The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), reported that half of the United States was impacted by drought or extremely dry weather during the past year. While the statistics and impacts of drought can fluctuate from week to week, one thing remains constant: weather has a significant impact on farmers and influences the price of food.

As soil moisture dwindles, crops productivity falls. Droughts can also disrupt the planting and harvesting schedules of plants, resulting in lower yields and making plants more vulnerable to pests and diseases.

Dr. Dennis Todey is a climatologist with the USDA Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa, and said the full impact of this year’s drought is not yet known.

“There are places that will see significantly reduced yields.  But at this point supply does not seem to be a major problem.  The drought developed later in the season and may hit soybeans more.  Earlier in the season conditions were manageable for crops overall,” he said.

Where irrigation is available, growers were able to irrigate their food crops, so the yields were not affected as much, Dr. Todey said. Row crops such as grains and soybeans are irrigated less often.

However, the drought could cause the prices of meat and dairy products to increase because the cost of animal feed will be higher, reported Clevland.com, a news and information site based in Ohio.

But drought is not the only issue. USDA’s climate tracking is witnessing storm events with greater impacts – more damaging wind or hail events and heavier precipitation, Dr. Todey said. This weather impacts food supplies and prices at the store. For instance, the prices of vegetables, nuts, and berries are higher this year because of flooding in California, according to USA Today.  A combination of factors including drought, labor costs, war in Ukraine and trade disruptions led to record-high food prices in 2022, NPR reported.

Managing extreme events is challenging climatologists, researchers and agricultural producers. Farmers are proactively researching and implementing a range of practices including diversifying cropping systems, selecting crops better suited to drought conditions, and adopting soil management practices such as incorporating cover crops into rotation, in defense of conditions mother nature throws their way.

“Soils are our first line of defense against changing climate conditions,” Dr. Todey said. “Improving soil management has to be part of every operation. Changing rainfall with larger events and more rain when we have no crop canopy are also making soil loss worse. Improving soil management including reducing tillage and cover cropping can help mitigate soil loss issues.”

Weather has a direct impact on how food is grown and can affect the price of food. Farmers and scientists continue to develop methods to lessen the impact of weather and climate change.

The post How does weather impact the food chain? appeared first on Best Food Facts.

These technologies have become common on farms because of many benefits they provide for farmers, consumers and the environment.

GPS, sensors, and other digital tools and data analytics are called precision ag, or information technology applied to agriculture, said Dr. Terry Griffin, associate professor at Kansas State University.

“Farming uses technology rivaling the most digital of industries,” Dr. Griffin said. “Just like many of the cars our readers drive, farm equipment collects diagnostic data to push up to the cloud so that the manufacturer and farm operator can access that data for their purposes.”

Oswald became interested in precision agriculture because he wanted to protect the soil on his northwest Iowa farm.

“Our land here is gently rolling and I really wanted to focus on reducing soil erosion. I decided I needed to do something to better hold the soil on our gently rolling slopes,” he said.

Oswald began by reducing tillage – or the amount the soil is disturbed to plant seeds. When GPS technology became available, he used it to take soil samples to get an accurate picture of the soil in specific locations. Now, nearly every piece of equipment on his farm is equipped with precision ag technology. Innovation is now available to ensure exact seed placement, make precise applications of fertilizer and herbicide, monitor yields and guide tractors.

“By deploying technology, we can better place the products we’re putting in the field so we can do more with less,” Oswald said. “It’s like a killer app. Once you use it, you don’t want to quit.”

Farmers use a variety of technologies that work together to give them detailed information about their soil and crops grown for food ingredients and animal feed, such as soybeans, corn and wheat.

“Automated guidance is analogous to self-driving cars – at least for making parallel passes in the farmer’s field. Instantaneous sensors on crop harvesters measure yield, moisture, and quality characteristics every few seconds; and with GPS this data can be georeferenced into a map,” Dr. Griffin said.

That data is then used to determine the optimum plan for each precise location to grow crops using as few resources as possible.

“With knowledge of how soil nutrients vary spatially across the field, prescription of soil fertility amendments can be developed to apply fertilizer at site-specific or variable rates across the field. In the last decade, farm data has been a major consideration, especially with respect to aggregating individual farm data into communities of big data,” Dr. Griffin said.

