I want to give a big thank you to all of my readers out there. I have had a great time blogging over the last year about food and agriculture law issues on this blog. I am excited to implement video blogs and guest blogs in the next year. In case you missed them, here were some of my favorite …
Beef Quality Assurance Certification
I am pretty excited to complete the Beef Quality Assurance (“BQA”) certification program. I registered with Carol Gillis at the New York Beef Industry Council . A $10 registration fee is required to help pay for the Mid-Atlantic Producer Certification Manual. After a cursory overview of the materials this morning, the manual seems chalk full of best management practices concerning …
When is the Last Time You Visited the National Agricultural Law Center’s Website?
Last week I recieved this tweet from @NateJaeger, the Director of the Beef, Equine, and Hay & Forage Commodities at the Alabama Farmers Federation: Hey @CariRincker why haven’t you told us about this b4 http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org. It’s awesome. I responded to @NateJaeger indicating that the National Agricultural Law Center was a fantastic resource for people and agribusinesses in nearly every segment of …
New York State Cattle Health Assurance Program (NYSCHAP): Cattle Welfare Program
I first heard about the New York State Health Assurance Program (“NYSCHAP”) last January at the New York Beef Producers’ Assocation (“NYBPA”) annual meeting in Syracuse. After an inquiry about the program from a New York cattle producer, I had Kathy Finnerty, the program’s coordinator, send me informational materials about NYSCHAP. As I said in this article, I recommend that cattle producers …
Monday Links
It’s been a long time since I have posted a blog full of links to the work of other agriculture and legal bloggers — I have had a very hectic spring. It’s a beautiful day here New York City. Having some quality time with my coffee and catching up on blogs via Google Reader this morning and then taking a long walk/run around …
Book Discussion on “A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy”
Thank you to all of you who participated in the last book discussion on Foer’s “Eating Animals.” The discussion is still up on Google Wave if you just finished the book and want to join the conversation. The next agriculture book discussion will be on Wesley’s J. Smith’s “A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy: The …
AAW Spotlight: Interview with Mary Meinhart
If you recall, last fall I did several interviews with several other members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (“NCBA”) Young Producers’ Council (“YPC”) leadership board. In case you missed it, you can go back and read the interviews with Brandon Carlson, Dustin Dean, Holly Foster (Part I and Part II), and Ben Neale. I am still on the YPC leadership …
American Agri-Women Speak Out on Food Inc.
Big thanks to all of you who participated in the online discussion a few weeks ago on the movie Food Inc. I still have the discussion available on Google Wave for those of you who just watched the movie and would like to share your views. I believe that discussing these types of movies and books criticizing modern agriculture is …
Need an Excuse to Finally Watch Food Inc.?
I admit that I have been proscrastinating myself- afterall, it will just be another movie that will misrepresent modern agriculture. However, as I have said time and time again on this blog I think it is important for those involved in the agriculture to watch movies like Food Inc. and read books by Michael Pollan and Jonathan Foer (just to …
Investigations By Non-Police Officers for Animal Abuse: Has Your Livestock Operation Developed a Plan?
Over the last six months, I have been blogging a lot about livestock animal welfare issues. Last month, I wrote this blog that contained a checklist for New York livestock producers when they are confronted by a peace officer that wants to investigate their property for animal abuse. Today I posted this article on JD Supra that describes in more …
Simmental Reading Part 2: Abuse in Show Industry
Yesterday, I noted how much I enjoyed this article in January’s SimTalk. I also recommend reading Marty Ropp’s article titled “Winning At Any Cost?” in the Register published this month. In this article, Marty mentioned the abuses that take place in the show livestock industry. Specifically, he stated that “the use of illegal drugs on livestock, inhumane practices such as cosmetic surgeries …
The Debate on Antibiotics
Recently Katie Couric’s CBS special on antibiotic use on livestock has the agriculture industry (particularly the National Pork Producers Council) once again defending its practices to American consumers. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (“NCBA”) sent Dr. Michael Apley, a veterinary clinical pharmacologist from Kansas State University to Washington to visit with Congress about the use of antibiotics in the beef industry and visit with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. …