The Pioneer exhibit at Commodity Classic got lots of attention from pancake lovers with the Pioneer corporate chefs demonstrating the versatility of soybean oil for cooking.
I stopped by and happened to catch Adam Moore flipping flapjacks on the griddle and later was able to do a video interview with Chef Charlie Baggs who showed off the dishes they were making for the trade show crowd, including Chicken Marsala and a sweet Romaine and cranberry salad with feta cheese and a soy oil/mustard vinagrette dressing. Charlie is president and founder of Charlie Baggs, Inc., and he and his Chicago-based staff travel around the country doing this kind of gig for Pioneer and other corporate clients. Seems like a pretty sweet job!
There is a rare treasure nestled in the heart of the Ozarks in Southern Missouri – a college that offers students a degree in hard work.
I’ve lived in Missouri for 18 years but never knew about the College of the Ozarks until this week when I joined the Missouri Beef Industry Council (MBIC) for a luncheon and tour at the school located just south of Branson in a picturesque spot called Point Lookout. It was originally founded as a Presbyterian high school in 1906 and today is a Christian-based four year liberal arts college with 1500 students who pay their tuition by working 15 hours a week on campus and two 40 hour work weeks at the end of each semester. Students are chosen on the basis of financial need as well as academics and only about 1 in 7 who apply each year actually get the opportunity to attend.
The college offers 48 different degrees, including culinary arts, hotel and restaurant management, agribusiness, animal science, and ag education. There are about 125 students majoring in some area of agriculture there, but the school offers amazing hands-on experience for them, including hog, dairy and beef operations, a meat processing facility and a feed mill. They also have a beautiful center that is open to the public which features fine dining, historic lodging, meeting rooms, and more. During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Sarah Palin chose to visit the college as one of her stops in Missouri.
You can find out more about the college by listening to the MBIC podcast here or in the player below the video. And you can see all the photos from the tour online in this Flickr photo album.
One of the highlights of the tour was a culinary demonstration and gourmet lunch prepared by college Chef Robert Stricklin. The menu included Cranberry Cinnamon Biscuits, Pear and Feta Cheese salad with Baby Greens, Braised Short Rib Shank with roasted vegetables and rosemary jus, Black Walnut Coffee Toffee Ice Cream made by the students – and everything was fabulous! Chef Stricklin made his five star gourmet entree look amazingly easy to prepare in his short demonstration, which you can view below:
Grab your favorite grocery cart and go for a spin this week to celebrate Food Check Out Week with Farm Bureau.
The official theme this year is “Stretching Your Grocery Dollar With Healthy, Nutritious Food,” reflecting the economic realities of American life that have meant dining out less often and preparing more meals at home. “During this week, we are focusing on providing consumers with information on stretching their grocery dollars with healthy, nutritious food. Tips for better nutrition on a stretched budget, making sense of food labels and understanding USDA’s MyPyramid are among the topics Farm Bureau members will be talking about with consumers, at supermarket demonstration stations and other venues,” said Terry Gilbert, a Kentucky farmer and chair of the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee.
Terry is pictured here (far right) with other members of the committee shopping for groceries to benefit the Wichita Ronald McDonald House Charities. On behalf of the American Farm Bureau, Gilbert and the committee donated the food and $2,500 food to the charity. The Food Check-Out Week connection between Farm Bureau and Ronald McDonald House Charities began more than a decade ago. Since the program was initiated in the mid-1990s, Farm Bureau members have donated around $3 million in food and monetary contributions to Ronald McDonald Houses and other worthwhile charities during Food Check-Out Week.
New this year, AFBF and the Soybean Checkoff launched a joint Facebook fan page to promote Food Check-Out Week. They will donate $1 to the Galveston (Texas) Ronald McDonald House for every person who becomes a fan of the page by the end of February, up to $5,000. The house sustained major structural damage during Hurricane Ike. So far, they have about 2500 fans – so go sign up today!
How many discussions have you participated in about showing consumers how food gets from the field to the plate? I lost count a while ago. There are many groups and efforts going on to accomplish this. Here’s one I just found from the Canned Food Alliance. They’re using YouTube and MealTimes.org.
Canned food is one of the most versatile options for creating affordable, quick and healthy meals especially during colder months. But common misperceptions persist about the canning process. Within hours of harvesting, top quality fruits and vegetables are simply and naturally preserved for convenience and year-round availability, so you can enjoy tropical fruit even during the cold days of winter. Cans are also one of the safest and most recyclable forms of packaging available. Watch “Canned Food From Field to Table” to get the facts from the people who grow, pack, recommend and cook with canned foods.
