For
this week’s blog I am going to be rewriting an article on the Food Dialogues by
Holly Spangler. My goal is to make it more understandable for those not
connected to agriculture. The title of the article I selected is Food Dialogues: Who’s Shaping America’s
Eating Habits? and it comes from The Farmer. My blog is about why we do
what we do in animal agriculture and part of that is producing food, which is
misunderstood by many.
The
US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance is an organization that is trying to get
across a positive, accurate message about agriculture. Many people are
concerned with where their food comes from so they are hosting these
discussions called the Food Dialogues. On the panel they had dieticians and
food analysts, a crop farmer, veterinarian and a livestock farmer. With this broad
array of knowledge and the moderator Carolyn O'Neill, who is a registered dietician and works
in promoting healthy eating, there was a vast array of knowledge available for
the discussion.
Sustainability is becoming a new big concept in agriculture. There are three
main parts to sustainable agriculture which are producing a product
economically with good stewardship toward the land or animals and helping the
community. The fast paced lifestyle is changing how people eat. Consumers are
eating a lot more processed food, which is what Rahs (a nutritionist) observed
when she toured a tomato farm and most of the tomatoes would be canned, but
people also want food to be “Fresh”. Because processed foods are becoming the
way of life fresh produce and meat is being sent for processing instead of
fresh on shelves. Rahs continues to say that a can of tomatoes at a store may
be fresher than a fresh tomato on the shelf. The idea of freshness does not
really have any set guidelines and is all up to the consumer; however, the next
topic does have most consumers confused.
Organic is becoming the new fad, yet many don’t understand what they are
getting when they pay the higher price. Natural pesticides can be used on
organics which was one point brought up by Clemens. Now many consumers believe
when they are buying organic products they are pesticide free, but do they
really know what pesticides are? People take medicine all the time when they
have a little cold, or if they go to the doctor they want them to prescribe
them something. Most people do not have a problem with this, so why do they have
a problem with pesticides. Farmers do not spray their crops and pump chemicals
into their animals just because it is fun. Livestock producers sometimes give
animals shots to make them healthy if they are sick just like people get shots.
With crops it costs more money to spray for unwanted bugs and if it is not a
problem the producer does not need to spray. Many people do not understand there
is always a reason behind the treatment and there is also no major nutritional
difference in organic food.
In the end farmers have a passion for what they do. Animals are taken care
of because that is farmers’ way of life. It does not matter if an operation is
big of small because there cannot be a line drawn between the two. We are all
producers and want consumers to have confidence in what we produce because it
is what we enjoy and our values are to make things right.
*The original article
can be found at
http://new.livestream.com/USFRA/events/2187525 It starts after about the first 7 minutes
*More information about
the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance can be found at
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