How does precision ag improve sustainability?

Precision agriculture helps make farming more sustainable in many ways. By precisely applying fertilizer, seed and crop protection products, these state-of-the-art technologies lessen the environmental impact of farming. Farmers can also control their costs, which helps them to be economically viable so they can continue to farm. This also helps to keep food costs affordable as it enables growing more food while using less land.

Dr. Griffin said there have been some unexpected benefits, as well.

“When automated guidance was commercialized about 20 years ago, the technology seemed to have ubiquitous advantages for reducing overlap and allowing equipment operators to work additional hours in a day,” he said. “One of the greatest benefits was not measured with dollars but with satisfaction and improved quality-of-life from less fatigue. The less fatigued equipment operator could translate into greater satisfaction of the entire rural household from improved social relations.”

Looking forward, Dr. Griffin expects more automation to be involved in farming.

“In the past, tedious manual tasks have been automated; in the future, more complex tasks that typically have required humans with advanced skill sets will be automated,” he said. “The first steps have already been completed with data collection via sensors and transferring data to the cloud. Think of how self-driving cars have automated the task of navigating a busy street by replacing the human driver; then apply that type of technology to removing humans from the decision-making process.”

One day, precision farming might be combined with other advances, such as gene editing, to develop plants with disease or drought resistance, Oswald believes. Learn more about gene editing in agriculture.

“I think gene editing has powerful potential for humankind in understanding and addressing issues through genetics,” he said. “Because it is a precise modification, plants could be made better suited for the environment where they’re going to be growing. The next step could be a gene-edited crop that is planted in a specific part of the field.”

Farmers control much of precision ag technology through their cell phones.

“Mobile devices play a key role for each of the players in this system, and the importance of mobile devices is only increasing as precision agriculture becomes the order of the day for 21st-century farmers,” Dr. Griffin said.

Farmers use precision agriculture to apply the latest technology to help them grow enough food using fewer inputs and natural resources.

Developed with support of United Soybean Board.

The post How Do Farmers Use Technologies to Produce More With Less? appeared first on Best Food Facts.

But where does bacon come from? How is it made?  And should we feel okay about indulging in its crispy goodness? Is bacon sustainably produced?

We traced back to the farm to see what we could learn about bacon’s back story. Good bacon starts with the care of the pigs, said Dr. Joel DeRouchey, an Extension specialist in swine nutrition and management at Kansas State University.

“Animal husbandry practices are essential to raising healthy pigs that produce wholesome pork products,” he said.

Animal husbandry includes all the practices that go into caring for the animals.

“This involves a relationship with a veterinarian to help monitor herd health, well maintained housing facilities that provide the proper environment and temperature,” Dr. DeRouchey explained. “Above all, it involves well trained caretakers of the pigs. Pig farmers and their employees go through training in pig care, pig observation and health observation, among many other areas of the Pork Quality Assurance Program.

Pork Quality Assurance is an education program that includes food safety, animal well-being, environmental stewardship, worker safety, public health and community.

It’s well known that pigs like to eat. Their feed is a mixture of ingredients to meet their needs at every stage of growth.

“Pigs eat a nutritionally balanced diet that contains a complete mixture of grain (generally corn but in some locations also wheat or sorghum), protein (generally soybean meal), feed-type amino acids and vitamins and minerals to meet their body needs for growth and health,” Dr. DeRouchey said.

The farm’s location and nearby feed sources also affect pigs’ diet, he explained. Pigs sometimes also eat co-products from corn and wheat processing, bakery food blends from human food processing and fats and oils.

“When pigs are fed a nutritionally balanced diet, they develop the proper lean muscle as they grow which allows them to have the highest quality meat possible. This means minerals such as zinc and various vitamins that make pork more nutritious to eat,” Dr. DeRouchey said.

Pork producers have taken steps to make farming more sustainable. These changes have made it possible to produce more bacon using fewer natural resources.

“A focus on continuous improvement over the past 55 years in raising swine has led to a reduction in land use by 76 percent, water use by 25 percent, decreased energy needs by 7 percent and carbon footprint by 7 percent for every pound of pork produced,” DeRouchey said. Read more.

The pigs also enhance sustainability by producing their own fertilizer.

