Panelists John Finer (left) and Allen Armstrong talk before speaking with members of the Collegiate Young Farmers Feb. 11 in the Ohio Union during Farm to Food. Credit: Dan Hessler  / Lantern photographer

Panelists John Finer (left) and Allen Armstrong talk before speaking with members of the Collegiate Young Farmers Feb. 11 in the Ohio Union during Farm to Food.
Credit: Dan Hessler / Lantern photographer

One group of students aimed to bring the farm to Ohio State.

The Collegiate Young Farmers hosted the Farm to Fork Food Dialogues Tuesday, featuring panelists from the farm and food industries. The central topic of discussion was biotechnology.

Allen Armstrong, a grain farmer, was among the panelists. He spoke about how he thinks the labels on food need to be changed.

“I don’t think the boxes and labels are big enough to label everything that could possibly be in the food,” he said.

Armstrong said making it necessary for labels to indicate which foods contain genetically modified ingredients would give those foods a bad connotation.

Nationwide, various groups of people have proposed explicitly labeling foods that were genetically modified, meaning the genes of the food were scientifically altered.

That discussion was just one of the conversations brought up at the event, which drew roughly 300 people.

Kelly Guthrie, president of Collegiate Young Farmers and a fourth-year in animal science, said CYF aimed to bring an event that would be interesting to a variety of people. She said the event was catered to help agriculture students share their knowledge with people unfamiliar with farming.

“We’re mainly here to just share experiences,” Guthrie said.

Others in attendance said they, too, saw the event as an attempt for CYF to bridge the gap between students studying agriculture on West Campus and their classmates on the other side of the Olentangy River.

“It’s a way of both sides of campus to see each other and have a voice,” said Kelly Fager, communications director of CYF and a third-year in agricultural communication. She added that the event gave students “the opportunity to sit around the table and learn from each other.”

Dennis Hall, the director of the OSU Ohio Bioproducts Innovation Center, which works to develop various materials, volunteers as the adviser for CYF. He said it is good for farmers to talk openly to people outside of agriculture, so he was proud of the event.

“This is the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen a student organization do,” Hall said.