Healthy animals = safer food = happy people

A task force for the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) have looked at the pressures to change livestock rearing methods, evidence to support the direct public health impact on human illness days, and food safety and inspection service regulations.

They (and you and I) know that many groups in society, including politicians, activists, scientists, and stakeholders, are advocating significant changes to livestock production practices. { Example here. }

These changes include modification of stocking densities, limitations on antimicrobial use, and requirements for outdoor "experiences."

What does this come down to? Such changes may affect animal health.

Simultaneously, consumers are demanding virtually risk-free food, and they think food safety should be addressed on-farm as well as during processing.

So what this research is really saying: Consumers don’t realize that when they are demanding livestock production practices to be changed to what they “think” is safer for the animal – in actuality it affects animal health.

Production practices are put into place for a specific reason. Farrowing crates keep mama sows from crushing their piglets; chicken barns keep the animals out of the elements and from getting hunted by birds or wild animals – not to mention the disease control; cattle in feedlots are given better care because they have instant access to food and water and are watched over daily for their health by herdsmen.

These are just a few examples – but farmers and ranchers want to care for their animals which is just the reason they use these methods to raise their livestock.

A great example is my friend, Dawn Caldwell, taking care of her cows. She knows they are healthy because she checks them daily. Dawn’s production practices are what makes safe, healthy food.

If you’d like to read more of this Commentary from CAST, a free download is available on CAST website (click the title under "Related Publications" at top right of this page).

HSUS: Lawyers in Cages

In a follow-up to my blog yesterday about the current undertakings of animal rights groups like HSUS and WSPA, the HumaneWatch blog has put together a great parody video to HSUS’s multimillion-dollar ad campaign. You know: sad, slow music with a spokeswoman and terrible, heart-wrenching pictures of sad-looking dogs and cats, and for only $19.95 a month, you can help.

As for an appeal? I’ll let the video speak for itself. (Feel free to chuckle…and then share.)

Why can’t the money just be spent on the animals?

This might be a “humane” rant, but there is too much bologna going on not to mention. And I like my bologna and want to keep it in the food supply.

Opening my email this morning put me in a sour mood. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), is putting good money that they should be spending on helping animals, to sponsor the Genesis Awards. Stars like Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen Colbert, Gordon Ramsay, Ian Somerhalder, Colbie Caillat, Bill Maher and their respective shows will be awarded and recognized for highlighting animal protection issues.  The show, hosted by "Dancing with the Stars'" Carrie Ann Inaba, with help from Uggie, the canine star from the Oscar-winning film "The Artist," airs on Animal Planet this weekend.

HSUS hasn’t stopped at just putting mega $ towards the event, they also put money into making sure that all of you can have a glam gala. They have a party pack put together, a Facebook event and YouTube video – all to “glam it up on Hollywood’s most compassionate night"!” Gag. Think of all of the dollars that they could use to spend on animals themselves – because we all know that despite “humane society” in its name, HSUS isn’t affiliated with any community-based humane societies or other pet shelters. HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter, nor does it serve as a national headquarters for humane societies that serve cities, towns, counties or states. It gives less than half of 1% to hands-on pet shelters.

The scary thing to agriculture is – they are attacking it besides the puppy-mill-people. HSUS Nebraska has a coordinator that started a Nebraska Agriculture Council, and now HSUS in Colorado has followed suit. They put these councils together to try to “work” with agriculture – but we know how well that has worked out for agriculture, ah-hem, Ohio, Arizona, Florida…

This issue of humane treatment for farm animals is not limited to the US. Last week, the World Society for the Protection of Animals handed nearly 110,000 signatures on its global petition to improve the treatment of farm animals to the Executive Coordinators of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. This group’s petition is hoping to put farm animal welfare on the agenda of the conference.

Their goal is to lobby five recommendations to the UN, national government delegates and the agricultural industry:

1. Develop policies for sustainable food supplies
2. Manage the unsustainable demand for farm animal products
3. Support research and development of humane and sustainable agriculture
4. Phase out subsidies and investments in unsustainable, inhumane systems
5. Recognizes the importance of farm animal welfare to poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods

On the BEEF blog this week, I learned about a new children’s book, “Vegan Is Love” that targets children to push towards becoming vegan and to see their meat-eating friends as cold-blooded killers. Thankfully, the book review from MSN discourages parent to read this to their kids “…please don't try to make our kids read Ruby Roth's new book, ‘Vegan Is Love,’ a gorgeously illustrated but sinister children's book that graphically depicts bleeding, slaughtered animals and describes their deaths as violent and sad.” But you can guess that HSUS is supportive of Roth’s agenda.

