If You're Wasting, You Shouldn't Be Whinging

There's a little bit of Australian vocab for you - whinging means to whine, complain, protest, etc. Didn't know you were going to learn about food wastage and vocab today, did you?

Anyhow, several factors led to this blog post - first, there was this article from Drover's. I'll be sort-of summarizing it so if you don't want to read a whole article, you can read a whole blog post. You're welcome.

Secondly, this blog post that I wrote on Monday.

Thirdly, this:

A fridge full of leftovers for two people who couldn't possibly eat said leftovers in a normal amount of time before the food will be unappetizing, stinky and/or unpleasurable to the digestive system.

Hence, this post was born.

Food wastage occurs in a lot of different ways. I'm sure you're thinking, "Buzzard, you idiot. Food wastage occurs when good food is thrown away." Idiot, I am not. Food wastage, and this comes from the Drover's article, varies depending on the setting/income level of the country of origin. For example, my trashcan is an example of how food is wasted in a first-world or developed country. Sometimes, I throw away perfectly good green beans. But I am not going to save four or five bites of canned green beans when the Ninja refuses to finish them (he is my human garbage can). I am a human-being, not perfect. Did you know that up to HALF of the food that is purchased in Europe and the US is thrown away? Half, people. One 8 oz sirloin is thrown away for every pound of steak purchased. I am extremely embarrassed of that fact - one in seven people in the world go hungry every night and we are throwing away 1/2 of our food. If you're not embarrassed, you're part of the problem. Don't come whining to me about not being able to afford food if you throw out 1/2 your grocery cart every week.

However, food wastage in Malawi or a similar less than developed country is different because that loss occurs during harvest, when advanced technology isn't available to yield optimum levels. Wastage also occurs through improper storage or unfortunately, the all too common problem of a lack of infrastructure. This means the food is produced but the roads, government etc are so broken down that the food can't get to the people. Very sad. The more the developed the country, the further down the line the wastage occurs. Here, I drew you a picture:

 

 How about those epic graph drawing skills? Thanks Ag Economics degree, you're coming in handy after all.

The reason this is all very important is of course, that we are projected to have a population of 9.5 billion by 2075. Or if you don't want to look that far into the future, 9 billion by 2050. We are going to need a lot of water, land and other non-renewable resources to feed all these hungry future-people.

Which is where my post from Monday comes in - by cutting down larger cuts of meat we can continue to utilize the efficiency of the beef industry (smaller herds but bigger cattle) without sacrificing any valuable protein to the garbage can. And if science is allowed to prevail and keep making advancements, I believe that the ingenious folks at John Deere, Monsanto, Pioneer etc can find ways to produce more with less.

Of course, it's not just on the shoulders of engineers and beef producers. You, yes you, can help with the whole feed the world mantra. Buying/preparing smaller portions. Saving (and eating) leftovers. Making your kids clean their plates or save their leftovers too (never too young to help the planet). Anyone else have any ideas or suggestions on how to make our food supply more efficient from a consumer stand point?

How's that for tying several different trains of thinking into one post? That was exhausting...

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

p.s. I hope that Jessie Vipham is impressed with my graph and that I have officially kind-of used my Ag Econ degree.

Flinchbaugh-isms

If you've been involved at any level with ag policy or follow K-State media streams, you've no doubt heard of THE Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh. The man is a living legend - he's been an agriculture economics professor at Kansas State University for over 40 years and his ag policy class fills up within the first two days of enrollment every year. Like clockwork. He is also a long-time advisor on ag policy to politicians of both parties. There is an inelastic demand for his sarcasm, wit and no holds barred political ideas. You may not always agree with him but you will always maintain respect for him.

He also hates KU - a man after my own heart. Sigh.

Last week, Dr. Flinchbaugh was the chosen speaker for the Alpha Zeta Fall Event addressing the topic of economics and ag policy. This is not a summary of his speech (sorry) but simply me sharing some of my favorite anecdotes and one-liners that I've heard over the years from sitting in his class and attending other events.

