Guest Blog by Steve Kopperund, Ag issues consultant
I’ve decided the general media are pretty much amateurs or hacks when it comes to accurately covering issues in food and agriculture. In no other area of our lives – including the arcane world of high finance – does a single profession get it wrong so much of the time. I’m allowed to say this out loud because I was a general newspaper reporter before I was an agbiz reporter/editor before I was a lobbyist.
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Posted by FFC on May 7th, 2012 :: Filed under
Animal health,
Food safety,
Media,
RegulationsTags ::
cattle,
food safety,
regulation
By: Leslie Ballentine, Farming and Food Commentator
“Pink slime” a pejorative term for boneless lean beef trimmings has been getting a lot of attention from, food advocates and US policy makers in recent weeks. Called “lean finely textured beef within the industry,” the ground beef filler is reportedly not used in fabricating meat in Canada. Never-the-less, the hoopla is spilling over our border and is another example of how a name can affect the industry.
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Posted by FFC on April 2nd, 2012 :: Filed under
animal by-products,
Consumers,
Food,
Food safety,
Meat/slaughter plantsTags ::
Consumers,
food,
food safety,
meat,
Media
By Leslie Ballentine, farming and food commentator
This past year, a University of Manitoba student was inspired by a campus talk she heard by the Ontario Farm Animal Council. So inspired, in fact, that she wrote a thought-provoking article in the student newspaper. Titled: Things you should know before criticizing food production, the article is directed to the students on campus. But I think it should be directed to everyone. And it is food for thought to start the year.
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Posted by FFC on January 3rd, 2012 :: Filed under
Environment,
Family vs factory farming,
Food safety,
Housing,
Innovation and technology,
MisconceptionsTags ::
agriculture,
environment,
Farmers,
food safety,
misconceptions,
technology
by Patricia Grotenhuis, Lifelong farmer and agricultural advocate
One day, I had someone with no farm background visiting me at the farm. When my husband came home from the dairy barn, I made a comment about how he was going to shower before joining us.
She asked if this was something he did every time he came in from the barn. On our dairy farm, that isn’t always necessary but many farms do require farmers to shower both before entering and before leaving the barn. In these cases, showers are often built right into the barns. This is called biosecurity and farmers use biosecurity measures to protect their animals from outside germs and bacteria in a variety of ways. In many types of barns, a strict biosecurity protocol is required by the industry’s on farm food safety programs and audits are done to ensure that the rules are followed.
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Posted by FFC on December 9th, 2011 :: Filed under
Animal care,
Animal health,
Food safetyTags ::
animal care,
Biosecurity
Guest blog by: Gene Gregory, President United Egg Producers
I know that many in agriculture have similar thoughts on the attacks upon our businesses and modern agriculture but sometimes I just can’t take anymore of it. Here are some of my thoughts:
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Posted by FFC on November 1st, 2011 :: Filed under
Consumers,
Economics,
Education and public awareness,
Food safety,
Misconceptions,
Speaking outTags ::
agriculture,
Consumers,
Farmers,
food,
food safety
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Recalls happen either because a company finds a problem on its own or is informed of a problem by someone else, after the product has gone out the door. For farmers and food companies, prevention is the ticket to avoiding these events as well as the financial and public relations fallout associated with an outbreak of food-borne illness. To avoid food recalls means starting at the farm.
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Posted by FFC on June 20th, 2011 :: Filed under
Canada,
Consumers,
eggs,
Food safety,
Meat/slaughter plantsTags ::
Consumers,
diet,
food safety,
meat
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Fact: There is no such thing as “zero risk”.
Canadians, unlike other parts of the world, enjoy one of the safest, most abundant and diverse food supplies. We don’t know empty shelves or tapeworms. But despite that, I think it is only reasonable to expect more food recalls in the future.
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Posted by FFC on June 13th, 2011 :: Filed under
Canada,
Consumers,
Food safetyTags ::
agriculture,
Canada,
Consumers,
food,
food safety
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Just as livestock munching predators, such as coyotes and bears, pose a serious threat to livestock, farmers are under attack by much smaller animals too: Rats and mice. I recently read a report by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs which estimates that a colony of 100 rats will eat more than a tonne of feed in a year. That much feed costs farmers about $285, or enough to feed four pigs to market weight. And the Ministry factsheet says one pair of rats and their offspring can produce 20 million (yes million) young in three years, mice reproduce even faster.
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Posted by FFC on March 2nd, 2011 :: Filed under
Animal health,
Education and public awareness,
Farm life,
Food safetyTags ::
agriculture,
animals,
education,
Farmers,
food safety
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Some 10 million viewers got a unique opportunity to see inside a large US meat plant this week when The Oprah Show aired a guided tour of one of the world’s largest meat packing plants. The tour and the Cargill company staff helped to de-mystify a process that is largely mis-understood and maligned. I have been to many slaughter plants over my agriculture career, but here is a report on the experiences of one first- time visitor at another Cargill meat plant. The author is a nutritionist and not from a farm. Cargill operates plants in Canada as well as the U.S….
I just got back from west Texas where I toured a big industrial beef processing plant and I am still in shock by what I witnessed there. But I am not shocked in the way you might expect based on the negative portrayals of the beef industry that seem so rampant in the media. Rather, I am stunned by how humanely the animals were treated and by the detailed attention given to food safety at every stage of the process.
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Posted by FFC on February 2nd, 2011 :: Filed under
animal handling,
Beef cattle,
Consumers,
Food safety,
Meat/slaughter plantsTags ::
animal welfare,
beef,
cattle,
food,
food safety,
misconceptions
The following is a guest post written for us by Lilian from Food and Farming Canada.
Most of us have very little knowledge of where our food comes from or how it is produced. As a result, misinformation is widely circulated in many different forms – so to get to the real scoop on what’s going on, there’s no one better to ask than a farmer himself.
I had the chance recently to visit with Brent, who raises turkeys on his farm in south-western Ontario, and seized the opportunity to pepper him with questions about one of my favourite holiday meats, turkey.
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Posted by FFC on May 26th, 2010 :: Filed under
Animal care,
Family vs factory farming,
Farm life,
Food safety,
Poultry,
Sustainability of the family farmTags ::
animal welfare,
antibiotics,
corporate farming,
food safety,
Ontario,
turkey
