This past week, on Wednesday, I sat in on a presentation by Elanco, the worldwide Animal Health Company that provides everything from medicines for your dog to medicines for my family’s cows! This global corporation has always impressed me (plus, on the flier it said free pizza!) Anyways, so I sat in on their presentation and it was fascinating!

I do not know about your majors, but being in the College of Ag, almost every professor at some point talks to us all about the growing population. There are statistics out there saying that by the year 2050, the population will reach 9 billion, and in order to feed these new mouths, we will need to produce 100% more food. Elanco’s study on this issue has declared that 70% of this must come from technology, because there is literally not enough arable land to plant on. This is quite a daunting task to think about.

Not only is this a seemingly impossible task, when you add some of the negative connotations regarding biotechnology among consumers, this is truly a hard feat. What many people don’t realize is that biotechnology can be a lot of things. This can entail finding ways to use less water to produce more wheat. It could involve using genetics to optimize corn production, by growing bigger ears with more corn and thus more food. Biotechnology can be highly scientific, involving chemistry, biology, and engineering, but this does not mean it is not safe. For instance, in 2007 compared to 1944, we can produce 1 gallon of milk with 65% less water and with 90% less land. In 2007 compared to 1977, farmers have been able to produce 1 pound of densely nutritious beef with 14% less water and 34% less land. All of these improvements are due to higher efficiency and biotechnology. (United States Farm Bureau and Elanco) Statistics like this need to continue in order to feed a growing population. However, improving efficiency alone will not do.

It’s time to get excited and creative about the idea of more biotechnology in agriculture, because this is where more of our food will be coming from.

Check out this video, called “Some Food for Thought.” It is really neat!!!!!

Some Food For Thought

I hope this helps you to not only see more of the agriculture around you, but also, start the conversation of food production worldwide, and how to provide enough delicious and nutritious food for a growing population.

-Sarabeth

So I realized that in last weeks blog, I failed to mention one of the biggest misconceptions about eggs! Many people believe that eating eggs from chickens in reprehensible because it could be a baby. THIS IS FALSE! Chicken eggs, that you buy in the grocery store are NOT fertilized, they never could turn into baby chickens. Even if you put that egg under a warm lamp and waited, it would never ever turn into a chick! An egg is simply a delicious form of protein produced by chickens that when fertilized by a rooster, could form a baby, but the eggs you buy in the grocery store never even got close to becoming babies. So, do not worry about that!

Whew, know that that’s been handled, I want to know from you all, what are some things about Agriculture that you’re a little iffy about! Maybe you don’t know the difference between Organic and Non-Organic, or why farmers wait till corn is dry to harvest it! I want to know what you want to know because my goal in this blog is to eradicate some misconceptions that people have about this industry that I love so much! So seriously, feel free to respond with questions you want answered.

In the meantime, I’m going to talk about another misnomer floating around about farms, and in fact Factory Farms. The truth is that “factory farms” are pretty much a myth! According to the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, 98% of all farms in the United States are family owned. Many larger crop farms in the Midwest might have many more owners. Or large vineyards in California will have corporate sponsors. The truth is that most farms are like my family’s. It’s a family business where parents and children work hard to produce healthy and nutritious food. I am proud of the fact that my family’s farm produces eggs that can travel as far as New York City, or stay within my home county of Lancaster. And that the milk our cows produce can be in your cereal tomorrow, or in a bar of Hershey’s Chocolate. You see, its small family farms like my family’s that grows Chicken for Tyson, and Beef for Cargill. While food is processed and packaged in factories, do not be confused as to where it comes from. Your food comes from hard work, soil and sunlight. Your food comes from families, like mine.

For the Dairy Industry, it is 1% below the National average of 98%

Family Farms are the norm in Ag.

Both of these posters are from a site on Facebook, called “Keeping it Real: Through the Lens of a Farm Girl.” It is so neat and has a lot of cool and true (I always verify!) facts and statistics about Agriculture. Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/lens.of.a.farm.girl !

-Sarabeth

PS really, I want you guys to ask questions! 🙂 If you can’t think of one, tell me what you want to know more about!

This past weekend was the Homecoming Parade here at Penn State, Main Campus. I hope you all were able to come out and demonstrate your PSU pride! OR, came out to see the pretty floats, listen to music, and enjoy the tremendous parade that walked by. I was lucky enough to walk in the parade with the Poultry Science Club here at Penn State! It was so much fun. We had chicken hats, we handed out candy… we even have our very own chicken mascot! It was all good fun, that is until someone decided to be “funny” and yell out, “Really we have a chicken club at Penn State, that’s so dumb! What do you do? Play with Chickens?” Not only is this rude to other people who are trying to enjoy the parade, including young families, it’s very hurtful. I would like to continue this blog with all positive things about Chickens and Penn State’s Poultry club. I just wanted you all to know that the fuel for this weeks topic stems from my bruised Homecoming Parade experience.

First of all, chickens are pretty awesome! In my Introduction to Agriculture class in High School, I learned a lot about Poultry. For instance, in my home county, Lancaster, there are actually more chickens than people! Chicken meat is a great source of protein, and is the most widely eaten meat in the world. While Americans generally eat beef and ham, chicken and fish are much more common in other parts of the world! Chickens that are raised for meat are called Broilers, or Broiling Hens. Over the years, through meticulous scientific research in feed and genetics, we are able to grow larger chickens in less time. This is incredibly important when looking at the issue of feeding a growing population!

Also, Chickens provide delicious breakfast option in eggs, these are called Laying Hens. The average American consumer in 2011 ate 248 eggs! And Pennsylvania is ranked third in the Nation for Egg Production only behind Iowa and Ohio. That’s a pretty big deal! The Poultry Industry in the United States provides thousands of jobs, and provides all of us with delicious, nutritious food. I bet you also didn’t know that eggs are used in shots, so chickens are vital to our health!

My family has a Chicken House with close to 100,000 Laying Hens. What does this mean? Lots of work, but a steady supply of eggs for breakfast (or the way I prefer them, in cookies!) So I was really excited to join the Poultry Club here at Penn State. This club is nationally recognized, and the Poultry Judging Team regularly wins events at the National Level. So yeah, it might look strange walking around a parade with a chicken hat on, but did you eat Chicken today? Did you eat anything with eggs in it? Have you ever gotten a shot in your life?

What many people don’t realize is that Agriculture is highly scientific. We are not just playing in dirt. We are using new science to produce more food on less land. We aren’t wearing straw hats, we are feeding the world, the nation. We are feeding you.

Have a great weekend,

-Sarabeth

Here is a picture of my sister, Lindsay, and me in our Chicken Hats. I know you all are super jealous of this new fashion statement!

Also, statistics from this post were taken from The United Egg Organization, they have a lot of facts and statistics regarding consumer consumption of poultry products. You can look more information at http://www.unitedegg.org/GeneralStats/default.cfm