The video features food blogger Tom Barritt, authto of food blog, Culinary Types, Associate Director of the Food and Nutrition Practice at Ketchum. Interesting combination. Are you a journalist or a public relations person? I don’t care personally and he is transparent about it. Doesn’t bother me. Does it bother you?
Elanco has launched a new business platform focused on food safety that includes new products for both poultry and beef processing plants.
For poultry, AviBrom™ is a post-harvest carcass rinse that reduces Salmonella pathogens during processing. Research has shown up to a 2.5-log reduction1 in post-chill whole-carcass Salmonella levels when using AviBrom.
“AviBrom works in a wide range of water pH so acidifiers aren’t needed as with some food-safety interventions,” says Tom Nicholson, director of sales and technical services for Elanco Food Solutions. “That reduces the risk of color and shelf-life issues that poultry processors often see with acid-based interventions.
Two food-safety products for the beef industry include Finalyse™, a pre-harvest hide wash that targets E. coli pathogens on live beef animals as they enter the packing plant, and BoviBrom™, a post-harvest carcass rinse that reduces E. coli and Salmonella pathogens on the carcass during processing.
“Elanco Food Solutions’ food-safety products are unique and science-based,” adds Nicholson. “We’re focused on helping food-animal packers and processors deliver safe, affordable and wholesome food to consumers.”
Congrats to Colle+McVoy for being named “digital agency” for Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods Division of Land O’Lakes, Inc. The agency will manage the consumer Web site including strategy, creative, production and development.
“We are very impressed with Colle+McVoy’s interactive expertise and technical capabilities,” said Thea Keamy, Vice President Retail Cheese & Marketing Services, Land O’Lakes. “It was imperative that the team we selected resonated with our team, which was apparent with Colle+McVoy throughout the selection process.”
Colle+McVoy will build and maintain landolakes.com, including the LAND O LAKES® Simple Rewards® Club, oversee search initiatives, and provide comprehensive Web analytics support.
Becoming digital agency for the Dairy Foods business of Land O’Lakes is the next chapter in the agency’s transformative growth story. Colle+McVoy’s interactive billings have doubled since 2007 and now account for more than 40 percent of the agency’s revenue. The agency overall has experienced remarkable year over year growth in recent years and expects this momentum to continue in 2010.
As reported by Hoosier Ag Today, Smithfield Foods has completed the sales of a few ventures. I thought I would pass word on this news for those interested. Below is a clip of the release. Check out the full article here.
Smithfield Foods has completed the sales of both its Chinese joint venture Maverick Food Company Limited to COFCO Limited and the sale of substantially all of the assets of its RMH Foods, LLC to a group of investors led by the Rocke family.
Larry Pope, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield foods, says – the sale of these assets demonstrates our continuing commitment to shed non-core businesses with a greater focus on efficiencies and return on invested capital.
Alltech is now marketing its own line of Angus beef. I think my grill needs some of this! Alltech Angus represents a Kentucky Proud partnership between Alltech and Critchfield Meats that brings you home-grown goodness in every bite. This high-quality Angus beef is raised on Kentucky family farms to deliver a tender, delicious beef choice for you and your family. Critchfield Meats and Alltech are both family-owned operations working together to serve Central Kentucky the highest quality meat products. Feel good about the food you feed your family.
If you love BBQ then you might like BBQ Pitmasters, a new series on TLC. It airs Thursdays at 9pm Central.
The BBQ & Grilling channel is here to help you cook an amazing meal on the grill. Read how to smoke a chicken, grill a juicy hamburger and learn how to obtain the perfect grill marks on your foods.
Here’s a promo and description of the next episode:
Cooking skills, nerves and patience are tested at the historic Riverfest Barbecue Cookoff in Decatur, AL as the Pitmasters battle for the $3,000 top prize. Paul tries to avoid last place placement, Lee Ann’s schedule is threatened by a power outage and Tuff Stone uses spreadsheets for BBQ?!
To anyone that might be interested: tomorrow there will be a blogger seminar about animal health and safety. This was posted on the FDA website, and I thought I would pass it along.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will host a webinar for animal health and safety bloggers Tuesday, December 8, from 3:00 to 3:30 pm ET. The featured speakers, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Principal Deputy Commissioner of the FDA, and Dr. Bernadette Dunham, Director of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, will focus on the announcement of a widget containing information on the importance of pet health and safety for both animals and pet owners. After the presentations, there will be an opportunity to ask questions or offer feedback.
