I got Kay Johnson Smith, Executive Vice President, Animal Agriculture Alliance, to wrap things up from the Stakeholders Summit. She says that the speakers focused on positive, proactive ways “we can reach the public and invite them in to our businesses without jeopardizing bio-security and food safety concerns.” She mentioned one speaker from a company that has live web cams …
New Chairman of Animal Agriculture Alliance
The new Chair of the Animal Agriculture Alliance is Dr. Chris Ashworth, Elanco Animal Health. During his term he want to further distribute the message about how safe, affordable and abundant food is to citizens all across America. That includes showcasing farmers who produce pork, poultry, beef and fish. He says “We want to be able to make it even …
Communicating With A Non-Farm Audience
What is the perception of farmers and ranchers? That’s the broader question that was being addressed by participants at the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit according to Mary Kay Thatcher, American Farm Bureau Federation. She was one of the many people I had the pleasure to speak with. One of the things she got out of Frank Luntz’s presentation had …
Lessons From Europe
At the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit we got an international lesson from Jim Sumner, President, USA Poultry & Egg Export Council. Jim says we have to look out for our own government policies and regulations or “we’re going to end up as bad or worse off than our friends in the European Union.” Let’s face it, regulations have been …
Food Marketing Words – Convenient, Safer, Healthier, Cleaner
Safer, healthier, convenient and cleaner. Those are words that Frank Luntz, Luntz Global, wanted people to take away from his remarks at the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit. I was able to ask him one question afterward while he was signing books and that was what he hoped participants took away from his presentation. His answer, “I think it’s essential …
Washington Watch Wrap Up
This week was the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Washington Watch meeting in our beautiful Nation’s Capitol. It definitely was an interesting time to be in DC after the events of last weekend. Washington Watch gives NAFB members an opportunity to sit down with folks inside the Beltway and get an update on some of the major issues of concern …
Supporting The Iowa Food and Family Project
Soybeans came up on the program at the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit in the form of Aaron Putze, Director External Relations, Iowa Soybean Association. He thinks it’s time to reflect on blessed we are in this country to have abundant food and thank the people who produce it. He gives a startling statistic that forty percent of the food …
Telling A Dairy Story
Dairy farmer LuAnn Troxel is one of the attendees here at the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit. She’s also President of the Indiana Professional Dairy Producers. This is LuAnn chatting with speaker, Frank Luntz, just before his presentation this morning. LuAnn is one of my Twitter (@DairyLu) friends that I have had the pleasure to meet here. She is hungry …
Some Truths About Sustainability
The S word came up during the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit in a big way during a presentation by Dr. Frank Mitloehner, Agriculture Air Quality Center Director, University of California, Davis. That word is sustainability. He talked about research he conducted that debunked the “Livestock’s Long Shadow” report that was published by the FAO in 2006. That report had …
Zimfo Bytes
The National Pork Producers Council has named Dr. Liz Wagstrom as its chief veterinarian; she will begin her duties May 16. The U.S. government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, kicked-off Haiti’s National Agriculture and Labor Day on May 1 by inaugurating a cutting-edge agricultural training center. Alltech has signed on as the title sponsor of the 128th National …