“Pork producers are dedicated soil conservationists by properly returning manure nutrients to the soil to raise the feed for future pigs and other uses of grains and protein crops,” he said.

Growing crops such as soybeans and corn that pigs eat has also become more sustainable. Crop farmers use practices such as:

• Rotating crops and planting cover crops to improve soil health
• Reducing the amount of tillage or “digging up” the soil
• Using GPS and precision technology to ensure crops receive just what they need at the right time.

Together, these practices make farming more sustainable, which means more bacon with less impact on the environment. Read more.

Once the pigs are fully grown, they are transported to a processing facility where they are harvested. Dr. Travis O’Quinn, associate professor of animal science and industry at Kansas State, explained what happens during processing.

“After the animal is harvested, it is typically chilled for 18 to24 hours. Following chilling, the carcass is broken down into various primal cuts – ham, Boston shoulder, picnic shoulder, loin and belly,” he said.

Each pig will yield about 130 pounds of retail meat – including 35 pounds of bacon. That’s enough for 175 BLTs!

“Bacon comes from the belly, or the section of meat that is removed from the sides and belly of the animal,” Dr. O’Quinn said. “To produce bacon, bellies are skinned and then injected with a brine solution that contains salt, sugar, sodium nitrate and other flavorings. Then the bellies are typically tumbled to allow for brine uptake and protein extraction.”

Then, the real flavor comes in.

“Following tumbling, the bellies are smoked and cooked in a commercial smokehouse with smoke applied either through natural hardwood smoke or liquid smoke application,” he said.

Different techniques produce various bacon flavors.

“Most commonly, different types of smoke (hickory, apple, maple, etc.) produce different flavors of products. Other times additional flavorings – jalapeno or black pepper – are added on top of the finished bacon immediately prior to packaging,” Dr. O’Quinn explained.

Once the bellies are smoked, they are chilled, pressed, sliced, packaged and transported to restaurants and stores. When looking over those packages of bacon, Dr. O’Quinn shared advice on how to choose the best bacon.

“The key characteristic consumers should evaluate when purchasing bacon should be on the lean-to-fat ratio. Higher amounts of lean and lower amounts of fat in a bacon slice is most desirable,” he said.

Bacon comes from pigs who are cared for on the farm and fed ingredients that are sustainably raised. In processing, the belly is specially prepared to produce wonderful bacon goodness.

The post How Is Bacon Produced? appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Farmers are developing new and innovative technologies to improve the sustainability of crop farming, influencers learned during the 2020 Best Food Facts TASTE tour.

We hosted nine digital influencers for a virtual tour in July. The tour, originally planned to be in-person in central Iowa, was reformatted into three virtual discussions on these topics:

• Sustainable Crop Farming with a focus on crop practices and environmental stewardship
• Sustainable Food with conversations about food waste, processed foods, biotechnology and food affordability
• Sustainable Egg Farming, providing dialogue on hen housing and impacts on animal well-being, food affordability and natural resources

Brent Renner, an Iowa farmer, spoke to the influencers through a video call from his tractor to discuss the techniques that he uses to grow crops in the most sustainable way.

“Along with GPS, the monitor that steers my tractor is also capable of a lot of other things,” Renner said. “In regards to sustainability and trying to do more with less, which is another way to put it, is applying the perfect rate of whatever product you’re using, whether it’s chemical, fertilizer or insecticide, on the exact spot that it needs to be targeted.”

Dave Walton, who also farms in Iowa, said farmers have been funding research to find practical ways to make crop farming as sustainable as possible.

“We’re going to take that to a level that would boggle your mind,” he said. “Instead of using satellite imagery, which is kind of the standard now, we’re going to get to the point where you’re going to see little robots maybe the size of somebody’s little toy truck. There’s going to be a hundred of them running up and down the field taking pictures of plants in real-time and looking for leaf disease or insects or something that creates a stress on that plant. This technology is going to get down to the plant level, so we can treat one plant if that plant’s affected or 10 plants in a row if those 10 plants are affected.”

The influencers found the information presented by the farmers and other experts during the virtual tour very informative as they and their followers consider sustainable food choices. Other experts who took part in the tour were Shannon Tolliver, social responsibility and environmental sustainability manager for White Castle Systems, and Janet Helms, DVM, global sustainability developer Inter IKEA Group.

