College of Agriculture hosts Food Security Panel
The College of Agriculture hosted a food security panel Tuesday afternoon, which consisted of agricultural specialists sharing their views on the future of food safety as well as a state of the college address from Dean Noelle Cockett as part of this year’s USU Agriculture Week.
The panel discussion on the current issue of food security included L. Earl Rogers, state veterinarian; Randy Parker, CEO of Utah Farm Bureau Federation; Brian Nummer, USU food safety specialist; and DeeVon Bailey, USU extension specialist and economics department head. All shared their concerns, issues, organizational roles, realities and myths about food from the farm gate to the dinner plate.
“Food safety is an interesting mix of politics, science and economics,” Bailey said.
The biggest change in the food system is that people now have recognized primary threats, such as E. coli and mad cow disease, Bailey said. Agricultural producers realize the importance of being able to trace the origin of that particular food in order to make sure that food is safe for consumption, he said.
Another problem facing food safety agriculturalists is tracing imported food as well as American food.
“We are concerned with the transition to foreign food,” Parker said. “Last year was the first year that our nation imported more food than exported. The problem lies in imported food products not meeting the same standard that American farmers and producers are held to.”
“Less than 10 percent of imported food is monitored through random food inspection spot checks. The Farm Bureau is very involved in protecting food safety, immigration policy and the Farm Bill,” Parker said.
American agriculture needs to come to grips with these problems, Parker said, and find answers as to how people can protect themselves and the food they consume.
Food safety now means consumers are defensively guarding their food as well, Nummer said.
If the public feels agricultural products are no longer safe and completely avoids that food all together, it impacts American agriculture negatively, Nummer said. It’s the food panic that is threatening food security, he said.
“If New York citizens were to panic over their food supply and rush to their grocery stores and buy absolutely everything out,” Nummer said, “their food supply would only last each citizen a single day, and then the panic will build and build over empty shelves. This kind of dependence on imported global food supply is what scares agriculturalists now.”
Each American is eating the global food supply right now, Nummer said. The global impact of world events, such as the wars, famine and food safety practices that other countries use, is at every American’s dinner plate, he said.
Rogers said, “In the past our country has enjoyed the most abundant, least expensive and the safest food supply in the world. But today we are facing new food problems. We need to realize these changes and make adaptions to our food supply at all levels of production in order to ensure a safe, wholesome product.”
Farmers need to become more conscious of biosecurity on their home farm, Rogers said. They need to assume responsibility to protect their crops and livestock from the introduction of disease, whether intentional or not, he said.
Cockett also addressed faculty and students, updating students about building project plans slated for the new USU Ag Complex building, sheep facilities and equine center.
“We want to make it a place students would like to be,” Cockett said as she talked about the new facilities. “The College of Agriculture trains people well, and we want to continue to have great opportunities for students to discover the importance of agriculture.”
Cockett also mentioned future development expansion areas within the College of Agriculture such as Ag and food systems, rural community vitality, environmental management, rural/urban interface and globalization.
-m.russell@aggiemail.usu.edu