Just What Are We Eating?
Eating is a tough subject these days. Choices abound. Marketing is manipulative. When it comes to buying food, advice is wildly conflicting. Feeling better does not necessarily result from the advice one reads and some suggestions can be unsustainable (keto much?). The ironic result is that quality of life stays low. There is a growing awareness of the connection between food quality, how it is produced, the environment, animal welfare, climate change, and politics. This awareness is clear in the…
Health And Safety
You are hiking in the woods with a friend when a bear attacks. How fast must you run to escape? 28 mph/44 kmh Drop everything, climb a tree and wait it out 36 mph/58 kmh Faster than your friend If you answered D, then you have the right mindset for biosecurity! Biosecurity is not about building an impenetrable fortress, irrelevant costly actions, or impossible goals. Rather, good biosecurity is about practical measures that keep you ahead of whatever pathogens may…
Meet the Farmer – Master Blend Family Farms
Leading By Example Ronald Simmons (above) produces pasture-raised pigs and vegetables on 76 acres in Duplin County, North Carolina, the third generation to farm the land. Master Blend Family Farms supplies pork products to restaurants and high-end eateries across the East—and a major basketball stadium! How did you get into farming? My father-in-law was debating if he should sell the family farm after many years raising pigs. I asked him for an opportunity to give it a shot. That was…
Light And Shade
Heat stress is a serious welfare issue for cattle that can also result in significant decreases in feed intake, milk yield, fertility and weight gain. The ideal ambient temperature for cattle is between 41°F and 77 °F. Depending on the relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, and access to water and diet, cattle can suffer heat stress in temperatures above this range. Signs of heat stress, such as increased respiration rate (greater than 90 breaths per minute), standing versus lying…
From Lab To Label
Public concern about eating and producing meat has increased considerably over recent years. Driven by a growing interest in the links between our dietary choices, public health, and climate change, the all-too-frequent and ill-informed media headlines and campaigning efforts by interest groups to demonize all meat—regardless of how it’s produced—have landed all of ‘animal agriculture’ in the hot seat. Follow the money In response, opportunistic global agribusinesses are scrambling to produce palatable alternatives to fresh meat to exploit this new…