If you are interested in attending, please send an email to CVMHomeP@cvm.fda.gov. You can also email questions to this address before the webinar. Follow or join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #FDApet.
This looks like a pretty informative event. I plan on following on Twitter tomorrow. Are you going to participate? For more information on the blogger seminar, link here.
A FOOD FIGHT got underway today with dairy farmers and beef producers joining forces to fling facts in the face of food foes.
The main message is to Give Thanks for food and farmers as we prepare for the holiday season. Giving thanks can even get you a steak – actually, an Omaha Steaks Ideal Gift Collection of steaks and burgers valued at $135. Just leave a message of thanks for our farmers and ranchers here on the Pasture to Plate website. Producers can join the Beef Checkoff’s five-day FOOD FIGHT by visiting the FOOD FIGHT website.
Cattlemen’s Beef Board chairman Lucinda Williams, a dairy producer from Massachusetts, was at NAFB Trade Talk last week talking about why livestock producers need to be armed with the facts to defend themselves against critics. “There’s an awful lot of people trying to tell our story,” Lucinda says. “This is our time to get out and tell our story.”
She says they are encouraging producers to get out an tell that story on Facebook and Twitter and email, (as well as traditional methods like actual face to face communication!) and encouraging everyone to give thanks for the safe and abundant food supply we enjoy in this country.
Listen to Chuck’s interview with Lucinda from NAFB here:
A group called the Vegetarian Society is standing up once again attribute global warming and the end to the universe to meat eaters. The article, Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet, published in Times Online, urged folks to turn vegetarian in order for the world to conquer climate change.
In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”
He predicted that people’s attitudes would evolve until meat eating became unacceptable. “I think it’s important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating,” he said. “I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food.”
This is absolute bogus and total hypocrisy. I recently compiled a top ten list of ways that meat production is beneficial to the environment, and I firmly believe that agriculturalists are the original environmentalists, serving as stewards of the land and care givers to the livestock. And, more importantly consumers should feel confident in serving a well-balanced, wholesome meal (that includes animal protein) to their families. It’s amazing how a few animal rights activists and trendy green advocates can create a buzz so big with their banter that they can actually change mainstream public perceptions on the good, wholesome food we eat. Thanks for the soap box. Now, here is a few statistics from my list…
1. American agriculture is sustainable for the future. In the United States, 98 percent of farms are family farms. Today’s American farmer feeds about 144 people worldwide. 2009 versus 1960: 1.8 million less farms are feeding a U.S. population that has increased 61 percent. (Explore Beef)
2. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the entire U.S. agriculture sector accounts for only 6 percent of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Of this, livestock production is estimated to account for 2.8 percent of total U.S. emissions. (EPA Climate Change Report)
3. If livestock production disappeared tomorrow, wouldn’t we just be transporting more tofu around? And wouldn’t we just be plowing and fertilizing the land to supply PETA’s vegetarian utopia? (Center for Consumer Freedom)
4. Grazing animals on land not suitable for producing crops more than doubles the land area that can be used to produce food. If 1955 technology were used to produce the amount of beef raised today, 165 million more acres of land would be needed – that’s about the size of Texas! (Explore Beef)
You don’t normally think of shrimp and agriculture at the same time. However, here at Sunbelt Ag Expo the Georgia Shrimp Association would like to educate you and feed you at the same time. John Wallace is the President and I caught him frying shrimp early on opening day of the show.
He says their shrimp are from the Atlantic Ocean so they’re “farmers of the sea.” They harvest between four to six million pounds of shrimp a year. Their food booth is actually a good fund raiser for their association.
Consumers still trust farmers; they just need their confidence restored in some aspects of the food system. Those were some of the conclusions from a “consumer trust” survey commissioned by the Center for Food Intregity. Highlights from the survey were presented last week at the 4th Annual 2009 Food System Summit in Kansas City. Geni Wren summed up the conclusions of the study in an article titled, “Consumers Trust Farmers, But Also Hold Them Responsible,” published in Dairy Herd Management. Here is an excerpt from the study…
-Consumers hold farmers/producers, themselves and food companies primarily responsible for food safety.
-Consumers continue to trust themselves and those who prepare food in their homes more than any others.
-Consumers place a high amount of trust in farmers and food companies for food safety.
-Consumers hold farmers primarily responsible for humane treatment of farm animals.
-Consumers lack confidence in any food system segment for ensuring the humane treatment of farm animals.
-Consumers hold farmers primarily responsible for sustainability.
-Consumers lack confidence and trust in any food system segment for ensuring sustainability.
