Parents Should be Responsible for Child Nutrition

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Who should be responsible for child nutrition?” I am all for good food nutrition for our children. But who is responsible? It seems like the government thinks it should have some control. I’ve heard and read lots of people saying we need more nutrition education. But don’t we have more than enough of that? How long has USDA made good nutrition information available? But we still see the problem of overeating. So, here’s what our poll found. 72% said Parents! I say, amen to that. Of course then you might ask why aren’t parents doing a better job of controlling what their kids eat. 24% said All of the above and 4% said Schools and no one chose specifically Government or Nutritionists. Interesting results.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Which group should restaurants consider experts on animal care?” This past weekend many folks in agriculture participated in an online thank you campaign for Domino’s Pizza. Why? Because the restaurant chain made a decision based on good humane animal practices and did not give in to the demands of the animal activist group HSUS. So, let us know your thoughts on this question. We appreciate it.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

A UK Perspective on Improvement in the Food Chain

The 2012 Alltech International Symposium was host to Keith Millar, Head of Animal Feed and Animal By-Products Unit at Food Standards Agency, UK. He shared his insights into control and improvement in the food/feed chain during the New Regulatory Landscape breakout session.

Mr. Millar was private secretary for two separate leaders of the House of Commons. He was a United Kingdom delegations leader in numerous international negotiations. He also worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the UK Food Standards Agency since its formation. He is currently secretary to the Independent Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs. And is also a member of the International Dairy Federation’s Task Force on Animal Feeding.

“The fundamental take home message I wanted to give was as a government regulator I can’t do my job without having a good working relationship with the industry. I get most of my facts and topical up-to-date information from the industry and thats why I was delighted to come across the Atlantic and speak at this global conference in Lexington, KY.”

Listen to the complete interview with Keith here: Interview with Keith Millar

2012 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album

Food Styling at Alltech

I’m borrowing from the Alltech blog here. I thought it was interesting to hear a food stylist talk about her craft.

Erica Ryan, a food stylist from Dublin, Ireland has spent the last 20 years styling food for TV and film and photography for food packaging and cookery books. Erica is over in Lexington this week helping to put the finishes touches on the display food at ‘The World’s Market’ at Alltech’s Symposium. Erika’s skills require her to maintain the color, texture, composition and quality of the display food that best represents the product.

2012 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album

Alltech’s Nutrition Revolution

He’s a revolutionary in the area of nutrition. Dr. Karl Dawson, Chief Scientific Officer, Alltech, took the stage the opening session of the 2012 International Symposium. The company is doing breakthrough research in nutrigenomics to find new ways to feed our animals to enhance their performance, health and longevity and enhance the consumer experience. Dr. Dawson also talks about how Alltech is branching out into new research strategies for addressing human health and wellness. I interviewed Dr. Dawson during the press conference held after the opening session and have included it as well as Dr. Dawson’s remarks on stage this morning.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Dawson here: Interview with Dr. Karl Dawson

Listen to Dr. Dawson’s remarks here: Dr. Karl Dawson Remarks

2012 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album

Alltech Kentucky Night

Alltech’s Kentucky Night was full of down-home country music, mouth watering good food and even better company. The event was held at the beautiful Kentucky Horse Park, home of the Alltech Arena and the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and the Alltech National Horse Show. Everyone came decked out in their boots, denim and cowboy hats. A evening full of fun and fellowship where storying were told and new friends were met.

Check out photos from the event here: 2012 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album

Alltech Symposium Press Conference

A press conference was held following the morning session of the 2012 Alltech International Symposium. Panelists included Dr. Pearse Lyons, President/CEO of Alltech, Governor John Y. Brown Jr., Dr. Mark Lyons, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Alltech, Dr. Karl Dawson, Alltech’s Chief Scientific Officer & Tim Gannon, Co-Founder Outback Steakhouse. Catch a recap of the question and answer session as these panelists share the importance of Alltech’s efforts to preserve the future of agribusiness and food production.

