The farm to food connection
March 30, 2011
Factory farms, grass-fed vs. grain fed, antibiotics and hormones—these are all buzzwords foodservice and retail folks hear every day. As a farm kid, with a four-year agriculture degree and now five years as a professional in the industry, I feel pretty confident explaining, defending and sharing the facts with consumers. But those on “the other side” of the business often lack the training and experience to do that with the same level of certainty.
At Certified Angus Beef LLC, we know these people represent our product (beef) to those consumers, so we want to make them informed advocates. Yesterday was just one example of how we do that.
As part of our Building Blocks for Success Seminar, held three times a year in Wooster, Ohio, we invite partners—distributors, chefs, meat managers, sales staff, etc.—to learn more about the beef industry and the brand. (In this session we also have our upcoming crop of interns and several ag editors taking in the experience, so Steve and I also made the trek to Ohio.)
This year we added a component to the classroom training: a farm tour.
Participants traveled out to Ohio State’s Agriculture Technical Institute to learn what they do in their hands-on teaching herd. They heard about the production calendar, how cattle are fed, and how and why antibiotics and implants are given. They could pick up a handful of cracked corn and even smell the silage.
–Miranda
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