Another one of the speakers at the NIAA conference was Dr. Anthony Frank, DVM, president of Colorado State University. He made several interesting points about how regulations are impacting animal agriculture. We had the opportunity to visit with him following his presentation.
AUDIO: Dr. Anthony Frank (4:42 MP3)
Ag and commodity organizations have created many innovative programs to strengthen the lines of communication between farmers and the people who consume their products. In Illinois, the Farm Bureau and state commodity groups have started a program called “Field Moms”. It gives “moms” from urban areas a chance to see firsthand how their food is grown and raised as they meet Illinois farmers and tour their farms. At the recent NIAA conference, we discussed the Field Moms program with Jim Fraley, livestock program director at Illinois Farm Bureau.
One of the more thought-provoking presentations at the NIAA conference was delivered by Dr. Terry Barr, senior director of the Knowledge Exchange Division of CoBank.
Barr, a former head of the USDA’s World Outlook Board, talked about “Advancing Animal Agriculture with Scarce Resources”. For example, he talked about how global meat production will have to increase by 73 percent between now and 2050 in order to meet the world’s fast-growing demand for protein—and it will have to happen despite dwindling land and water resources.
Barr visited with us prior to his presentation.
You can’t say Jon Caspers doesn’t get involved in trying to better his industry. Caspers, a pork producer from Swaledale, Iowa, is a past president of the National Pork Producers Council and a past chair of the U.S. Meat Export Federation. He currently serves on the board of the directors of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture. At the NIAA conference in Denver, we visited with Caspers about his involvement and the issues that are of most interest to him.
Ask livestock producers about their biggest concerns and “excessive regulations” will probably be one of their top answers.
Dr. David Anderson is a professor and Extension livestock and food products economist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. His presentation at the NIAA conference was entitled “Supply Chain and the Economic Effects of Regulations”. Afterwards, we visited with Anderson, who admits it’s a tough topic to address because no one really knows the true costs—and, in some cases, the true benefits—that regulations bring to animal agriculture.
AUDIO: David Anderson (8:33 MP3)
The president and CEO of United Egg Producers (UEP), Gene Gregory, has received a lot of criticism in recent months—mostly from other segments of animal agriculture—for UEP’s decision to compromise with HSUS on the issue of cage size for egg-laying hens. Gregory continues to defend the compromise—and the “egg bill” now pending in Congress—saying that national standards are necessary to ensure the future survivability of the U.S. egg industry.
At the NIAA conference in Denver, we asked Gregory about the partnership with HSUS, whether he thinks the animal rights group can be trusted, and the chances of getting the egg bill through Congress.
AUDIO: Gene Gregory (9:08 MP3)
As you might expect, the issues surrounding the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture are receiving a lot of attention at the NIAA conference in Denver. To get the beef industry’s perspective on antibiotics, we visited with Dr. Gatz Riddell, DVM, executive vice president of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.
AUDIO: Gatz Riddell (6:04 MP3)
The state of Ohio’s new livestock care standards officially went into effect on September 29th of last year. At the National Institute for Animal Agriculture annual conference in Denver, we got an update on how those new standards are working from the state veterinarian for Ohio, Tony Forshey. We also asked Forshey for his thoughts on the bill in Congress that would dictate cage size for egg-laying hens, and how he feels about the possibility of federal law superseding Ohio’s livestock care standards.
AUDIO: Tony Forshey (7:36 MP3)
Although beef and dairy producers have not been put under the animal welfare/animal rights microscope to the same extent as the swine and egg industries, Kansas State University ag economist Dr.Glynn Tonsor says it’s dangerous for them to assume that they are immune from it all.
Tonsor says it’s likely that, at some point, beef and dairy will have the spotlight directed at them.
To help the those industries get a better handle on the “knowledge gap” between what they think, and what consumers think, about beef and dairy animal welfare issues, Tonsor and his colleagues have launched a study that will look at the different perceptions that each group have of each other. He says the results will establish a benchmark as the beef and dairy industries begin looking at changes they want to make—or may be forced to make—in the way they care for their animals.
AUDIO: Glynn Tonsor (9:52 MP3)
The National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) will hold its 2012 Annual Conference in Denver March 26-29.
The conference will focus on how decreasing resources, both natural and financial, as well as increasing regulations are making it difficult for animal agriculture to advance.
Additional issues such as drought, tight credit, increased capital requirements, environmental regulations, more demanding animal care standards, and misinformation about how animals are raised will be addressed.
For more on the conference and how NIAA differs from other livestock organizations, we visited with Katie Ambrose, director of membership for the organization.
AUDIO: Katie Ambrose (3:00 MP3)
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