Listen to the complete Alltech International Symposium press conference here: Alltech Press Conference

2012 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album

USFRA/Ketchum Receive SABRE Recognition

The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) has received national recognition for its ground-breaking campaign to help improve the dialogue with consumers about how their food is grown and raised. USFRA, along with its agency partner Ketchum Public Relations, won the prestigious Gold SABRE Award for Excellence in the Associations category. The entry, titled “Since When Did Agriculture Become a Dirty Word?,” highlighted the strategies, execution and messaging used for the public launch of USFRA at the September 2011 Food Dialogues Town Hall.

USFRA’s Communications Advisory Committee and Ketchum began their work together in March of 2011. Since that time they have worked together to create a movement that focuses on bringing the voice of farmers and ranchers to conversations centered on food and food production. Over the past fourteen months USFRA and Ketchum have implemented many successful events and tools to help farmers and ranchers have that conversation, and explain the importance of continually improving today’s agriculture. Today’s news remains filled with stories questioning the integrity of the entire food production chain, and USFRA, in response, has initiated recently the “Grow What You Know” Rapid Response System that allows farmers and ranchers to be alerted of topics in the media that lack a farmer and rancher voice. USFRA will also host two additional Food Dialogue events over the next six months to continue the conversation about how food is grown and raised.

Thank Domino’s Ag Pizza Party Weekend

We know what’s for dinner tonight – Domino’s Pizza!

This weekend has officially been declared “Thank Domino’s Ag Pizza Party Weekend” by the agriculture social media community. It is our way of saying thanks to the pizza corporation for not caving into the demands of HSUS (Humane Society of the U.S.) Last month, Domino’s Pizza shareholders voted against a resolution that would have required pork suppliers to stop housing gestating sows in stalls. Domino’s made that decision after consulting industry experts about what is best for the animals. “We rely on established industry experts and the USDA to determine best practices in this area, and will continue to do so,” they said. Yes!!!

Thousands have joined “The Truth About Agriculture” movement called “Farmers Paying it Forward with Pizza” and are planning to purchase pizza from Domino’s this weekend to say thanks! They have even created a custom thank you note for people to print out and deliver to Domino’s.

When you get your pizza this weekend, make sure to take photos and share them on the Pizza Party FB page and tweet using the hash tag #agpizzaparty with handle @dominos.

Develop a Relationship With Your Local Reporters

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “When was the last time you talked to a journalist about agriculture?” The question was inspired by an AgChat Twitter conversation question that had been submitted by @BASFAgro! We’re supposed to stand up for our industry and livelihoods that are threatened by lots of misinformation that gets spread by the media. What are we doing about it? How are we speaking out? Are we willing to develop a relationship with the reporters at our local mainstream media outlets (newspaper/radio/tv/web)?

Here are the results, 50% said Recently (I do frequently). Wow. Keep it up. But 22% said Never (Waste of time) and just over 9%/each said, Recently (I rarely do); Long time ago; Never (I will now though).

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Who should be responsible for child nutrition?” This question was inspired by last night’s FoodChat Twitter conversation. I appreciate the school lunch program and what USDA thinks it is accomplishing by creating rules but somehow it doesn’t sit right with me. There would be no need for this if parents would take some personal responsibility for themselves and their children. More and more government control of our lives just won’t work in the long run. At least that’s my opinion. What’s yours?

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

Food Confusion

Do you find food confusing? Not sure who to believe? Try the folks who produce it and the science behind today’s food production. CommonGround is one resource you should look to if you’ve got questions

CommonGround, a volunteer group of farm women dedicated to creating conversations around farming and food, wants to help provide moms with facts around some of the biggest food myths that exist in America. Recently, CommonGround commissioned the Gate-to-Plate Survey to gain insights into how U.S. moms feel and think about their food and the food choices they make for their families. More than 70 percent of moms surveyed admitted to having questions or concerns about how their food is grown or raised – a number that CommonGround volunteers hope to decrease through independent third-party data, firsthand experience and honest conversations.

Here are some major topical areas in the report:

Guilt and Confusion Around Organic Foods
Buying into “buying local”
Myths About Food Costs and the Modern Family Farmer

Meet America’s Farmers

You can meet a lot of America’s farmers right here on AgWired if you follow along regularly. But if you’d like to meet a whole lot of them very quickly then you might want to look at the the new YouTube Channel from the Center for Food Inegrity called “Meet America’s Farmers.”