-Consumers hold themselves, farmers and food companies primarily responsible for nutrition.
-Consumers lack confidence and trust in any food system segment for ensuring nutrition.
For those of you who want to analyze everything that passes your lips USDA has a new web page that will give you the details on any food products.
MyFood-a-pedia – The much anticipated MyFood-a-pedia is a new online tool that gives consumers quick access to nutrition information for over 1,000 foods. The MyFood-a-pedia provides calorie count information on the contribution of the food to the five food groups people need to be healthy. MyFood-a-pedia, located at www.MyFoodapedia.gov, also provides the number of “extra” calories in foods from solid fats, added sugars, and alcohol.
I’m sure this will help some people but it just kind of takes some of the taste out of food for me. Just for the record, I was not anticipating this.
The U.S. Potato Board held a “Hot Potato Ideas” contest and culinary students were rewarded for their innovative recipes like this Cheesy Southwestern Potato Crisps one shown in the photo. During my pheasant hunt our cook made us some of the best potato pancakes I’ve ever eaten. Perhaps we should get her to enter next time.
Creative ideas and innovation bring excitement to menus and inspire the restaurant patrons who enjoy them. This was the motivation behind the United States Potato Board’s (USPB’s) “Hot Potato Ideas” contest, which rewarded culinary students for their innovative potato recipes in one of three categories: Ethnic, Healthy and New Classics.
Twenty-two students from the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY, campus entered the contest, so deciding upon the top three entries was a challenge. Nonetheless, here is a snapshot of the winning potato recipes:
Cheesy Southwestern Potato Crisps, a Latin-inspired recipe with fresh jalapeño-cilantro pesto and cheese enveloped in crisp shredded potatoes, captured the Ethnic Category and overall Grand Prize in the Potato Innovation Recipe Contest. This fresh and flavorful recipe was created by William “Trey” Smith. The USPB awarded Smith a trip to the Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Flavors® conference in St. Helena, CA, (Napa Valley) taking place November 12-14, 2009.(more…)
There is absolutely no way I can improve on what Penn & Teller say about Dr. Norman E. Borlaug. This video has been out for a while but I just saw it for the first time and I’m still laughing. Penn Jillette narrates this video and let’s just say he expresses my thoughts on Greenpeace wackos perfectly with the word, BS. It’s worth watching to the end and as far as I’m concerned it’s an awesome tribute to Dr. Borlaug. (Warning: there are a few choice words in the video that may not sit well on sensitive ears.)
I may not agree with them on other issues but this one is dead on the money.
While in North Carolina for the Boehringer Ingelheim Swine Health Seminar over the weekend, I had some of the best pork I have ever eaten. The hotel served up a fresh whole hog with a tasty vinegar sauce that was fabulous. The best thing about the airport in Charlotte (which I spent an inordinate amount of time in on Sunday) was the real Carolina BBQ I had for lunch – as good as the porker the night before – with a fried pickle on the side! It ranks as the best airport meal I have ever had.
Made me think about the fact that humans eat meat because it tastes good and because that is what we are meant to do. We are omnivores – we eat both plants and animals. That’s our nature. And the great North Carolina pork producers at the event in Carolina Beach produce some of those tasty animals for us to eat, and do it as economically and efficiently as possible. That’s why things like PETA’s “Unhappy Meals” and HSUS really annoy me.
Missouri farmer Blake Hurst wrote an excellent essay in the Journal for the American Enterprise Institute called the “Omnivore’s Delusion” that cries out against the “agri-intellectuals” like PETA and HSUS and Michael Pollan who criticize modern agricultural production. Blake writes:
I’m so tired of people who wouldn’t visit a doctor who used a stethoscope instead of an MRI demanding that farmers like me use 1930s technology to raise food. Farming has always been messy and painful, and bloody and dirty. It still is.
Messy and painful, yes – but rewarding as well, or people like Blake and rest of the agricultural producers in this country who provide us with both plants and animals for food wouldn’t keep doing it. Read Blake’s essay and pass it on to everyone, especially those omnivores you know who are not in agriculture.
The American Meat Institute posting a press release of this upcoming event that will give food producers a better idea of the Obama administration agenda. Check it out, and let me know if you attend!
Fox News Anchor Bret Baier will offer insights on what to expect from the Obama Administration and Congress at the Washington Insider Breakfast during Worldwide Food Expo 2009, to be held October 28-31, 2009, at Chicago’s McCormick Place.