“My main takeaway was really about how they are constantly striving to be on the cutting edge of technology and striving to have the most efficient ways of farming both for their bottom line but also for the sustainability of their farm and the environment in the long run,” said Lisa Longly, who blogs at Wine and Glue.

Jocelyn Brubaker of Inside Bru Crew Life said she was surprised by the level of technology that farmers use.

“I’d say the thing I want my readers to know the most would be that farmers are always trying

to learn more. They want the land to continue. They want to be able to pass this land down to

future generations their kids, their grandkids, so they’re always doing more,” she said.

Farm tours have given Lynne Feifer, 365 Days of Baking, a greater awareness of the work that agriculture producers put into their work.

“It’s a 24/7 job and if we didn’t have farms, honestly, we would not have food. It’s important that we support these farmers. I feel that they are the backbone of America, and we need to keep them going. It’s so important,” she said.

The tour was part of Optimizing Sustainability, an initiative of The Center for Food Integrity that supports understand and prioritize factors to decisions that are most sustainable. In addition to the tour, Best Food Facts examined sustainability impacts and the topics of grass-fed and grain-fed beef, pesticides and GMOs. Learn more about the project and read all of the influencers articles.

The post A Conversation About Sustainable Farming appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Egg farming and hen housing were topics that bloggers were able to explore with farmers, animal veterinarians and retail purchasing directors during the Best Food Facts 2020 TASTE Tour. The tour was part of Optimizing Sustainability, an initiative of The Center for Food Integrity. As farmers make decisions about how they raise animals and produce food, they need to consider the variety of inter-related impacts – benefits and tradeoffs – that result from various production practices.

Best Food Facts hosted nine digital influencers for a virtual tour. The tour, originally planned to be in-person in central Iowa, was reformatted into three virtual discussions focused on these topics:

• Sustainable Egg Farming, providing dialogue on hen housing and impacts on animal well-being, food affordability and natural resources
• Sustainable Crop Farming with a focus on crop practices and environmental stewardship
• Sustainable Food with conversations about food waste, processed foods, biotechnology and food affordability

Learn more about Optimizing Sustainability.

Erin Sellin, who blogs at Dinner, Dishes and Desserts, asked Bruce Dooyema of Center Fresh Egg Farm what was a common misunderstanding people have about the ways eggs are produced.

“Being a farmer all my life – I don’t care what kind of weather situation –  if there’s something wrong in a chicken house the farmer is going to be there to take care of it so that he takes care of his hens. His livelihood depends on it,” Dooyema said. Center Fresh Egg has farms in Iowa and one in Mozambique.

Sellin said before the tour, her perception of how eggs were produced is that the hens were all in one small place and that the care of the animals was not a top priority, but her perspective changed  through the tour.

“They are doing everything they can to make sure that the hens are taken care of in the most sustainable way possible for both the farm and the hens themselves,” she said.

Cameron Hall, farm manager of Iowa State University Robert T. Hamilton Poultry Research and Teaching Facility, also answered influencer questions about caring for hens and producing eggs sustainably.

“One of the acronyms that we really try to focus on to think about our job here on this farm is FLAW – feed, light, air, water. Anything in our toolbox that helps us to focus on providing quality feed, providing the light to those birds, quality air and quality water, that’s all going to go into the sustainability for me,” he said.

Janet Helms, DVM, is the global sustainability developer with IKEA Group. “A consumer wants to know that the animal is cared for. Coming from a suburban background, would say that all the farmers that I’ve ever worked with care about the animals under their wings, the animals that they’re providing care for,” Dr. Helms said.

The influencers learned about different types of hen housing systems and the benefits and drawbacks of each.  Learn more about the different types of hen housing.

“The thing I want my audience to know about hen care is that there are a lot of pros and cons to all different types of ways to raise hens,” said Lisa Lin who writes the blog Healthy Nibbles and Bits.

“In terms of enriched colony egg farming, although hens are raised in a more confined space, it does allow the farmer a greater ability to monitor and manage the health of chickens because they’re not running around, said Lin. “There’s also pros and cons to cage-free and pasture-raised farming. The cage-free and pasture-raised egg farming, although they allow chickens the ability to roam about freely, we also need to be concerned about how chickens under those egg farming systems might also be exposing themselves to dangers,” such as predators and disease.