The channel was developed to offer consumers the opportunity to observe the commitment of today’s farmers to raising safe, healthy and affordable food.

Now, individual farmers and farm organizations are invited to create their own videos for the channel, using a shared values approach to connect with consumers. The goal is to create a variety of videos featuring America’s farmers, allowing them to share their stories and “open their farms” to consumers who are interested in better understanding how their food is raised.

CFI research indicates early adopting consumers want more information about how food is grown on the farm. Consumers who participated in the research specified videos hosted by farmers would be highly useful and help build their confidence and trust in today’s farming. Creating this new channel greatly expands the number of consumers exposed to the farm through such videos. The 146 videos currently on the channel feature 79 different farmers from 12 states and 16 commodity groups and were shot and produced for use during Farmers Feed US programs over the past three years.

CFI has also written guidelines to provide farmers with criteria for developing their own videos, which can be found on CFI’s Farmer Resource Center (www.cfiengage.com). CFI will also furnish Flip cameras and support to individual farmers interested in shooting their own videos.

Those interested in more information about how they can contribute to the “Meet America’s Farmers” YouTube channel can contact Mark Crouser at Mark.Crouser@foodintegrity.org.

I picked out one of the videos on the channel that features our good friend, Andrew McCrea. Here’s what he says about farming.

The best thing about being a farmer: Being around family, bringing kids with you in the combine or tractor and giving them rides on the horse, and living in the country. It’s hard work, but a good living.

So what do you think about this effort?

Connecting Farmer2Family

What do you think about this concept to connect consumers directly to their local farmers in order to make direct purchases. It’s called Farmer2Family and has been started in nine European countries.

Everyone can now enjoy local and fresh produce, from their local suppliers, every day of every year.

Some 4.5 million farmers, fruit- and vegetable-growers, fishermen and the like in 9 European countries (Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland) will be able to offer their fresh and local products directly to their customers in their village via the “farmer2family” platform.

Every farmer, vegetable and fruit growers, fisherman, hunter, all directly involved with fresh produce and registered as such, can now log on free of charge into the platform “farmer2family”. On their local page they can then offer their products to their local customers. Every supply-advert for fruit, vegetables, fish, fresh and transformed meat products …… will remain online for 7 days, but can be renewed at will. Local customers can read and react to these, but they can also demand specific products as and when they like. “The whole platform is as an open market where supply meets demand for fresh and diverse produce. It is a very local service where farmers directly meet with their customers” as explains Luc Adriaenssen, initiator of the project.

The service as proposed on the “farmer2family” platform is and will remain completely free of charge for farmers and consumers. “No commission, no intermediaries, no interference whatsoever” as confirms Luc Adriaenssen.

A few paying publicity spaces will be incorporated on each local page (also free of charge for the first year), for local shops, restaurants, sports- and cultural activities, B&B and so on.

Founding Fathers Beer Helps Armed Forces Relief Trust

Here’s a beer our Founding Fathers would be proud of. It’s named, “Founding Fathers Beer.” Right now distribution is limited but there are a number of states where you can find it. If you do find and purchase some Founding Fathers Brew you’ll be helping a good cause. Listen to their new jingle: Founding Fathers Beer Jingle

Founding Fathers Beer, a new American lager both owned and brewed in the United States that will donate half of its profits to the families of military troops, is now available in Tennessee. Operation Homefront Tennessee and the Armed Forces Relief Trust will receive 50 percent of the profits from Founding Fathers Beer sold in Tennessee.

Founding Fathers Products, a company dedicated to producing products that represent the ideals embraced by early America, launched Founding Fathers Lager in Minnesota and North Dakota last November, and recently debuted Founding Fathers Light Beer. Both the Lager and the Light are available in Tennessee, and will soon be available in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

“The largest breweries in America are now foreign-owned,” said Phil Knutsen, founder and CEO. “Founding Fathers is not only owned and brewed in America, but half of the profits will go to those serving in our armed forces and their families. We are thrilled to be introducing a new American beer choice that will both taste great and compete with the major, national foreign-owned brands.”

Founding Fathers was established in 2009 by Knutsen and a team of investors who believe retail shelves need more American-made products that serve an important cause.

