Thanks to Erin Ehnle/Keeping it Real: Through the lens of a farm girl – for this quote and post in remembrance for Memorial Day.
Rural Americans are the heart and soul of our country. Both my Gramps and Ronny’s Grandpa served for our country and both were cattlemen. We are so proud of what they did for our country, as well as the many other men and women that served.
We can give back by remembering them today.
New Orleans, frozen in May? No, I actually toured a port wharf in New Orleans that ships out frozen beef and pork. This tour was part of the U.S. Meat Export Federation Board of Directors meeting held in New Orleans this past week.
The tour showed us the different areas along the river where barges and vessels come through to unload and reload containers and bulk supplies from all around the world. This specific facility was going to start operating the near future so it didn’t have any meat stored in it yet – but it was still cold in there! 32 degrees. But they were waiting for it to get down to –15 degrees before they could flash-freeze meat.
These were the doors into the storage racks. It was just as cold in this load out area so they can keep the beef and pork frozen as they are loading it onto refrigerated containers. 
The facility really was massive. But when 96% of the world’s population lives outside of the U.S. and the demand for U.S. meat is high, we’ve got to fill that need and supply them with high-quality U.S. meat. 
We drove through the port area where they were loading a large vessel with containers. 
Those being loaded were not refrigerated containers, but we did see a vessel that had some of the refrigerated containers already loaded. 
It’s amazing what all we can do from here in the U.S. to help support the world market and fill the demand for U.S. red meat. But we still have challenges ahead with foreign policy, consumer preferences, and concerns for BSE and UTM (under thirty months) of age. But USMEF and it’s staff all over the world is doing a remarkable job educating and opening up export markets for U.S. red meat.
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).
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.)
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:
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.
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?
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.