“There’s a lot of pros and cons. Not any particular system is the perfect system. So we just need to think about, think through the pros and cons of each,” Lin said.

Other experts who also participated in the tour were Colby Newbold, director of dairy and frozen purchasing for Fareway Stores, Inc., and Dr. Dan Thomson, professor of animal science, Iowa State University.

Cathy Trochelman blogs at Lemon Tree Dwelling and said she was glad for the opportunity to take part in the virtual tour.

“It’s so hard to know where to get your information from and it’s really nice to hear from people who are directly in the business because that’s really the perspective that I believe I can trust,” she said.

The tour was part of Optimizing Sustainability, an initiative of The Center for Food Integrity that supports understand and prioritize factors to decisions that are most sustainable. In addition to the tour, Best Food Facts examined sustainability impacts and the topics of grass-fed and grain-fed beef, pesticides and GMOs. Learn more about the project and read all of the influencers articles.

The post A Conversation on Sustainable Egg Farming appeared first on Best Food Facts.

This fourth post in our series examines the methods used to raise and feed cattle for beef. Most beef cattle live in grass pastures most of their lives. After calves are weaned from their mothers, they may either be “grass fed” or “grain fed” and sometimes a combination of these two methods.

Tradeoff

Dr. Tara Felix, beef specialist with Penn State Extension, explains the difference between the two methods in an online video, which looks at the benefits and tradeoffs from a farmer perspective.

Grass-fed beef comes from cattle raised primarily on grass, pasture or hay. Some grass-fed beef programs include non-grain products, such as soyhull pellets and others. Grain-fed beef comes from cattle who are fed a diet of high-energy grains, which includes corn, soy meal and other ingredients. Grain-fed beef may also be called corn-fed.

Grass-fed versus Grain-fed Beef: What’s the Difference?

Learn more about What Do Cows Eat?

Questions around the sustainability of beef have recently been raised, as studies have examined the greenhouse gas emissions linked to livestock and beef production. An article by Tamar Haspel in the Washington Post explained some of the key considerations and noted there are many connected factors, including methane emissions, manure management, specific feeding and cropping practices, and more. “Some grass-fed cattle are better for the planet than some grain-fed, and vice versa,” Haspel states.

“No matter what strategy you choose, there are always trade-offs,” Dr. Rattan Lal, director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State University, stated in the article.

We reached out to Dr. Jason Rowntree, associate professor in animal science at Michigan State University, who is conducting research to better understand sustainable ways to raise cattle. Dr. Rowntree became interested in the topic while he was researching beef cattle at Louisiana State University. He and his family lived in Baton Rouge when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused extensive damage to the area and many farms.

“I began thinking about the resiliency of our food system. We do have a solid food system, but I wanted to find out how to make our food system better and more resilient,” he said. “For any system to be sustainable long-term, it’s got to be something we can sustain environmentally, it has to be profitable, and it’s got to be a system that can be supported socially.”

Some conversations about beef production sustainability involve greenhouse gas emissions linked to livestock and beef production.

“There’s always balance to this discussion,” Dr. Rowntree said. “We understand that science is revealing the fact that we have made some mistakes in how we grow food. We’ve been addressing things strictly from volume perspective. We are learning about actions that have a better impact on the environment and contribute to food security.”

About 80 percent of beef in the United States is grain-fed. Because the animals receive a high-energy diet, they reach their final weight faster, which reduces the amount of land and water required.

“If we want more land for wildlife and recreation, it means we have less land to grow food on. If we have less land to grow food on, we then focus on how to be more intense and efficient, which can have deleterious effects to the environment. A balance is needed,” Dr. Rowntree said.

His current research is looking at ways to improve grass-fed beef operations. On the research farm, Dr. Rowntree and his colleagues study various practices, such as working to add carbon to the soil, increasing biodiversity and selecting cattle with genetics best suited for grass feeding. The results have been promising.

“As our land has gotten better, we can run more cows on less land and with fewer inputs. Our research has actually shown we can produce beef with a net carbon sink to the environment,” Dr. Rowntree said.