The bottom line is:  the best people to advocate for farm animals are farmers and ranchers.

They are the ones with them everyday – feeding, taking care of, nurturing – so that those animals will in turn take care of their own families. 98% of the farms and ranches in the U.S. are family owned and no one is better armored to stand-up for those animals than farmers and ranchers. And they do it everyday without having to go to Washington.

Be BOLD for Beef Month

May just might be my favorite month. Beside July for the 4th, October for my birthday, and December for Christmas. But all of those holidays coincide with May being Beef Month because I EAT BEEF on all of them, as well!

This year, I am especially excited to celebrate May being Beef Month because of the BOLD research that was released this year. BOLD means Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet. This new BOLD research shows that, when eaten as part of a heart-healthy diet, lean beef can help lower LDL “bad” cholesterol. That means you can eat just under 6 oz of lean beef (remember there are 29 cuts?) every day and it will lower cholesterol.

That’s pretty exciting! I’ll admit that I like healthy food – but I wasn’t always that way. About two and a half years ago, I was overweight, unhappy about how I felt, and unhealthy. I started WeightWatchers because it was at my workplace and it was a benefit to my health insurance. So I did and one and half  years into it, I’d lost 30 pounds – and have kept it off for almost a year! The thing I brag about most is that I did that by eating beef. My leader can attest that I’ve shared about the 29 cuts of lean beef and now the BOLD diet many times.

I’m also sharing my love for beef when I run! I don’t have a Team Beef jersey, but I made shirts for Ronny and I last year to run the BolderBOULDER 10K (and honor my Gramps – a pretty great cattleman – on Memorial Day, aka beef grilling day of the year in Beef Month!).

There are so many misconceptions about beef, but beef provides us with 10 essential nutrients that are so good for our bodies – and it has ZIP! Zinc. Iron. Protein. How many foods that you eat can you say that about?

I’m proud to raise beef, support farmers & rancher that raise beef by advocating for animal well-being, and proud to eat beef. How are you celebrating BEEF this month?

Producing enough sustainable food

Ahhh. Sustainable.

A word that is so overused, yet so important to agriculture. And also to consumers who want to use it as much as possible when it comes to their food.

And we’re taking food. Everyone wants it. Everyone needs it.

This YouTube video came out yesterday and it does pretty darn good job of talking about how everyone deserves responsible and sustainable food. Yet, also how it can be achieved with modern agriculture.

Even though they plug their brand, they have a great message of what it’s going to take to feed 9 billion hungry people by 2050.

My family produces sustainable beef. What’s that mean? Read about it here.

Why do we use antibiotics in food animals?

The last few days have been fluttering with information about the Food and Drug Administration announcement last week which called on drug companies to help limit the use of antibiotics in farm animals.

Why is this an issue: The FDA has struggled for decades with how to tackle the problem because it’s so important to the agriculture industry who agrees that drugs are a key part of modern meat production. Some livestock producers give antibiotic drugs like penicillin, which can be routinely mixed with animal feed and water to help livestock, pigs and chickens put on weight and stay healthy in feedyards. Others only give when necessary to help a sick animal. This scare from the FDA has consumers worried that excess antibiotics are being passed through the meat and affecting humans.

Blogs, press releases and quotes are all over the Internet, so instead of writing about this issue, I’d like to just share resources that are already out there.

“I am a mother, grandmother and cattle feeder in northeast Nebraska. When we use antibiotics in cattle it is for sickness. We do not use long-term antibiotics for cattle performance. The type of antibiotics we do use are not used in human medicine. People need to know that we utilize antibiotics to take better care of the cattle. It is really all about animal welfare,” says Joan Ruskamp, CommonGround volunteer and cattle feeder in Dodge, NE. Read about Joan’s feedyard and how she “Looks and Listens'” for signs when her cattle are sick here.

