AgWired

Is your farm or company ready to handle a crisis? Unfortunately, in today’s world the possibility of having to deal with one has become very high. During the 2013 Alltech International Symposium attendees could get some hands on training during a session on Crisis Management.

I worked with one of the session presenters, David Wescott, VP, APCO Worldwide. He created a crisis simulation in which a fictional company was used and a volunteer found to be the CEO of the company. David outlined a situation in which the fictional company was purported to have caused nursing home deaths from a company food product and information spread virally via Twitter. During a break I approached our fictional CEO as a news reporter with a video camera putting him on the spot to answer, “What do have to say to the public about your company product causing these deaths.” Of course, nothing had been proven and the Twitter messages were all false or completely speculative. It was fun, at least for me. Then after the break the video was played to critique how the fake CEO handled my questioning. I’d post the video but I don’t think we need to have a fake online crisis. We have enough of those as it is.

I visited with David after the first of the two sessions held during Symposium. You will hear that there is a need to have a crisis management plan so that you and your company know what to do if something should happen.

Listen to my interview with David here: Interview with David Wescott

2013 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album

Alltech awarded its annual Young Scientist Awards at the closing ceremony of the Alltech International Symposium on May 22.

The first award was for undergraduate research. Amanda Pesqueira was the recipient of this honor. Pesqueria attended the University of Maringa in Brazil before transferring to the University of Kentucky for her final year of undergraduate studies in animal science. Her research presentation, titled “Contractile Response of the Different Ergot Alkaloids in Bovine Cranial Branch of the Lateral Saphenous Vein In Vitro,” examines the compounds involved with fescue toxicosis syndrome in cows through the use of an advanced testing system. She plans to pursue a graduate degree in animal science.

Nimesha Fernando received the award for graduate research. She is a a graduate student at the University of Melbourne and looked at how high levels of CO2 in the environment affect the growth of grain through her research presentation titled “Free Air CO2 Enrichment Altered Wheat Grain Protein Quality and Rheological Characteristics: A Comparative Proteomic Analysis.” Using proteomic analysis, she showed that exposure to high levels of CO2 results in grains with lower levels of protein, and then applied her research findings to the use of wheat in food production.

Six other students had the opportunity to travel to Lexington as finalists for the awards. They were selected from an initial field of more than 8,000 students.

Find out more information about registering for the next Alltech Young Scientist Competition here.

Listen to the full presentation ceremony here: Young Scientists Awards

2013 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album

Dr. Patrick Wall’s presentation during the closing ceremony of the Alltech International Symposium was about managing crisis situations in the food industry. He made reference to many of the recent scandals within the food industry and described issues companies should be aware of as well as how they should manage them. The message Wall left with the attendees was a great reminder for everyone involved in agriculture. “When you go home and people ask you what business you’re in, tell them you’re in the human health business,” Wall said.

You can listen to Wall’s full speech here: Grasping the New Reality

2013 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album

According to Rebecca Timmons, Director or Applications Research and Quality Assurance at Alltech, many uses and opportunities are available with algae. She shared her vision for algae in the future at the closing ceremony of the Alltech International Symposium. Timmons said that algae produces three-quarters of the oxygen in the world. She believes there is huge room for development with algae and thinks that by 2020 it could be used to provide DHA (omega-3 fatty acids) to humans through animals.

Listen to Timmons full speech here: The Future of Algae

2013 Alltech International Symposium Photo Album