National Ag Day 2015: What Does Agriculture Mean to You?

A spring wheat field in Kansas.

Happy National Agriculture Day! Here's a quick question for your Wednesday coffee break:

When you think of agriculture, what comes to mind?

Do you think of a pasture full of cows? A waving wheat field? Apple orchards? I tend to think of a rolling wheat field, because I hail from the Wheat State. However, do the people of agriculture ever cross your mind?

What's cuter than a baby pig?

I hope that you think of people when you think of agriculture, because the people who produce the food we eat are very important. That doesn't mean they are more important than doctors, teachers or firefighters but they still do play a vital role in our society. In fact, many agriculture producers are also teachers, firefighters, lawyers or students. All of these different people may help produce food in a unique way. A teacher may help his/her family raise cattle after the last bell rings. Similarly, many farmers or ranchers volunteer in their communities as firefighters, school board members or community leaders.

Agriculture is not a cookie cutter industry.

It's a complex chain of producers, consumers, retailers, agribusinesses, families and friends all working together to produce food for a growing world. Working with communities to provide good food that leads to healthy lifestyles. Working in conjunction with public health leaders, educators, public policy officials and many others to move forward with feeding the world. See a pattern? We are a nation working together, hand-in-hand, to feed the world. Pretty daunting task.

Today, on National Ag Day, I challenge you to think about agriculture and how you fit into our U.S. food chain. Do you make informed food decisions? Do you help produce food? Do you market, sell, distribute, promote or eat food? If so, you have an important role and should celebrate National Agriculture Day as a food enthusiast and agriculture impressionist.

Just some Food For Thought!
~ Buzzard ~

Agriculturists Police Themselves

The agricultural community is capable of policing themselves and taking care of issues as they arise. My father and brother, Gary and Travis Theurer, have both been involved with a local animal cruelty case close to home. This past year, the Midwest has seen some of the worst drought conditions people have faced since the Great Depression in the 1930’s. This has resulted in drastic management changes by animal caretakers in order to keep the health status high of all the animals. On our farm and ranch, the drought has resulted in selling off some of our cows to have enough grass and forage available to feed all the cows in the summer, extra supplementation in the form of hay bales, lick tanks, and range cubes, and has also resulted in consistent monitoring of water situation to ensure all cattle had access to high quality water. However in this isolated incident, one particular cattle producer did not take the proper steps.

My father was contacted by the local sheriff department to see if he would be willing to help capture the animals and bring them home and care for them. Dad immediately wanted to help because he was informed of the condition of the animals and wanted to do anything he could to nurse them back to health. My dad and brother drove up to this ranchers’ place and gathered all the cattle and hauled them home. Both my dad’s and brother’s responses were, “These are the thinnest cattle I have ever seen. I’m surprised they even have enough energy to walk. These cows need a lot of care to help them along.” At home, the cattle were fed a forage diet. We were initially worried to start the cows on a high quality grain diet because the cows have not seen enough feed and would over-eat any grain product placed in front of them resulting in metabolic acidosis causing more harm to the animal rather than good. We developed a gradual step-up ration diet that would initially meet the minimal cattle nutrition requirements needed and then increased in order to add weight to the cows to get them back towards adequate conditions. We went to gather the cows the first part of July and they have currently added approximately 300 pounds due to the water and nutrition supply my family has been able to provide to these animals. I saw these animals a few weeks after they arrived at home when I was down visiting for the weekend and I saw them again a couple weeks ago. The progress they have made has been remarkable just do to some management practices. Video of the cows and news report of the animal cruelty case can be found here:

http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Animal-Crueslty-Trail-Underway-In-Wellington-170373686.html

The reason why I chose to write this for a Food For Thought blog was just to show the ability of production agriculturists to not only care about their own animals but all of the livestock sector. The drive and passion people can have is outstanding in agriculture sector. While it was a sad and isolated event that animals suffered, people directly involved with production agriculture stepped in and tried to fix the problem the best way they could.

Until next time,

Miles Theurer

Foodie Feature: Colorful Cauliflower

Today's Foodie Feature surrounds a vegetable I've wanted to try for a while now. I've seen it in the grocery store. I've been attracted to buy it because my blood runs PURPLE! I just didn't know very much about it, until now, so I finally decided to give it a shot!

Colorful Cauliflower

I went straight to a grower's website. Andy Boy produces this jewel-toned variation of regular snow white cauliflower in California and Arizona. Andy Boy is a family-run farm that the D'Arrigo family has kept in business by diversifying in several areas of vegetable production. There are no artificial colors or dyes added.

