The Agrarian's Alcove

Okay people, listen up! It's the beginning of the school year and we are all trying to pack the perfect healthy lunches for ourselves, our kids, and/or our significant others. So I found out recently that Dannon (yes, the company we have all gotten yogurt from at some point in our life) has teamed up with an organization and has turned a section of their company completely against GMO’s. For this segment of their business, Dannon is not even allowing the cows from which their dairy comes from to be fed GMO corn. Hooray for the Non-GMO Project right??  Wrong.  Fact: 142 types of corn are Genetically Modified.  Fact: on the Non-GMO Project website,they only mention good things about Genetically Engineered (GE) corn.  The website lists that GMO corn is more heat tolerant as well as drought stress resistant  (anyone from Texas or California appreciate that?) . Do you know what that means? It means that in a drought we can use less water to prod...

Did you know that elevator buckets touch everybody’s life? Okay, I know at least half of you are like what even is an elevator bucket? And even if you do know what it is, you are probably wondering how it reaches you. Tuesday in class, I got the incredible chance to meet Paul Phillips, president of Maxi-Lift, Inc. Maxi-Lift is an awesome company that started from scratch. They are family owned and privately held. They have had significant growth in the past 15 years and have incurred no debt! They are what business pro’s would call a PRMG company. They are a company where you would never have to worry about your job (if you’re doing the right thing of course). Maxi-Lift produces elevator buckets. Elevator buckets are these heavy duty, plastic buckets that attach to grain elevators. Grain elevators are used in agricultural and industrial settings and they are used to move product. Product is poured into a bin, which pours into a vertical conveyer belt that has buckets attached. ...

I am so, so excited to share something new with you all today! I normally focus on animal agriculture and today I am talking about potaoes! If you don’t already know, I am a major in the College of Ag at Texas A&M University. And we ‘agvocate’ as much as we can. This semester I am taking an Agribusiness class and have the greatest professor ever! This last week he brought in John Pope and intern, Jack Harris from a potato company to talk to us. I was beyond impressed. I went up to Mr. Pope after his presentation and asked him if it was okay to do a blog post on their company. He was totally cool with it, so I am here to share with you the most awesome potato facts you’ve ever heard! MountainKing Potatoes are the current Potato Pioneers. They are making some huge efforts to make the potato industry a little more palatable to consumers. MountanKing knows that our generation cooks and prepares potatoes a lot differently than any previous generation. In the past, big family meals...

This is the last post in the Savvy Shopper series! This post has taken me awhile to write, mainly because it is hard to find unbiased facts about this specific topic. Today I am going to be discussing food from free range animals. This is a seriously growing trend with all the animal rights activists, and animal welfare . I’m going to start by defining free range, and then I’m going to try something new. I want to compare the cold-hard facts about free range animals to an article written by PETA. Saying PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is like a saying a really bad word to people in my industry. For those who don’t know, PETA really wants everyone to become a vegan. They’ve had several law suits against them, and they make law suits against several individuals and companies every year. PETA believes that animals are being enslaved to humans and don’t want people to own pets. Okay, there’s your background on PETA; with that said I am going to try my very hardest to pr...

Howdy everybody! My last post on natural foods got a lot of views so I hope that you are enjoying my Savvy Shopper’s Guide series! Today’s post is over locally grown foods. Are you a locavore? This term applies to people who absolutely LOVE buying local foods! I know so many people who are locavores and love shopping at farmer’s markets for several reasons. Personally, I love the environment of my local farmer’s market. It makes me feel close to the actual production of the food I buy. For others it also makes them feel like the food is more natural and organic. It seems like the food could be healthier for you. It also makes you feel good about yourself for helping out your local farmers. I think that’s great! It is so important to support farmers. I want to cover a few myths about food produced locally and make sure you are being savvy shopping when you support your local farmers! First, I want to know what buying locally means to you, so take a moment and comment below. Tell...

Alright, let’s face it. It’s a new year. And if you’re in college in the US, then most of you are going back to school this week. But whether you’re a mom, a college kid, or a single adult, we ALL have to grocery shop. With the New Year I know many people have resolutions to eat healthier, cleaner, or maybe to just cut back on spending so much money on food! In 2013 people spent over $717 million on food **at home (no restaurants)** in the US alone. I imagine that with the trends in organic and natural foods rising, we will surpass $730 million mark if we haven’t already (find the charts here ). So, welcome to my second post in the series of The Savvy Shopper’s Guide series. You can read the first post here . Let me start by clearing up some confusion. I think people get confused by the labels “natural,” “naturally raised,” and “organic.” Some people I have spoken to, thought they were all very similar or meant the same thing. They are not the same thing. To be organic, produce...

Hey everyone! I am going to begin a 4 post series called the Savvy Shoppers Guide. It will include facts on organic, locally grown, all natural, and free range products that you buy. This way you will be able to make savvy shopping decisions when you purchase groceries! You will also be able to understand why we have conventional agriculture and why we need to continue with conventional ag even if you choose to opt for non-conventional. Today we will be covering organic food items. So first I would like to say that I do not believe that there are any food safety advantages that come from producing organic foods. In fact, in 2002 Alex Avery, research director for the Center of Global Food Issues stated that natural and organic foods are eight times more likely to be recalled than conventionally produced foods 1 . The USDA has found that drug residues in ALL beef, not just organic, to be virtually zero 2 . Of course all foods from animals naturally have hormones. While organicall...