As one of Fox News Channel’s top Washington anchors, Baier has colorful anecdotes about traveling with and covering the President of the United States. With humor and insight, Baier will share exclusive, behind-the-scenes stories about trips on Air Force One, the inner-workings of the West Wing and what it’s really like to be a part of the White House press corps.
Baier is host of FOX News’ Special Report w/Bret Baier, a daily program for political news, and is a former chief White House and national security correspondent. Baier’s extensive reporting experience has brought him through the halls of the Pentagon, the war fields of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the campaign trails of elections past and present. Fresh, current and straightforward, his breadth of journalistic experience gives him the ability to offer in-depth insights and perspectives on the inner workings of government.
The Washington Insider Breakfast will be held Friday, Oct. 30 from 8-9 a.m. at McCormick Place and is part of the AMI International Meat, Poultry and Seafood Industry Convention and Exposition. Tickets for this event are $150 per person and available here.
Here are a couple of new online resources to get information about food and farming in the United States today. Both are backed by the Center For Food Integrity.
Best Food Facts employs the Food Integrity Index.
The Food Integrity Index is designed to provide balanced, objective information to help consumers make informed choices. We have partnered with leading universities to provide information on common questions or issues about the contemporary US food system. The Index provides a quick overview of the issue and the conclusions. A link is provided to the full research for more information.
The other site is Farmers Feed Us.
Across our great country, farmers and ranchers work each day to produce the food you and your family enjoy. To us, farming is much more than our chosen profession. It is a commitment to providing you with safe, nutritious and affordable food, caring for our animals and our land, and giving back to our communities.
We invite you to explore this site and learn more about what we do each and every day. You can tour our farms, meet our families, and see for yourself how we grow the food that ends up on your family’s table.
Here are the organizations supporting the CFI.
The Center for Food Integrity is supported by more than 20 organizations representing each segment of the food chain, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, Dairy Management Inc., Elanco Animal Health, Fair Oaks Dairy Farm, Foster Farms, Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana Packers Company, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana State Department of Agriculture, International Association of Fairs and Expositions, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Kentucky Soybean Promotion Board, Michigan State University, Missouri Department of Agriculture, Monsanto, National Pork Board, National Pork Producers Council, Novus International, Ohio Farm Bureau, Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin, Purdue University, United Egg Producers, and United Soybean Board.
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Happy Ag Week
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
The Pioneer exhibit at Commodity Classic got lots of attention from pancake lovers with the Pioneer corporate chefs demonstrating the versatility of soybean oil for cooking. 
and 
There is a rare treasure nestled in the heart of the Ozarks in Southern Missouri – a college that offers students a degree in hard work. 
The college offers 48 different degrees, including culinary arts, hotel and restaurant management, agribusiness, animal science, and ag education. There are about 125 students majoring in some area of agriculture there, but the school offers amazing hands-on experience for them, including hog, dairy and beef operations, a meat processing facility and a feed mill. They also have a beautiful center that is open to the public which features fine dining, historic lodging, meeting rooms, and more. During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Sarah Palin chose to visit the college as one of her stops in Missouri. 
The official theme this year is 
Terry is pictured here (far right) with other members of the committee shopping for groceries to benefit the Wichita Ronald McDonald House Charities. On behalf of the American Farm Bureau, Gilbert and the committee donated the food and $2,500 food to the charity. The Food Check-Out Week connection between Farm Bureau and Ronald McDonald House Charities began more than a decade ago. Since the program was initiated in the mid-1990s, Farm Bureau members have donated around $3 million in food and monetary contributions to Ronald McDonald Houses and other worthwhile charities during Food Check-Out Week.
Congrats to 
As reported by Hoosier Ag Today, 
Alltech is now marketing its own line of Angus beef. I think my grill needs some of this!
A 
A group called the Vegetarian Society is standing up once again attribute global warming and the end to the universe to meat eaters. The article, 
You don’t normally think of shrimp and agriculture at the same time. However, here at Sunbelt Ag Expo the 
Consumers still trust farmers; they just need their confidence restored in some aspects of the food system. Those were some of the conclusions from a “consumer trust” survey commissioned by the Center for Food Intregity. Highlights from the survey were presented last week at the 4th Annual 2009 Food System Summit in Kansas City. Geni Wren summed up the conclusions of the study in an article titled,
For those of you who want to analyze everything that passes your lips USDA has a new web page that will give you the details on any food products.
The 
While in North Carolina for the 
Missouri farmer Blake Hurst wrote an excellent essay in the Journal for the American Enterprise Institute called the 
Here are a couple of new online resources to get information about food and farming in the United States today. Both are backed by the 
The other site is 
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