Teresa Brandenburg, CommonGround volunteer and beef cattle farmer in Russell, Kansas says, “We manage about 85 head of beef cattle each year on our farm – momma cows and their calves. It’s really important that we keep every one of them healthy. Antibiotics given to our cattle are always prescribed by a veterinarian. Overall, you should know that our animals are on a stringent herd health program. We give them vaccinations to prevent disease and only use antibiotics to treat them when there is a problem.” You can also hear what she has to say about antibiotics in this video:

Katie @ On the Banks of Squaw Creek blog and a turkey producer says, “I’ll admit, I lost some sleep worrying about the idea that we were putting human health at risk in order to raise our turkeys. But I’m a modern (stubborn, skeptical) woman, and I wasn’t totally convinced. I have two little boys – I really wanted to make sure that we, as a farm, and we, as an industry, weren’t doing something that would endanger them. …Instead of taking my husband’s word for it, I talked to the experts….I’m no longer worried.”
The Beltway Beef blog featured veterinarians to explain the how’s and why’s of antibiotic use in cattle. Watch the video here:

Joe Frasier, beef rancher in Eastern Colorado {and my dad!}, says, “I give antibiotics on an individual case basis, based on the diagnostics of the elements and the animal’s temperature. Then I make sure to get a veterinarian's diagnosis. For example just recently, I had an animal with swelling in her jaw, which I had the veterinarian look at. She diagnosed it as an infected tooth (yes, animals can get those too, just like humans) so the vet recommended that I give her tetracycline. Why? The vet said that was the best type of antibiotic for a bone infection."

Having the veterinarian consent is a must when it comes to animal health in my dad's cattle herd. He also said that he always has backup and documentation what he's giving the animals based on the vet recommendation. By having this documented, an animal cannot go into the food system still having that antibiotic in its system.  He can still make important decisions on medication to give his cattle, and is not required to have veterinary consent, but in order for anyone else to pick up antibiotics from the vet's office (like Mom or other ranch management), he calls into the office to verify that he is going to pick up and administer that medication to a sick animal. The vet ok's it and documents. This may seem like overkill sometimes, but consumers and safe beef are the end products that beef ranchers keep in mind in every decision that is made.

What’s your take on antibiotics?

Transformation Nation, and we’re not talking Dr. Oz.

Consumers. They are the ones who have the most influential say in what production practices are put into place for livestock production and animal welfare practices.

And these consumers are talking to their food retailers. Lately, we have seen more and more retailers put policies in place that require their supply of meat to be produced a certain way. We most recently saw this with the outcry of grocery stores promising to stop selling or pre-label lean, finely textured beef. Luckily Hy-Vee reversed their stance.

What is more frustrating is that these consumers are getting their information from popular, public figures who “claim” to be experts in food (aka Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution). But that’s for another post, another time.

This concern of retailers changing their supply of meat/food products and policies is not specific to beef alone.

Pork.
In pork production, Sara Lee Corporation is the first to require premises identification (ID). They sent a letter to its pork suppliers notifying them of the company’s intent to begin requiring a premises ID tag in all sows delivered to its Newbern, TN, processing facility effective January 1, 2015. Many producers see the need for this type of identification to help determine an area of outbreak of disease. Others aren’t thrilled.

Also, McDonald’s released a statement in February that they will work with U.S. pork supplier to phase out the use of gestation crates. McDonald's joins a growing list of food producers and retailers, including Smithfield Foods, Hormel, Cargill, Burger King and Wolfgang Puck, that have promised to move away from pork bred from sows confined to the crates.

Poultry.
McDonald’s changed their egg supplier after a Mercy for Animals video was released on how the layers were being treated. Consumers saw this and reacted, along with Target stores who followed McDonald’s lead to drop the same egg supplier. 

Some restaurants are switching their chicken to free-range or cage-free – more as a marketing gesture than to really appease consumers.

Dairy.
Grocery-giant, Wal-Mart, listened to their uneducated customers in 2008 when they demanded hormone-free milk to be labeled and sold in stores. Some brands specifically, such as Horizon, only sell organic milk. Many moms demand this type of milk because they believe it to be safer for their kids, or even their doctors tell them so.

The Point

The main thing I want to achieve with the information from this post is that consumers have choices – and those choices are very powerful when it comes to what they want from their retailers. McDonald’s wouldn’t make those choices and spend more on their food supply if their customers didn’t demand it.

That’s where the education comes in. Agricultural and livestock producers need to educate their consumers on their production practices and why they are needed. More importantly, a simple conversation will give them the satisfaction they need to understand why that practice is in place, and give the producer the satisfaction of being able to produce food for the future.

Agriculture has been criticized for not listening and only telling. If you’re a farmer/rancher, what choice will you make to help educate consumers on their food supply (which is the safest and most affordable in the world, btw). If you’re a consumer, what determines your food purchasing decisions and why is that truly important – those of us in agriculture want to know. Let’s converse.