Food Insight and Plain Old Insight

With great sadness I must report that tomorrow is my last day at the International Food Information Council (IFIC) in DC. Finished. Fin. Finito. It happened so fast that I barely noticed that October flew by! I now know foodinsight.org like the back of my hand. (Yes, I’m very familiar with the appearance of the back of my hand.) Have I gained food insight from this? Absolutely. But more importantly, I’ve gained just some plain old insight.

It’s not every day that you sit in a room with ten other people and you’re completely floored. This was me on my first day at my first meeting. Every member of this organization has their finger on the pulse in the media. They know every newspaper, every article, and every journalist. New book announced this morning to have a release date of November 30, 2050? Already noted. To be quite honest, they were intimidating.

Day one was the first of many meetings to come, but the highlight was the Feeding Future Generations conference held by The Atlantic. Dan Glickman, former Secretary of Agriculture, quite possibly the most influential position you can hold in the world of nutrition, was the first speaker at the conference. Talk about intimidating! Not that I plan on being the USDA Secretary of Agriculture (Let me get through my internship for now, please!) but my eyes are open wide to the possibilities ahead of me. He, like the staff at IFIC, has made me think about how eager I am to learn about the field that I feel like I’ve only just grazed the surface of.

After spending a mere three weeks at IFIC, I feel like I could ask a string of questions starting with “did you know...” Who knew it was possible to learn so much in so little time? I feel infinitely more informed about nutrition, food safety, agriculture, and frankly the news in general. Three weeks doesn’t feel like enough, but I’m grateful for the time I’ve had at IFIC! My finger may not be on the pulse of the media yet, but it's getting there and I'm starting to feel something. Isn’t that what road to being an RD’s all about?

Until next time!
Marion