 

Green cauliflower is credited with having significant amounts of beta carotene, Vitamin C, Vitamin A and is slightly sweet.  The Orange cauliflower is especially high in beta-carotene, with a slightly nutty taste and creamy texture. The Purple cauliflower is recognized for anthocyanins, also found in red cabbage and red wine. 

The color change is not a result of genetic modification of the plant, but rather long generations of selective breeding. According the USDA and several UK sources who all agreed, I found a lot of interesting things about the genetic changes that do occur in this fancy cauliflower. 

PURPLE - Anthocyanins are responsible for the color of many flower, fruits and vegetables and is also responsible for a gene mutation in cauliflower that allows for the abnormal purple color to express a phenotypical purple color in the curds. When talking about genetics, phenotype refers to the physical appearance that the plant or animal possesses.

ORANGE - Works in a similar manner to the purple, except for an increased amount of Beta-carotenes are present in these mutants! Think about carrots and sweet potatoes, they contain a lot of Beta-carotenes. 

GREEN - The lime green cauliflower is sometimes referred to as broccoflower. It is actually higher in protein than cauliflower and broccoli (the normal ones!).

 

 So, I have to give you my recipe for the evening and how I tried out my fancy new produce!!! It's super easy, delicious and if you don't like broccoli and cauliflower this way, well then you're just refusing to try it. It's that good!

Roasted Colorful Broccoli/Cauliflower

2 bunches of broccoli

2 bunches of colorful cauliflower (or white if you want to be boring!)

5 T. of Olive Oil (you can use butter, if you wish)

Sea Salt

Cracked Black Pepper

Minced Garlic

Parmesan Cheese

An oven

A knife

A cookie sheet

• Take the broccoli and cauliflower out, rinse it well and let it dry. The edible portion is the florets, so cut all those off and just give them a nice chop. 
• Make sure you cut your vegetables on a different cutting board than your meats!
• Drench in your oil, seasonings and garlic. I eye balled all of these because it's better to cook that way!
• Save the cheese for now.
• Heat your oven up to about 400. 
• Place your veggies on the cookie sheet and bake away! I baked mine for about 20 minutes or until tender and slightly crispy. 
• Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and give them a couple more minutes in the oven. 
• Serve with a nice lean meat and you have an amazing dinner!

 Pick some colorful cauliflower out at your local grocer. Give it a try and let me know what you think. My next recipe will be mashed potatoes with a purple cauliflower puree swirled in. Let's be honest - we could all use a little purple swirl in life!

Enjoy,

Tera

Technology Has Brought Us A Long Way

I am not a very tech-savvy person. At all. I still don't know how to use Bluetooth and that's been around for about 8 years, maybe more? Anyway, just because I don't understand it doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. Technology has made it easier for parents to teach their children the ABC's at young ages, has improved health care, has globalized  industry and in general has improved our quality of life (although the occasional IT headache does occur). Additionally, technology has made agriculture immensely more productive over time.

What do I mean? Think about it - in the 60's and 70's Norman Borlaug and his associates created new varieties of corn, rice and wheat that vastly improved the amount of food farmers could produce. In some countries of the world, for example in East Africa, food intake went up by 50%. This was achievable with the application of technology.

In his annual letter, Bill Gates highlights these facts and others about the need for technology to feed our growing world. That's right, Bill Gates has gone agvocate. Well, not really but he does make a great case for our industry.

Bill points out that in the 19th century, the majority of the U.S. workforce was in agriculture. Today, less than 2% of people are responsible for all U.S. food production however, in countries like Uganda 75% of the citizens produce the food. U.S. farmers are so productive that the average family spends less than 10% (8.9% in 2009) of their annual income on food. That is a microscopic amount compared to a country like China who in 2009 spent 37% of their income on food.

It's also brought to attention that only $3 billion a year is spent researching the seven most important crops. This amount needs to increase for the sake of our productivity - especially as our climate continues to change which could cause a 25% decrease in the crop yield if we continue to see droughts and floods like this past year. Research into soil science and crop production can help us to be more efficient with our resources, which is especially important with climate change, urbanization and our growing world population. He suggests we need to increase that amount if we want to be able to meet the demand for food over the next 50 years

Before I close, I'd like to share this picture with you. A little Food For Thought, if you will (cliche, I know):

With this picture I'm not trying to say taxes are high, I'm pointing out the extreme affordability of our food supply. We are very blessed in the states to have such 'cheap' food that has been brought about through research, hard working farmers and technology.

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

To read Bill Gates full letter, click here. Photo credit from here

Food Suppliers: I'm Lovin' It

I am in love with this new ad campaign from McDonald's. Mostly I am fond of it because it's real and you get the chance to meet the suppliers of different food products that are served up at the McD's near you.

The people are real. The videos are touching. The process is transparent.