Just Say NO to No HFCS

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is urging the food industry to stop the anti-high fructose corn syrup marketing “scam.”

In recent letters to food marketers, NCGA called on them to stop marketing products as not containing high fructose corn syrup, implying there is something especially unhealthy or unnatural about corn sugar.

“Such innuendos are not scientifically supportable and they are offensive to the hundreds of thousands of U.S. consumers that grow corn as well as the many others in rural communities,” NCGA CEO Rick Tolman wrote in letters to the chief marketing officers at Welch Foods and Dean Foods, producers respectively of Welch’s Natural Spreads and TruMoo Chocolate Milk, just two examples of anti-HFCS marketing. “Your focus on health and nutrition are commendable and supportable. Those points can all be well made without the reference to HFCS.”

While the March 21 letters did lead to a dialog with Dean Foods, their response to-date has been unsatisfactory, Tolman noted in a follow-up letter.

“As you pointed out, you are a significant user of HFCS in other products and are familiar with the science supporting the manufacturing, safety, and functional properties of HFCS. Therefore, you know there is no scientific basis for the preference you see from consumers. It is a misperception. A big part of that problem is that the type of advertising you are doing with respect to HFCS perpetuates this misperception. That is our concern. You are using a misperception to differentiate your product and therefore helping to perpetuate that misperception.”

Read the letters here.

Donating Eggs for Easter Again

I wonder how long it would take to crack 10 million fresh eggs. A long time for one person that’s for sure. That’s how many eggs that are being donated again this year by America’s egg farmers. The Easter bunny is getting a helping hand from United Egg Producers. The eggs are being donated to Feeding America’s 78 food banks in 40 states.

This is the 5th year of the program. The total is now almost 5 million dozen eggs donated! We’re going to do our part this weekend to support America’s egg farmers in our household. Colored eggs or not, we love eggs!

“If you’ve ever met an egg farmer, you know just how incredibly generous and giving these men and women are,” said Gene Gregory, president of United Egg Producers. “All year long, but especially at Easter, they proudly do what they can to support the communities in which they live and work.”

For food banks across America, high quality sources of protein, such as eggs, are especially needed and valued. According to the USDA, one large egg delivers six grams of protein, along with 13 essential nutrients, including choline, folate, iron and zinc. After a review of the nutrient composition of standard large eggs last year, USDA concluded that the average amount of cholesterol was 14 percent lower, and vitamin D content was 64 percent higher, than previously measured.

“It’s no longer just unemployed people who seek out help from their local food banks,” explained Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America. “More than ever, we’re working with people who just can’t make ends meet and need help feeding themselves and their families.”

ABC News Should be Held Liable

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Should ABC News be Liable for Job Losses due to Lean Beef Trimmings Story?” Sixty percent of you said Yes and forty percent said No.

As Cindy has said about this issue, “Yellow journalism makes pink slime.” Couldn’t agree more. Have you read various online stories about this? Maybe worse than the terrible and slanted reporting are the comments I’ve been reading. There are really some seriously stupid people out there judging by their comments. Of course the reporting is giving them an outlet to showcase their ignorance. But the real tragedy is the impact this has had on people’s lives. This includes the ones who have lost their jobs and the consumers who will be paying more for beef.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Will we have a farm bill by end of 2012?” Hmm. Election year, budget issues, should be interesting.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

Ag Secretary Vilsack & IA Gov. Branstad Press Conf.

Today at 3pm, CDT, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad will hold a joint press conference to clarify facts surrounding Beef Products Inc.’s lean finely textured beef. We sure need some facts to get out into the consuming public on this. You can watch it live in the player window below. The press conference will be held in the Governor’s Large Conference Room, State Capitol, Des Moines, IA

Post Update: In case you missed the press conference you can listen to it here. I edited out the blips in the live stream feed. Total length is about 14.5 minutes.

