Project Summary/Abstract State Agriculture and Rural Leaders application to Food and Drug Administration_Research CFDMA 93.103, FDA Scientific Conference Grant Program With this application, State Agriculture and Rural Leaders (SARL) requests funds from the Food and Drug Administration Office of Regulatory Affairs to partially support the Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit, the only meeting of its kind in North America. The Summit brings together the leading state legislators and other related state officials that are passionate about issues related to the production of food. The long term goal is to develop state policy makers with broader knowledge of issues related to food, drugs and health that will provide for better policy decisions at the state level to assure the safety, efficacy and security of our food supply. The Summit provides high quality educational programming, opportunities for state legislators to network with FDA officials, scientific experts and each other. History has shown that attendees return to their home state/territory and share the knowledge gained, utilize the networking contacts and are highly influential in policy decisions. Since the states and FDA share similar authorities, missions and responsibilities, expanding the knowledge base and leadership abilities of state legislators assists the FDA in the implementation of their mission. With this Small Scientific Conference Grant, SARL will be able to cover the travel expenses for the best speakers for the Summit. This also helps to free up Summit funds to assist state legislators with travel expenses to attend the 2 ½ day Summit. The Summit has a history of attendance of leaders from more than 90% of the state legislative chambers well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit began in 2002 through the efforts of a group of state legislators that felt that the divide between food production and members of state legislatures was increasing. They were concerned by the growing disconnect shown by state officials on knowledge of issues important to food production and health. The Summit is non-partisan and targets legislative leadership from all political parties and as well as actively seeking participation from the National Legislative Black Caucus, the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators and the National Foundation for Women Legislators. The 2018 Summit will be held in Kansas City, Kansas, January 5-7. Approximately 40 percent of the agenda is directly related to food, drugs or health care. Regardless of the topic, speakers focus on science based dialogue, and are charged to actively engage the legislators on every topic, seek solutions to the issues and provide attendees with action items.