Safe Grilling this Memorial Day Weekend

With Memorial Day weekend approaching I plan to spend some quality time outdoors. What better to do than grab a few steaks and hamburger from the freezer and prep the grill for some cooking!

Throw some friends and family into the equation and I think it's a party! If you and your family are planning on firing up the grills this weekend I thought I would remind you of a few important tips to ensure your Memorial Day cookouts will be a fun and safe start to the summer.

• Use a separate cutting board when prepping raw beef. Wash the board thoroughly in hot, soap water before using the same board for any other ingredients.
• Never put cooked beef back on the same plate you used for raw meat, and make sure to use clean utensils as well.
• Don’t leave cooked food sitting out at room temperature for more than two hours.
• Use an ovenproof or instant-read thermometer to prevent over- or under cooking. Refer to safe cooking temperatures below.
• Always use an instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into the side of burgers and steaks to check doneness. And remember, the thermometer should penetrate the thickest part or center of the burger or steak. Allow 10 to 15 seconds for the thermometer to register the internal temperature.
• Cook steaks to 145°F (medium rare) or 160°F (medium). Cook burgers to at least 160°F.

3 Easy Steps for Grilling
Step 1: Prepare gas or charcoal grill according to manufacturer’s directions for medium heat.
Step 2: Remove beef from refrigerator and season with herbs or spices as desired. Place on cooking grid.
Step 3: Grill according to chart, turning occasionally. After cooking, season beef with salt, if desired.

Keep your family healthy when cooking outdoors this summer...Grill it Safe!

Have a safe Holiday!
Kiley Stinson

Commitment to Care

Photo: Andrew Meares

Today, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) released an “undercover video” attacking the practice and alleging cruelty at a sow production unit in Wyoming.

Livestock producers are committed to providing humane and compassionate care for their pigs at every stage of life. In fact it is one of the ethical principles to which U.S. pork producers adhere to.  The National Pork Producers Council provides best practices training and education as part of its Pork Quality Assurance Plus program which outlines firm animal well-being standards in addition to incorporating the industry’s ‘We Care’ responsible pork initiative.

This behavior upsets us when we hear about an isolated event such as this, has taken place. Simply put, it is extremely heart breaking that these individuals who are few and far between do not share the compassion and respect the remaining 99% of pork producers in the US provide. In fact it is downright appalling.

 If you have questions about how your food is raised and how animals are cared for please don’t hesitate to ask us. That’s our mission as Food For Thought members. We will provide consumers with answers about where their food comes, inform consumers, and confront myths about modern agriculture.

We fully support our nation’s producers who provide the up most care and compassion for their animals. However, individuals who are responsible for abuse and unethical treatment to animals must be held accountable for their actions.

Draft Day: Agriculture Picks Kids in the First Round.

If you think that the recent announcement by the United States Department of Labor to drop its proposed legislation aimed at severely limiting the activities of kids on farms and ranches is solely a major win for agriculture you're forgetting that if someone wins, someone also loses.

That loser is anti-agriculture. While not frontline proponents of these proposed rules, you can bet that they were licking their chops in hopes that the Obama administration would get them shoved through.  The reason they had their pom poms out and cheerleading skirts on is simple: whenever the gap between producers and consumers gets bigger, they score. It is pivotal for their team's survival to maintain a large gap between producers and consumers.  Had the rule gone through, farmers and ranchers would have lost a major player for telling the true story of agriculture, our youth. Getting hands on experience in day-to-day operations of farms and ranches is vital for teaching kids a myriad of life lessons including responsibility, hard work, and trust not just the tangible skills of driving a tractor or pulling a calf, all of which seem to be an endangered species in today's society.  Kids take these lessons and skills from the farm and share them with the rest of America.  Groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) recognize the power of youth to influence the outcomes of both the present and the future and have developed programs the implement their ideologies for children and teachers alike.

However, if anti-Ag was looking for a close game, they were surely disappointed.  With a stellar performance from our star running backs like Senators Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts along with the hard work of many industry groups and individual farmers and ranchers, DOL dropped the rule and announced that is has no intention of pursuing it further during the Obama administration.  Instead they will focus on the development of educational programs to increase safety for kids in agriculture. Everyone that submitted comments, wrote letters, testified, or tweeted about the rule to increase awareness deserves a pat on the back was and integral part of chalking up another "W".

