propose and think through issues that can be used to develop policy and practice that impact the underserved.

The theme for this year's meeting is "Challenge, Choice, Change: Solutions That Strengthen Farming and Rural Communities." The Partners Meeting will include three plenary sessions, a series of "conversations" led by CBO representatives and USDA staff, and four training sessions. Subjects include the 2007 Farm Bill, the Animal Identification Act, certification and marketing, fractionated land ownership (heir property), land stewardship, Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), E-Government and Grantsmanship, and foreclosure avoidance.

To obtain more information and to register for the Fourth Annual Partners Meeting contact the Office of Outreach at:

• Office of Outreach
  1400 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC 20250, Mail Stop 9473
  Telephone:(202) 720-6350
  Toll Free Number: (800) 880-4143
  E-Mail Address: usdaoutreach@usda.gov