A common misconception surrounding agriculture today that is
fed to the general public is that farmers and producers are only concerned with
quantity not quality. While we do live in a world where “more” is better, there
still exists a fundamental significance when it comes to quality. The story of
what we do in agriculture is often told, but how we do it and how well we do it
is often untold and overlooked. As a whole we strive for quality in all aspects,
quality of life for the animals involved, quality of employment for employees
and producers involved in the system of food production, and quality of product
for the consumer. When it all boils down, there are essentially three
fundamentals of what livestock producers and those in agriculture do in order
to provide both a quality product and in the most quantity feasible to stock
your local grocery store’s shelves. There must be care for the animals in terms
of health and well-being, feeding of the animals, and lastly harvesting of the
animals. The first fundamental principle
is that of caring for the animal, foremost concern is for their health and
needs, in all aspects in order to provide the best quality of life possible.
Things happen that are out of your control and sometimes animals get sick or
injured, so yes that involves the use of medications and antibiotics in order
to nurse the animals back to health, but contrary to popular belief, animals
aren’t unnecessarily given antibiotics. Antibiotics are saved for genuine
health related concerns, i.e. pink eye, pneumonia, scours, etc. I mean we all
know antibiotics aren’t cheap, so the use of them without rhyme or reason seems
a little trivial and like a waste of money. Just as any other business,
livestock producers don’t go out of their way to raise their costs pointlessly,
they’re still in the business of making money at the end of the day. The second
fundamental principle in simplistic terms is feeding the animals. Nutrition is
one of the biggest variables in livestock production, an animal’s nutrient
requirements are always changing in accordance to their stage of production and
thus their diets must be continually adjusted in order to meet their plane of
nutrition. Feeding the animals appropriately is critical because all other
realms of production will halt if nutritional requirements are not met, hence
why we feed animals to the best of our ability, for their well-being as well as
in order to promote optimum growth, and usability for human consumption. The final
overlying principle of what must be done in animal agriculture and production
is the harvesting of the animals. A quality harvest involves limited stress on
the animal and pain-free. It is critical to the quality of the end product that
everything goes as planned and is absolutely sound when it comes to harvest
practices.
There
are many programs available and utilized across the nation that ensure quality
production from start to finish and are even species specific; including but
not limited to, Beef
Quality Assurance (BQA), Pork Quality Assurance (PQA),
National Dairy FARM program, Safe Feeds Safe Food, and the Human Slaughter Act.
A lack of knowledge and understanding of the programs as well as their
popularity among producers creates a wall in communication between producers
and consumers and deleteriously affects consumer perception. According to Beef
Magazine’s Gayle Smith, “With less than 2% of the population directly involved
in production agriculture, and less than 1% making a full-time living in the
business, 94% of consumers have zero connection to the agricultural
industry...” That’s a huge communication gap to fill and I truly believe that
has to start with a mutual understanding for what we do and how we do it in
order to provide reason and a picture behind everything agriculture encompasses.
Sources:
http://beefmagazine.com/beef-quality/why-bqa-needs-be-mandatory-beef-industry-program?page=2
