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While many of you were attending World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, I was in Rome, Italy, at the joint meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF).
As global agriculture continues to evolve, it is increasingly important to have coordination and cooperation between nations, feed associations, regulatory bodies, scientists and feed companies from around the world.
FAO has been charged by the UN to increase the supply and security of food for the world. Most of its resources are spent assessing the supply of food in the world and what can be done to make it available and affordable to more of the world’s population.
It is amazing how much the current and future outlook for dairy production has changed since I last penned an article for Progressive Dairyman in June. At that point, experts were forecasting a record crop and producers’ attention was focused on where the milk price might be for the rest of 2012 and into 2013.
As I write this, we now are wondering just how small the crop might be. By the time you read this, we will know with much more certainty what to expect corn and bean yields to be once they are harvested.
“To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.” — Otto von Bismarck (Chancellor of the German Empire, 1815-1898)
Recently, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) Board of Directors meeting. Each year, this meeting is held in the nation’s capitol to allow visits to senators, congressmen, USDA, FDA, the U.S.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and other government officials. I have made these visits a number of times over the years and they always make for interesting discussions. That said, seeing the political process up close reminds one of sausage making – it’s not a pretty process, although the final product can be quite good.
As I grew up, one of my favorite lunches was a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of alphabet soup. My sister, brother and I used to have contests to see who could spell their name or the longest word with the noodles – lots of fun and good for you too, right?
Well, it seems that the “alphabet soup” of government regulatory agencies is certainly descending on the feed and animal ag industries recently. FDA, EPA, OSHA, DNR, USDA, CVM and FSMA are just a few of the agencies or programs who “know what is good for us.”
But if you had a visit from one of them or an occasion to work through changes due to new, revised or more strictly enforced regulations, I’m pretty sure you would not classify the experience as “fun.”
In late January, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association and the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) jointly sponsored the International Poultry/Feed Expo in Atlanta, Georgia. It is truly one of the largest and most well-attended trade shows and conferences in the world.
Now, you are probably asking yourself, why would a show about chickens and feed have anything that would interest a dairy producer? I used to wonder the same thing, but I have come to understand that an international show like this is a place for new ideas, technologies and production practices that form the basis for future adaptation in other species.
It’s that time of year again. 2011 is a memory. It’s in the books. It’s history.
If you’re like me, it’s time to reflect on where we’ve been, what we’ve learned and where we want to go.
The trick is to take the wisdom and experience we’ve gained and apply it to the business environment we expect to encounter in the year to come.
