Schafer Says Tell Story

Schafer: Farmers Need to Tell Livestock Story to Consumers
Thursday, November 13, 2008

In light of the recent passage of California's Proposition 2, which bans certain animal care practices, outgoing USDA chief Ed Schafer told RFD Radio Wednesday that farmers must continue to tell the public about how producers safely care for their animals. "We must continue to inform consumers that we have the safest, most cost-effective food supply in the world," Schafer said.

He said farmers must make sure that isolated incidents do not cause special-interest groups to ban good livestock practices that could eventually move domestic livestock production to off-shore or overseas locations. Link

To listen to the interview click here.

You hear me say this all the time, and now Sec. Schafer is also sending this message to the livestock industry that we need to tell the consumers about ourselves and our operations. It’s easy to think that the animal rights movement will go away or that someone will take care of this issue for us. Ultimately, those of us in the industry are the only ones who can do this job.

Producing ENOUGH Food Should be Priority

Doubling our current food production may not be enough
By Doug Rich

The food versus fuel debate continues to grab headlines. Ed Schafer, Secretary of Agriculture, and Hugh Grant, Chief Executive Officer, Monsanto Co., gave their views on this topic at a recent meeting of national business editors and writers in Kansas City, Mo.

The demand curve for agricultural production continues to expand. Grant estimates that in the next 40 years we will need to produce as much food as we did on this planet in the last 10,000 years.

"I don't worry about whether or not we will be able to double our production, I worry that it will be enough," Grant said. Read More

Continuing to utilize technology to produce plants with better genetics is a tradition the human race has been practicing for thousands of years. Our ancestors wouldn’t recognize today’s corn plant because it is the product of selective breeding. Moving forward is the only logical path to take. Especially with a world demanding more food, our species can’t afford to stop using technology.

Houston Chronicle Editorial

Eat that?

Agriculture secretary's reassurance rings hollow in light of current industrial beef processing

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer recently assured Americans that USDA inspectors check "every single" processed American beef carcass. Charitably put, his statement is highly misleading. USDA inspections are perfunctory and fall far short of checks performed by other countries' meat watchdogs.

The issue arose after South Korea agreed this April to lift most of the restrictions it had placed on U.S. beef imports. That prompted intense protests by South Koreans who say they fear mad cow disease in U.S. beef. They want their government to negotiate a tougher deal or to scrap it.

In Texas last week touring meat processing plants, Secretary Schafer defended domestic meats as safe. Read More

There are never a shortage of people that like to say that some segments of agriculture are too big, move too fast, and are too cruel. What they fail to give us is what solution they would like to see. What chain speed would they like and how many animals are too many? This article seems to be a typical editorial because they make blanket claims against our industry about how we feed and raise our livestock without presenting any substantial reporting of specifics. The story of American agriculture is a great one and articles like this serve as a reminder of our duty to tell it.