Potato Supplier

Beef Supplier

Lettuce Supplier

Farming is a family tradition and agriculture is the backbone of the nation. Farmers are truly stewards of the land. See for yourself.

Enjoy!

Tera

Fly Over States

I'm sure this song has been out for quite some time but since I'm in Australia I haven't been able to tune into many American country stations so incidentally I just heard it last week. For your listening pleasure:



 I love this song because it serves as a reminder of the importance of the farmers and ranchers who are producing a safe and affordable food supply in those fly-over states.

Additionally, Thanksgiving is just around the corner so remember to thank a farmer while you're carving up your Thanksgiving bird (or ham)..

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Red Meat - Green Facts

That's a fun little way of saying meat is sustainable and environmentally friendly. It's also the name of a website, which was created by Meat and Livestock Australia, that aims to "discuss the issues of sustainable farming practices." On the site you can further explore information about the "impact of farming on our environment and the proactive initiatives undertaken by farmers and processors across Australia."
One of my favorite features is a visual aid that helps consumers better grasp the supply chain from farm to fork. Check it out below:

Image courtesy www.redmeatgreenfacts.com.au

Other links include facts about reducing water usage, myth busting (similar to this post), responsible land management and school projects. The myth busting tab is one of my faves.

 

For anyone looking to delve further into the facts behind food production, I highly encourage you check out this site. Although it was developed in Australia, many of the same principles and practices apply to farmers and ranchers here in the U.S. Furthermore, it's always a bonus to learn about agriculture in other countries, because it fosters critical thinking on how the global agriculture industry can improve worldwide.

 

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

 

Awww, Sugar Sugar

I recently spent my honeymoon in Fiji. Beautiful country - lots of touristy things to do but if you leave the 5 star resort area and pristine beaches to head inland - you'll see an awful lot of this luscious green crop: sugarcane.

(photo courtesy of http://www.fijiorganic.org/)

Sugarcane yields products such as white table sugar, molasses, rum and ethanol. It is produced in over 110 countries and the U.S. ranked 10th in world sugarcane production in 2008. In 2009, over 1,683 million metric tons was produced accounting for 22.4% of total world ag production. Sugarcane is harvested with a combine, just like wheat, corn and sorghum.

In the U.S. soda is produced using high fructose corn syrup while in many other countries, pure sugar (derived from sugarcane) is used instead. This switcharoo in ingredients causes soda in varying countries to taste differently. I realized this first in Germany, then South Africa, then Fiji and now while in Australia. It takes some getting used to!

Sugarcane is used for a wide variety of things in the U.S. however it is not a huge part of our GDP. This is a similar case with rice and bananas. However, in small developing countries like Fiji, sugarcane is a front runner in the development and maintenance of a stabilized economy. There are over 22,000 sugarcane growers in Fiji all who contribute to exporting the surplus of their valuable product. It's mutually beneficial for the U.S. to have free trade agreements with countries like Fiji so that both parties can receive goods without being subject to excessive taxes.

It's important to be mindful of where certain staples in our food supply come from  - whether from home soil or abroad.

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Foodie Feature: I Am Angus - Creating Connections with Consumers

Connections between consumers and producers is what Food For Thought is always striving to create. A great example of this is the connection that the I Am Angus series, produced by the American Angus Association, is creating.

For your information, Angus is a breed of cattle largely used in the beef industry. Angus cattle are black hided and commonly associated with high quality carcass characteristics. Different breeds form associations to connect breeders from across the country. Breed associations are built on the premise that registered cattle are worth more, the benefits trickle down through the system to the individual producers.

I Am Angus is an hour-long show that airs on RFD-TV. All of the videos are posted on YouTube as well. This February 28th at 7 p.m., the program will feature several people in the industry with highlights including one of our own Food For Thought members, Chelsea Good, and world-renowned animal behaviorist, Dr. Temple Grandin. Tune in on RFD-TV or catch the segment on YouTube because you won't want to miss this touching video connecting consumers and producers by telling the story of agriculture.

Here is the preview that you can access today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6j14NdR10.

My best,

Tera Rooney

Resolve to Evolve

Photo courtesy of http://egoscueportland.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/join-the-revolution.jpg

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year's Eve weekend and that you're all ready to jump headfirst into 2011.

I'd like to challenge each and every reader to evolve in 2011.  This isn't a Charles Darwin lecture -- this is about evolving as a consumer; become more informed and educated about the food you choose to eat, where it comes from and who produces it. All of us, producers and consumers alike, regardless if you live in the country or the big city, should make educated decisions about what we put on our plate. So I strongly encourage that if you hear gossip about a certain food, agriculture practice or eating lifestyle - check it out for yourself.  Form your own opinion - don't just take someone's words as truths.