Sec. Vilsack & Gov. Branstad Press Conference

Here are some notes from the press conference: Both Gov. Branstad and Sec. Vilsack strongly affirmed the safety of lean finely textured beef. Sec. Vilsack said,”Let me reiterate what we have said literally hundreds of times. This product is safe. No question about it.” He compared the inaccurate term “pink slime” to calling H1N1 “swine flu.” Branstad said their responsibility is to “correct smear campaign” re: lean finely textured beef with correct information. He said that Midwest governors will be taking media on tour of meat plants tomorrow where they will eat some LFTB! He called media coverage of this story “poisonous.” Sec. Vilsack applauds efforts like the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance to communicate better information about food production to consuming public. Gov. Branstad said he talked with representatives of Hy-Vee who have changed their decision not to carry LFTB products and will be giving their customers the choice to purchase the product.

We Need Both RFS and Farm Bill According to Senator Stabenow

Addressing the attendees to the Agri-Pulse reception last night was Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwomen, U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. I visited with her briefly after her remarks.

I first asked her what she thought about the importance of the work that’s being done by groups like USFRA which held a Food Dialogues event prior to the reception. The Senator says “It is so important that we have farmers and ranchers that are coming in and sharing what they’re doing.” She says how agriculture touches our lives is very broad since it’s more than just food. It includes energy, jobs in agricultural manufacturing and bio-based manufacturing and the list goes on and on. She says “the reality is that agriculture is about our way of life.”

I also asked her what she thinks about a statement I heard last week about the the need to maintain the Renewable Fuel Standard being more important than the Farm Bill. She says, “They’re both important. We need both.”

Listen to my interview with Senator Stabenow here: Interview with Senator Debbie Stabenow

USFRA Dialogues and Agri-Pulse Reception Photos
2012 National Agriculture Day Activities Photo Album

Coverage of the 2012 National AgDay Activities is sponsored by the American Seed Trade Association

Senator Pat Roberts Just Tells It Like It Is

The Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Senator Pat Roberts, made comments during the Agri-Pulse reception last night. I got to visit with him briefly afterward.

Senator Roberts says the idea of trying to get urban America better understand where their food comes from is “a mountain we’ve been trying to climb for years now.” He says you’ve got about 17 seconds to talk to them about agriculture policy before their eyes glaze over and 18 seconds if you talk farm bill. However, if you talk about hunger and feeding a hungry world you get their attention. Then you ask them who’s getting it done. So putting food production in the right context is critical.

I also asked him what he thinks about a statement I heard last week about the the need to maintain the Renewable Fuels Standard being more important that the Farm Bill. He’s not for mandates but says it’s important to create infrastructure and have some stability and certainty. After that is working then he favors letting the marketplace take over.

Listen to my interview with Senator Roberts here: Interview with Senator Pat Roberts

USFRA Dialogues and Agri-Pulse Reception Photos
2012 National Agriculture Day Activities Photo Album

Coverage of the 2012 National AgDay Activities is sponsored by the American Seed Trade Association

USFRA Hold Food Dialogues Prior to National Agriculture Day

In conjunction with the second annual agricultural appreciation reception held by Agri-Pulse the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance held a special edition of their Food Dialogues titled, “The Future of Food and Farming.” The panel tried to deal with the question, “Is technology in agriculture creating environmental improvements and economic growth or perpetuating public fears?” That seems like a loaded question to me. The panel addressed it as best they could led by moderator Alan Bjerga, Agriculture Policy Reporter, Bloomberg News. I spoke with him after the session was over.

He says the design of the panel was to bring together people involved in agriculture with different ideas about the future of farming. Panelists included Dr. Roger Beachy, Former Director National Institute of Food and Agriculture USDA; Bryan Dierlam, Director of Government Affairs, Cargill; Dr. Eileen Langdon, North Carolina family farmer and veterinarian; Patrick O’Toole, Wyoming Colorado Rancher and David White, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service. The discussion was streamed live this afternoon.

The question of sustainability came up and Alan says the panelists came through with their ideas for what the future of farming will be in regards to the issue and also the issue of the sustainability of passing the farm along to a new generation. He thinks the main goal was to continue to bring the discussion to a wide an audience as possible.

Listen to my interview with Alan here: Interview with Alan Bjerga

I’ve got plenty of photos uploaded from this afternoon’s activities and I’ll add to them with photos from tomorrow’s National Agriculture Day activities: 2012 National Agriculture Day Activities Photo Album