Chewing The Cud

You go girl!!!! Animal agriculture with continue to provide essential food for a hungry nation. Farmers take great pride in caring for their land and animals as well as producing a safe product. I just hope that consumers realize this what these ads really are: propaganda are completely untrue!!!!! Go animal agriculture!!!

You couldn't have said it better Londa! Thanks for the comment!

We sure spend a lot time complaining about what the kid in grocery store doesn’t know about their food supply but trust me, it goes so far beyond the ignorance of kids that it is scary. For example, last week the 7th Circuit Court ruled on Cavel International’s appeal regarding the Illinois law that bans horse slaughter. The written comments of the three panel judges included these statements:

"States have a legitimate interest in prolonging the lives of animals that their population happens to like. They can ban bullfights and cockfights and the abuse and neglect of animals."

"Even if no horses live longer as a result of the new law," the court wrote, "a state is permitted, within reason, to express disgust at what people do with the dead, whether dead human beings or dead human animals.

Comparing the consumptive use of animal protein to animal fighting events is over the edge for me. I think these judges, along with the general population of this country, have watched one too many news stories about the Vick fighting dogs and they don’t know how to separate it from the proper end-use of animals. Furthmore, tell me how any state that wanted to ban deer hunting couldn’t get it done if they used the sentiments of our judgical system.

Someone posed this question: If we would load every American up and take them on a tour through all sectors of the beef industry, would we gain or lose customers? I know there are many among us that believe the visualization of the pasture, to the feedlot to the packing plant to the grocery store would be so alarming that we would chase them from meat consumption all together. I disagree completely.

You don’t know what you don’t know. Honestly, most Americans know less than they think they do because they are afraid of what might be lurking inside the walls of a packing plant. I have toured more than my fair share of packing plants and I believe if our consumers would actually see what goes on it would only improve their confidence in today’s food supply plus they would have a greater understanding of the purpose these food animals serve for humans.

All this reminds me of a statement made on my Rural Route Radio program last week by my guest, plant breeder Dr. Dave Nanda. Our discussion was about how long it would be until we see 400 bushel/acre corn yields. Incidentaly, the potential is quicker than you might imagine but Dr. Nanda made statement that hit me hard. He said, “You have got to remember that corn’s purpose is not to give us grain but it is to reproduce the species.” That, to me, creates the perfect visual for all of us. We, as humans, have this daily desire to eat and because we like to eat, we utilize all of the available resources to get it done.

We have worked in conjunction with nature to maximize the species efficiency to produce more reproductive material using less sun, water and nutrients to get it done. When our kids eat a bowl of Corn Flakes for breakfast, do you think they ever have the thought that they are eating an embyro that could have become another living thing? In fact, by eating breakfast at all you have prevented another life, be it a corn plant, an egg, a bowl of strawberries or piece of toast. We call it the cycle of life.

For those of you that believe we should continue food production behind closed doors and that the less our consumers know about how their food gets to their plate the better, I hope you will reconsider. Whether it be a circuit court judge or a Philidephia soccer mom, it is vitally important that we present the true facts to them. If we don’t, we will continue to allow the profiteering fearmongers to mislead our nation into believing that monsters are lurking behind the chain link fences of every processing plant in the country.

Thanks for weighing in Trent. You have definitely given us some food for thought!