New Member Profile: John Sachse

Food For Thought has been blessed to grow in membership throughout the past year. Keep an eye out over the next few months for new member profiles and get to know our new friends! Meet our friend John.

 

"I grew up on a row crop and livestock operation in Easton, Kansas. I obtained my undergraduate degree in Animal Science from Kansas State University in December of 2013. Currently, I am the State Agriculture Representative for U.S. Senator Jerry Moran in his Manhattan, Kansas office. In this role, I represent the Senator on agriculture issues across the state. I help to inform him on what farmers and ranchers are saying and thinking. I am his eyes and ears here in Kansas when it comes to agriculture. Since January of 2015, I have also been working on receiving a masters degree in Agribusiness from Kansas State University.

I am excited to be a part of the Food For Thought team. FFT is a very proactive group that engages consumers who maybe didn't have the opportunity to grow up on a farm or ranch. I love taking opportunities to speak with consumers about the beef industry. An industry that taught me about hard work and sharing that positive message with the consumer."

                                         -John 

 

 

The Good and The Bad I Learned From Raising a 4-H Animal

I stumbled across this article on my newsfeed the other day, and thought as a person who has been through the 4-H program for nine years and continues to help others be involved, I would share my perspective of raising a 4-H project.

A few key words come to mind when I look back at the years I spent in 4-H: Responsibility, Respect, Trust, Hardship. All of these stem from the education I got from my 4-H project.

This young boy is watering his pigs

Responsibility. Raising a hog, sheep or calf from a young age takes an everyday commitment. These animals have to be fed and watered, have their pens cleaned on a daily basis, and washed by hand (sometimes twice or three times). For me, this meant heading to the barn before school, before any of my classmates were up, and tending to my beloved animals. I can still remember the days of hiking up the hill to the barn in the dark and rain with my sister to feed our steers, and give them a scratch as they came to the fence. 


We are our animals' caretakers and they trust us to do what is right.

Trust. I learned that with each year, you have to form a bond with your animal. Pigs may be one of the smartest animals I know, and it takes hours upon hours to build a relationship with them. As a little girl, I would sit in the shavings in the pen as the piglets began to chew on my boots. As the relationship grew, I would take them on walks around the field, training them for the show ring. By the time the show rolls around, there is a true partnership that exists between you and your pig. They trust you to lead them in the right direction, and vice versa.


This sow has a lot of mouths to feed!

Hardship. For every proud moment that you share with these animals, there are equally as many hardships. I remember my first litter of piglets when I was 5 years old. I was so excited to see 12 little piglets running around. But I also got to see Mother Nature’s work as well. Two of the piglets were squished by the sow and I remember the helpless feeling as there was nothing I could do to save them. That was my first lesson in  “letting nature take its course.” Another time a neighbor brought a bummer lamb over for us to bottle-feed.  Nothing makes a little girl happier than having a baby lamb to bottle feed in her house. But once again, after a week of caring for the small animal, its body gave up on it one day. At a very young age I had experienced death of an animal I cared deeply for.

I will admit that the author of the article was right about one thing. We are forced to harden a piece of our hearts.  But from that comes growth and learning.  What can we do in the future to prevent these hardships? What has to occur due to nature? However, I also realize the amount of work that goes in to producing a quality product that will feed a family. I understand where my food comes from.

Through my time in 4-H my animals taught me more about real life than a classroom ever has. Yes, I will admit getting that champion ribbon is always fun. But it’s the life skills of responsibility, trust and hardship that will continue to drive my passion for agriculture, and a passion to teach other youth the same lessons as well.

Until next time,
Kiah

Keep Calm And Bake On

Do you have a weakness for cookies, cakes, donuts, muffins, biscuits, pies, cupcakes, breads, scones, pastries, or even all of the above? If so, you will want to admit defeat to your sweet tooth and indulge in a baked good on May 17, also known as World Baking Day!
For many years, people have been baking and consuming many of these scrumptious baked goods. But what makes these sweet treats so tasty and hard to resist? Simply stated, most baked goods consist of a combination of flour, sugar and eggs. Now that you have the components for your delicacies, you are probably wondering where those ingredients are coming from…besides the grocery store, because we know that five-pound bag of flour didn’t sprout out of the shelf!
To begin your baked good, you will need flour. Flour is one of the end products of a wheat crop. Most baked goods require flour made from a certain variety of wheat called “soft red winter wheat.” This distinct type of wheat makes up only 20% of the U.S. wheat crop and mostly grown in states east of the Mississippi River. Many of these states also grow a similar wheat variety called “soft white wheat.” These wheat varieties contain low to medium levels of protein and a soft endosperm, which make them excellent for baked good products.
Next you would probably add a type of sugar to your baked good for a sweet taste. The most common type of sugar added to goods is white granulated sugar. This sugar is comprised of fine crystals that don’t cake together (no pun intended!) and make it perfect for measuring and sprinkling onto food. We get these flawless little crystals from raw sugar and performing a process known as refining. When raw sugar is refined, the molasses is removed by immersing the sugar crystals in a concentrated syrup that softens and removes the sticky brown coating without dissolving them. Because sugar cane crops require a certain temperature and environment, most of the sugar grown in the U.S. is from Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana and Texas.
After your sugar is added, the eggs are next. The leading chicken egg producer in the U.S., ranked by the number of hens represented in the thousands, is Iowa, with 58,330 hens. Chicken eggs contain a significant amount of protein and are widely used in baking for their addition of structure and texture to the end product.
Now that you have the details on where your baked good ingredients came from in the U.S., flour those rolling pins and grease the pans for some sugary pleasures and celebrate World Baking Day on May 17!