Plenty to Think About

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Globally, nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry each night—45 percent of these concentrated in the slums of megacities. About three-quarters of them fall into the “chronic” category. They are not only undernourished but are likely to remain so, leading to irreversible physical and mental damage. Amongst the most vulnerable are infants. There is clear evidence that if a child is malnourished for the first three years, their brains are permanently damaged, impacting educational development and eventually their economic future.

As a huge number of families remain trapped in this hunger cycle, the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow.

Since World War I, the people of the United States have been world leaders in the provision of aid to people in need around the world. Faith-based organizations have played a critical role in that work. Many of these agencies, including Samaritan’s Purse, have decades of practical experience in providing relief to suffering people. In addition, (more…)

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As a family of mixed-animal veterinarians my husband, my father-in-law, and I work with many farmers in our area and talk about how to increase their animals’ productivity and efficiency. Sometimes we say these words around our pet-owning clients, as well. However, our pet owners think in terms of food, water, comfort, and playtime for their dogs and cats, not in terms of production, efficiency and daily rate-of-gain.

Although we use different words, we are really talking about the same thing. When we talk about an animal being productive, we are talking about a female dairy cow giving milk at her highest capacity, or a male beef steer growing and putting on muscle weight to be turned into beef. When we talk about an animal being efficient, we look at how many resources the farmers have to provide (feed, water, shelter) for the animal to have adequate production.

Farmers work with veterinarians to ensure that they are doing the best they can for their animals, like providing high-quality food and clean water. Farmers and veterinarians work together to design a nutrition and management plan for each individual farm. Though the cost might be higher at the outset, feeding animals a nutritious grain mix in lesser quantities instead of lower-cost food with poor nutritional value will result in better health and less money spent over time. Additionally, (more…)

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I recently visited my parents’ home village, a place known as the world’s first ‘Bioenergiedorf’ (bioenergy village) Jühnde (shown left), in the heart of Germany. Defining this designation is the fact that hundreds of homes—all homes in the village—are “off the [energy and heating] grid” through use of energy and heat produced by a digester. A digester is a contained facility that converts dairy and food waste to energy and heat.

While the bioenergy aspect is indeed impressive, other aspects of Jühnde dairy operations, which are outdated and not scientifically substantiated in terms of productivity, food safety, or welfare, bring the overall sustainability of the “Bioenergiedorf” system into question. Most of the dairy barns have not been modernized since the 1960s-’70s, and the scale of production has always been extremely small, especially to someone like me, who is used to California dairies and other concentrated feeding operations. A 100-head dairy is considered a large operation in this idyllic village and other places throughout central Europe. The image I still have in mind is the one in which a farmer milks so little milk that no more than a few milk jugs are produced daily. These milk jugs are picked up by the creamery, which dumps the milk from the canister into the milk truck tank, along with milk from dozens of other farms. A system like this would be unthinkable in the U.S. for reasons of traceability of product and other food safety concerns, but also for reasons of economic viability. Furthermore, U.S. stakeholders would question how environmentally sound such small-scale systems are—especially with respect to the carbon footprint of milk.

The carbon footprint of food production is under discussion at the regional, national, and international levels. For example, some European fast-food chains now offer information to their customers, including not only nutritional facts, but also (more…)

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The world’s population is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, and the ability of America’s farmers to meet rising food demands is in jeopardy. In order to remove barriers that are inhibiting farmer productivity, a new coalition entitled Americans for Choice and Competition in Agriculture (AgChoice) launched in November with the goal of promoting increased choice and competition in the multi-trait seed marketplace. Currently the coalition has a broad-based membership of more than 500 members, including farmers, nonprofits and thought leaders who support a competitive and innovative marketplace.

One of the most daunting problems for farmers in America is the lack of a policy framework to allow seed traits to enter the competitive seed marketplace after patent expiration. Just as AgChoice promotes competition, it likewise is an advocate for strong intellectual property protection for seed traits benefiting from patents, as this protection promotes robust research and development that benefits farmers. Farmers deserve (more…)