- There isn't a problem in the world that a good dose of moderation wouldn't solve

- If you don't vote you don't have the right to [insert word for female dog]

- Don't ever write agriculture off for a lack of power

- What do you get if you drive through Lawrence really slow? -- A degree

- What they need is a good dose of horse sense

- If you are against bio-tech, you are in favor of starvation

- If I were a part of this Congress, I’d be too embarrassed to go home.

There are a ton more of these - if you are a K-State student and you haven't taken Ag Policy, you are most certainly missing out on one of the most pertinent, useful and interesting courses offered in any agriculture curriculum across the nation. Even if you aren't an ag person, this is definitely worth your time.

For those of you who have taken the class - what's your favorite Flinchbaugh-ism?

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

ILC 2011 - Calgary

Hello all!

It's me - Buzzard. You've probably forgotten who I am since I haven't blogged in almost a month. Cripes.
So take this as my sincere apology for sucking at blogging.

Ok - moving on. Last week I had the amazing opportunity to attend the International Livestock Congress in Calgary, AB, Canada. Myself and 19 other students from across the world (U.S., Australia, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela) went on tours of the beef business in Alberta. Monday and Tuesday involved tours of an embryo transfer facility, Feedlot Health Management Systems (where I met a fellow K-Stater), the Cargill beef processing plant and Harvie Ranching.

Remember Jill Harvie? She is a member of the Five Nations Beef Alliance - here is a look at their video from 2010. I finally got to meet her - she and her family are doing such great things at their ranch and in the beef industry.



On Wednesday, the ILC group attended the Canadian Cattlemen's Association annual conference. We heard a lot of commentary on the economic situation of the United States and Canada, foreign relations between Canada and the EU, and new ideas for marketing beef products in grocery stores. It was a very informative session but I have to admit, there was a gloomy outlook for the U.S. economy.

I would highly encourage any students (senior in undergrad and up) to apply for the ILC program next year.

Feels great to be blogging again!

Until next time,
Buzzard

Shouldn't Need Another Reason to Thank a Farmer but I'll Give Ya One

Today is Give Thanks to Agriculture day so I thought it would be appropriate to shine light on one of MANY reasons why I'm thankful for American farmers and ranchers. Never before in my life have I been more thankful for American farmers and ranchers and all they do as I am now. American's have the luxury of extremely low food prices - in fact, we spend less than 10% of our disposable income on food. Indian families (in Asia) spend roughly 50% of their income on food and Japanese families spend about 20% of their income on food annually. We have it pretty easy in the good ole U.S. of A. Over here in Australia foods like pork, beef, apples and butter are twice the price as the states'.

An affordable, safe and wholesome food supply is continually made possible because of the willingness of our farmers and ranchers to adopt new production methods, their devotion to working long, tiresome hours and their never quit attitudes. So if you haven't already done it today - please, go Thank a farmer or rancher and be grateful for the industry that feeds the world. I guarantee they'll appreciate your kind words.

Until next time
~ Buzzard ~

Bridging the science gap

It's very hard to translate science based publications and information into easy to read, succinct information for producers and consumers.  I know this because I write scientifically by day and blog using regular English by night.  Two different languages saying the same thing - preserve and protect agriculture.  However, occasionally (yet not often enough) the language barrier is torn down and a breakthrough is discovered.

Glynn Tonser, agriculture economist at Kansas State University, has recently produced and uploaded to YouTube several videos about the economic impact of animal welfare opinions on agriculture.   Below is an example of "Impacts of Animal Welfare Media Attention on Meat Demand."


These videos are all fairly short (8-10 minutes) and are easy to comprehend.  If you have ever been curious about the economics of animal welfare, this is a great opportunity to learn. You can access the rest of the videos by visiting YouTube and searching for 'Glynn Tonser' or visit http://www.agmanager.info/ and clicking on "Livestock and Meat Marketing."

Have a great week!

Until next time,
~Buzzard~