The Agrarian's Alcove

So, in light of the recent chaotic news about meat being a potential carcinogen I have been asked to do a post about it. First off, let’s talk about what the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) really said. The IARC ranks the potential of cancer causing agents in 5 categories 1 : ·          Group 1: Carcinogenic to humans ·          Group 2A: Probably carcinogenic to humans ·          Group 2B: Possibly carcinogenic to humans ·          Group 3: Unclassifiable as to carcinogenicity in humans ·          Group 4: Probably not carcinogenic to humans Now, according to the press release, red meat is considered as Group 2A, probably carcinogenic to humans. Now, please don’t stop reading here and thinking your suspicions were confirmed.  According to the arti...

Food waste is a major concern all around the world. It comes to play in political topics such as agricultural sustainability, economic matters, environmental concerns and feeding the world. The agriculture industry has its fair share of food waste, but so does every individual I know (at least here in America). I know I am definitely guilty. The problem has become so large that Congresswoman Chellie Pingree wants to propose legislation to help address the problem on our home turf. Pingree says that “40% of food in the U.S. is wasted.” 1 That is a ridiculous amount for such an advanced country to be losing. Pingree also said that there are four levels to our food waste problem: 1)                        restaurant and retail 2)                      institutions (school,assist...

Hey everyone! I just would like to preface this by saying that over the next few days I will have the amazing opportunity to meet and interact with Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin is an amazing influential character in the animal industry. She specializes in animal welfare. If you do not know who she is, please take a second and look her up before reading this blog. Now, onto the important matter here. Hormones are a hot topic in the food animal circles, whether you’re a consumer, producer, retailer, etc. I want to state that I do not want to tell you how to think. I really want to give people the facts and maybe a small part of my opinion. Before we can truly believe something, we must first know the hard facts. Since this post is such a big deal, I will start by stating my opinion so that you know where I stand and can determine what parts of this blog are facts.  I believe that hormones in animal agriculture are safe to humans, increase productivity, and are efficient to the ind...

Water shortage in the U.S. is a big deal right now. California's in a seemingly hopeless drought, and the people all around are blaming it on the animal food industry. In animal agriculture, water is used for the animals' intake, cleaning barns, irrigation for crops to feed the animals, cleaning carcasses and finally, at the consumers' end, cooking food. That's a lot of water! Nathan Runkle, founder and president of Mercy for Animals, makes big arguments about how much water the industry uses. He says that to make one pound of beef 1800 gallons of water are used, and to produce a gallon of milk 880 gallons of water are used(1)! When I read this I was astonished. But then I realized even though he claimed to have gotten the information from National Geographic, he didn't say how old the numbers were. A little more research and I found that his numbers, while possibly true at some point in time, were definitely not accurate today. Carl Bailik, from the Wall St...

What do you think of when you hear the words farmer or farming?  Do you see a little red barn with the typical farm animals? One pig, one work horse, a cow, maybe a few chickens and a barn cat right? Now, what do you think of when you hear factory farming? Industrial agriculture? That's a completely different picture right? Which one would you go for?  Today, society wants to go backwards. To simpler times, where technology isn't running the world. Where a small farm to feed your family and neighborhood would be enough. That idea isn't realistic though. For an agriculture advocate, someone who understands and supports modern agriculture, they would go for what the media calls "factory farming." They want the huge towering industry where technology rules and scares the living fire out of society. But what is it that scares people? Is it the technology? The concern for animal welfare? The speed and efficiency with which these farms are producing food? Let...

Lately, on my street, flyers have been taped up advocating vegan-ism. Most people who adopt herbivorous diets (either vegan or vegetarian) do so out of concern for animal welfare. First off,  I believe in animal welfare whole-heartedly.  However, I do not believe in going vegan. Guidelines developed by Temple Grandin were implemented into the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Temple Grandin does not only talk about methods of slaughter but also other animal handling methods. She has done research on the correlation  between stress on slaughter animals and their meat quality. These studies show that if an animal is in either long term, or short term stress the meat quality will be low. When this happens in cattle, meat is typically very dark, firm and dry. In pigs, it is pale soft and exudative (very watery and almost slimy). If this happens, the meat is not marketable and money is lost in the industry. Animal welfare is not a foreign subject to people of agricult...

Welcome to The Agrarian's Alcove! Let me start off by sharing some of my goals. This blog is for anyone and everyone who loves agriculture, has concerns or questions about agriculture, or anyone who wants to know where their food comes from. My goal is to educate you and consumers everywhere. To let you know the truth about modern agriculture. Media today can give some pretty convincing arguments on GMOs (genetically modified organisms), animal welfare, and the "crooked" motives of our farmers today, but don't worry! I'll give it to you straight, with research to back it up. Today I'd like to start with the topic, myAGstory. It's a concept that was introduced by Donnie Smith at the 2014 National FFA convention. Donnie is the CEO of Tyson, yes the Tyson you know for making frozen chicken nuggets. His commencement speech ( found here ) is one of the best ag preaches I've ever heard. It's an 18 minute speech, which may discourage some of you, but I ...