For three days last week, The Nines Hotel in Portland, Oregon, rocked as 150 chefs, marketing experts, product developers, and health professionals attended the WGC’s latest whole grains conference. After all the months of planning, it’s nice to know we made it happen, and to get emails like these: “The conference was truly spectacular…” “I got a lot out of it. And although we use whole grains every day, it definitely got me newly energized about them…” “Fantastic job at the conference! You run a top-notch organization.”

With nineteen information-packed sessions featuring 27 speakers, it’s hard to know where to begin to share the highlights of this event – but here are a few that we think carry big impacts:

Partnership with China

China’s love affair with white rice and noodles may be coming to an end. Faced with rising obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, Chinese authorities are determined to promote the benefits of whole grains in their country. Yu Xiaodong, General Director of China’s Public Nutrition and Development Center (PNDC) and one of the top nutrition authorities in China, came to our conference to learn more about successful whole grain promotions. That’s Mr. Yu, above, with Oldways President Sara Baer-Sinnott, accepting a copy of The Oldways Table.

Speaking through an interpreter, (big thanks to Gary Hou, of the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland), Mr. Yu said, “These problems cannot be solved by turning to surgery and pills. If a problem is caused by food, we have to rely on food to solve it.”

Mr. Yu has pledged to work with Oldways and the Whole Grains Council to introduce the Whole Grain Stamp to China, and has asked WGC staff Cynthia Harriman and Kara Berrini to help organize a Whole Grain Forum in Beijing in April. Oldways had its philosophical start in China, and we’ve held two conferences there, so this new partnership with the PNDC is a welcome continuation of our ongoing relationship with the world’s most populous nation.

Unveiling of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines

How cool to have Dr. Eve Essery of USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) explain the role of whole grains in the new dietary guidelines, just ten hours after the guidelines update was released! Our favorite phrase is, “Whenever possible, replace refined grains with whole grains.”

We covered the highlights in last week’s blog, so we won’t repeat them. Suffice it to say we’re delighted with the strong position of whole grains in this update. What timing!

McDonald’s Serves Oatmeal

The Whole Grain Stamp is now on 4,700 products in 21 countries, and has a strong presence in the retail arena. Now the Stamp is making a big leap into foodservice, with an inch-and-a-half high graphic on the little cups McDonald’s is using to serve its new Fruit and Maple Oatmeal.

At the end of our conference, as many people ran to catch a plane home, McDonald’s brought in a local store crew – in uniform – to offer up its oatmeal, in our choice of hot and ready to eat or “unassembled” for later. I chose the kit approach, and was oh-so-happy the next morning on my flight home, when all I had to do was add hot water and mix in the apples, raisins, and a dash of cream. They don’t feed you on airlines these days, as we all know, but I was well fed!

With more than 14,000 U.S. locations each serving hundreds of cups of oatmeal each week, McDonald’s use of the Whole Grain Stamp will really boost consumer awareness of this important packaging symbol.

We’ll be telling you more about the conference in the days to come. In the meantime, you can download presentations and handouts from the Whole Grains: the New Norm conference here on the WGC website. (Cindy)