Friday, May 27, 2016

Farm To Table Affair


The process of getting food from farm to table has grown in concern substantially over the last ten years. Increasing consumer distress over the quality, safety and overall animal well-being in which their food originates from has continued to fill the newspapers, magazines, headlines, and good ‘ol social media taglines. It is nearly impossible to log onto your Facebook today and scroll through your newsfeed without coming across some video, article, or picture suggesting that livestock producers and farmers today “shouldn’t be trusted.” The distrust in food production presently is unlike anything we have ever seen before in the United States… or is it?

Upton Sinclair’s 1905 book, “The Jungle” acted as the vehicle that put motion into getting consumers to think about where their food comes from, how it is processed and raised, as well as the safety of the overall product. The book created an uproar and filled headlines of newspapers, consumed radio broadcast conversations, and soon led to an overall policy change a mere year later. The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 became a law much credited to the heightened awareness surrounding food safety and sanitary conditions throughout harvest facilities within the United States. ”The Jungle” in a lot of ways can be compared to that of social media today. Social media has driven a heightened concern for consumers, driving them to ask and seek to understand the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of their food’s production. We have all seen the gruesome and disheartening animal activists videos in which expose and depict the mistreatment of animals, inadequate housing conditions, etc. Social media is a powerful tool and has proven to be highly influential when it comes to getting people to think, but the sad thing about social media is that those viral videos that swarm our newsfeeds don’t tell the whole story. There are always going to be things that go wrong in any sort of system and there is no excuse for mistreatment of animals or inadequate quality of life, but the world never wants to read about what we in the agricultural community do right. Do you ever read about the livestock producer that was up at three in the morning pulling a calf because the first calf heifer couldn’t do it alone and without his assistance the cow and calf would have died? No. The world is so obsessed with the things that occasionally go wrong and lacks to see the behind the scenes, everyday activities in which farmers and livestock producers alike do in order to care for the animals that will eventually end up on your table. Stay tuned for explanations, opinions, and some not so headlined stories from the perspective of a proud modern agriculture enthusiast.