- DJ

Dr. Upson Speaks on Sustainability in Beef Production

Dr. Dan Upson, Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan, Dr. Dan Thomson

Picture taken by: Wrenn Pacheco at our Fall Upson Lecture Series given by Teresa Scanlan

It was my pleasure to sit through another lecture given by Dr. Dan Upson, Professor Emeritus at Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, tonight when a group of food animal veterinarians, veterinary students and college professors got together to learn more about the industry we love to work in - the beef industry.

Dr. Dan Upson lecturing to a group of Bovine Practitioners, future veterinarians and Professors at Kansas State University.

Dr. Upson's talk centered on how we utilize beef cattle to sustainably produce food for the world's people. I summarized a few facts that he brought up and I thought you, as a consumer, would find interesting: 

• Beef has the ability to provide a very high biological and nutritional protein from the world's most abundant natural resource, grass.
• grass --> cattle --> people
• 70% of the Earth’s surface is water
• Of the 30% of land, only 9% of that land is used for food production

• This is how many acres of land, on average, it takes to raise 1 beef cow: 
• In New Mexico – arid land – 160 acres per head
• In the Kansas Flint Hills – during warm weather – 6-8 acres per head

Veterinarians are dedicated to a lifetime of education and part of that education is how we can help producers of beef cattle provide a safe, nutritious and economically sustainable product for future generations of beef consumers. If you would like to learn more about the veterinarians role in raising animals for food, please comment!

Best,

Tera Rooney

Confirmed Case of BSE: Why our Food is still SAFE!

Please see this video put out by the USDA today:

There has been a confirmed case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in a California dairy cow. While this may scare some of you, there are reasons you should have faith in US beef and dairy producers and I wanted to let you know why.

What is important to know as a consumer of beef and dairy products?

1. The animal NEVER entered the food supply at any time. Our food supply has not been compromised.
   
2. The measures we go to protect our food supply is top notch in the US and has not failed in this case. 
   
3. An atypical form of BSE is what we are dealing with here. The most common method for BSE spread between cows is in the feed they eat if it becomes infected. In the current case, the cow was not infected by a feed source. 
4. Since 1997 we have banned mammalian products to be fed to animals and this has helped us to decrease the incidence of BSE in cattle.
5. The USDA will continue to investigate this case to make sure our regulations and safeguards are up to standards in continuing to protect public health as well as animal health.

For more information about BSE, please visit:  http://bseinfo.org/default.aspx

Please comment below with any questions about this case that you might have. We have a veterinarian who has been trained in animal health who has agreed to answer any questions or concerns you present.We want consumers to be informed about what is going on and get correct information regarding this topic.

Best,

Tera

High grocery prices mean farmers and ranchers are rich, correct?

Not quite so fast. While it is logical to think that the higher prices the consumers are paying at the checkout register means the farmers and ranchers are just lining their pockets with all the profit they are making. However, it is not quite that simple due to a lot of other factors that play into profit for the producers.

The producer is receiving more for the product they produce, but at the same time they are spending more producing the safe, wholesome food we all enjoy. For the farmers, cost of inputs has been rising according to a report from the Economic Research Service (ERS). Input costs of seed, fertilizer, pesticides and fuel are all higher than they were in 2002, and all of these inputs are needed for the producers to be able to produce enough wholesome food.

As you can see in the following graph, producers are receiving more income but compared to the cost of production it is basically the same profit margin as it has been in the past. The farmers have more invested while their goal is to receive the same profit each year resulting in more risks for the producers. Full report can be found here.

Another reason that producers are not making more profit from these higher grocery bills is the small percentage of a food dollar that actually goes back to the producer. The ERS performed another economic analysis back in 2011 that examined where each dollar spent in the grocery store was distributed. Only 11.6 cents of every dollar spent in the grocery store actually went back to the farmer. The rest of spilt between processing and food services. Full report can be found here.

Overall, we need to thank the producers daily for providing the consumers with wholesome food for as cheap as they do with their increasing input costs.

Miles Theurer

A picture of agriculture...

This talented lady is making a difference by simply pairing breathtaking photographs that depict production agriculture with a fact or figure from the industry. Check it out and let me know what you think of her work. I love it!

Find her on pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/erin_ehnle/keeping-it-real-through-the-lens-of-a-farm-girl/

Or on facebook:

Keeping it Real: Through the Lens of a Farm Girl

This is one of her recent pieces that is a favorite of mine in honor of planting season. Right now we are planting corn that will continue to grow throughout the summer and be harvested in the fall. Corn is an important crop to the economy not only because we can feed people with it, but we feed a lot of animals as well. America's corn farmers have an amazing website for information about where a lot of food comes from. Check that out here: CommonGround. 

Enjoy!

tera