At Food For Thought, we strive to facilitate learning about food and agriculture production.  Many of our previous posts have done just that.  Below are some of the posts that explain a little more about certain agriculture practices and foods - I hope you enjoy them!

Basil Blues
Getting to know your BEEF
Cotton is King: Part 1 and 2
The Story of Wheat: As Told by a 3 Year Old
Amber Waves of Grain

Additionally, you can check out these resources for more information on nutrition and food safety in the United States.

Nutrient Rich Food Coalition
Tips on Choosing Produce and Keeping it Fresh and Safe from Plant to Palate
Food Safety Education - Meat and Poultry Hotline

I hope that you'll all join me in becoming a healthy, informed consumer!

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Food Safety and Some Political Mumbo Jumbo

I wish I followed politics more. Maybe before I begin following I should wish to care more first. Don't get me wrong, when there are specific issues that affect things I am really passionate about, I jump on the computer and do my research to form an opinion. But I have a feeling no one would put me in the category of well-rounded in the political arena. My facebook says my affiliation is, "currently looking for a worthy party," and while this statement has some truth, I'm not actively looking either. I should make this a resolution for 2011. I'll keep it in my top 5.

There are some political issues I like to read up on. The current U.S. food safety bill (Food Safety Modernization Act) would be one of them. It won't officially be signed until January of the new year, but even when it is signed I'm not sure it will change much. It is estimated that it will cost somewhere in the ballpark of $1.4 billion in the first five years of installment. Unless you have been in a hole for the past few years of economic turmoil, I don't think we have that money just sitting around.

When I do choose to research some of the hot topics in political changes, I need the information to be pretty cut and dry. I found some good information for the recent food bill on the FDA's website. While most of the information is good, I won't speak for one of the opening paragraphs...

"The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) gives FDA a mandate to pursue a system that is based on science and addresses hazards from farm to table, putting greater emphasis on preventing food-borne illness. The reasoning is simple: The better the system handles producing, processing, transporting, and preparing foods, the safer our food supply will be."

Thanks for that. It probably cost a lot of money and some poor intern's whole work day to get that paragraph orchestrated and I'm pretty sure that sums up the FDA's purpose in the first place, before the FSMA. No new information here.

There are some interesting provisions in the new bill and they are listed on the FDA website given above. I guess what urged me to write this post is that we (meaning the United States) have a very safe food supply. I don't think that we have the extra money laying around for the costs associated with the legislation and I think it's just pushing more on to the FDA. I think it's truly unfair to place majority responsibility for food safety into one agency.

Food safety is the responsibility of a complex web of people. That's why it is important that we all care about the safety of the food put on our tables. It takes the producers who work hard to insure a safe product is raised, to the processors who are regulated to do things correctly in their facilities, to the preparers of meals whether it be Bobby Flay or my mom. A system that is just complex enough to ensure that we keep eating safe food.

For what my two cents are worth,

Tera

Time to Bed Down!

It's getting cold and a lot of farmers and ranchers are starting to move some of their livestock inside for the winter and with that moves comes an increase in management.  Farmers supply indoor animals with bedding in order to make the living space more comfortable and provide warmth when it's rainy, cold and snowy.

A lot of farmers and ranchers use straw to bed down their animals. Straw consists of the dried stalks of plants, especially cereal grains such as wheat stalks or corn stalks. Straw is not hay!  Hay is used as a primary forage and serves as a valuable source of nutrients, energy and v&m (vitamins and minerals) whereas straw is used as bedding and also to assist with scratch factor in livestock. Another key difference between straw and hay is that straw is much cheaper. For example:

In Kansas an average small square bale (~65-70 lb) costs  ~$3/bale. One ton of small square bales may cost anywhere from $85-$95/ton (depending on size/price of bale).  Straw on the other hand is about $55/ton.  As you can see, it's much cheaper to use straw as bedding than hay because farmers will use several tons of straw throughout the winter to keep livestock warm and dry and those costs will add up.

Still having trouble differentiating between straw and hay? Check out these pictures:

Hay (above)

Straw (above)

Another form of bedding used in livestock operations are shavings.  Shavings are most commonly found made from pine wood. These are really prevalent in the show industry.  Here's an image of pine shavings at work.

The last form of bedding I want to discuss is sawdust. Sawdust serves the same purpose as straw or shavings but there is a downfall. Sawdust shouldn't be used in a building or area that allows strong winds to blow through - why?  Because sawdust is so fine that the wind can blow it up in the air and it can get into the animal's eyes.  You should never used sawdust in a trailer that has open sides or slats - that's just asking for irritated eyes.

Livestock aren't the only animals that enjoy warm bedding in the winter --don't forget to put some extra straw in your dog house this winter! 

Until next time,

~Buzzard~