But, he noted that there are tradeoffs. “Grass-fed does require more land to produce the same amount of food. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

He is hopeful that the research will find ways to reduce costs for beef farmers, which can support affordable beef for consumers, help farmers be profitable and improve the long-term sustainability of farming.

“Ranchers are people. Farming families are people. Farmers have to feed their family day in and day out,” he said of his work to improve farmers’ livelihoods.

Both grain-fed and grass-fed systems can be sustainable, Dr. Rowntree believes. He said there are many misunderstandings about beef production. For instance, not all grain that is raised goes into animal feed, because much of it is used for other purposes. Research has shown that cows do not produce as much methane gas as was once believed.

“Cows are ruminants, which means they can upcycle nutrients from plants that we can’t. They eat grass from untillable ground, so grazing cows are not taking away from land to grow crops,” he said.

Beef cattle are either grass-fed or grain-fed. Grass-fed beef takes more time and requires more land to produce the same amount of food, while grain-fed beef concentrates animals in smaller areas and requires land and water to grow crops. Both methods of raising beef can be sustainable from the perspective of the environment, animal well-being and farmer livelihood.

Learn more about Optimizing Sustainability.

The post Sustainability: Can Eating Beef Be Sustainable? appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Pesticides are part of a much larger conversation about sustainability. Should we be using them? What are the tradeoffs when it comes to our environment and food safety?

Sustainability is the principle of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. For food, sustainability includes a wide range of factors such as water use, animal well-being, worker care and soil conservation. Learn more about Optimizing Sustainability.

In this series about sustainability, we’ve been looking at the tradeoffs with various food production practices. We reached out to experts to learn about the sustainability tradeoffs related to pesticides.

“Pesticide” is a general term that covers three broad areas of crop production, explains Jeff Graybill, an Extension Educator in Agronomy at Penn State University. “Insecticides control worms, bugs and other insects that can easily consume crops in the field or grains and food in storage. Herbicides will control and prevent weeds from overcoming the crop and lowering the harvest. And fungicides prevent and control diseases which attack our crops,” he said.

Tim Durham teaches agronomy and agricultural sciences at Ferrum College. He’s also part of his family’s fifth-generation vegetable farm on Long Island, New York.

“Since cropping is our livelihood, we’re motivated to protect our investment … we’re constantly evaluating new markets, crops and production systems. We pride ourselves on staying nimble when it comes to pest management,” Dr. Durham said.

What are the different types of crop protection and why are they used?

Chemical sprays are one method used to manage weeds and insects, but there are several approaches.

“Many farmers in the U.S. practice integrated pest management (IPM). This means that farmers use a variety of methods to grow and protect the crop and will only choose chemical control when it is the better option. Other IPM tools include things like crop rotation, better plant genetics (disease and insect resistance) and natural predators,” Graybill said.

Most farms use a combination of practices to protect crops from weeds and insects, Dr. Durham said.

“We use knowledge about pests to exploit their vulnerabilities. This can include a spray – an informed one – but it also draws from a versatile toolbox of alternative approaches, any of which can be mixed and matched to optimize the effect,” he said.

Some additional, non-chemical options include:

• Biological: The use of “good” bug and microbe mercenaries to hunt pests.
• Cultural: Make the environment less hospitable for pests.
• Physical/Mechanical: Exclude troublemakers when possible, or grind them up with a disk or plow when they’re in a vulnerable life stage in the soil.
• Genetic: Use plant varieties that just aren’t appealing to pests.
• Regulatory: Coordinate with trade partners to make sure only clean produce (no pest stowaways) cone in, also quarantine when necessary.

What would happen if farmers didn’t use crop protection? 

Pests – weeds, insects and fungus – are the greatest threat to growing any crop. Without pesticides, some crops could not be grown on a large scale, so our diets would not be as diverse. According to Dr. Durham, without pesticides, fruits and vegetables would be stunted, riddled with injuries and contaminated with microbes, contributing to food waste.

Without crop protection, food would also be more expensive as more of it would be lost to pests. According to Crop Life International, even with the use of modern crop protection products, 20 to 40 percent of potential food production is lost every year to pests.

“Pesticides provide some measure of predictability in the otherwise unpredictable world of farming, helping to stabilize commodity prices and keeping prices low in the grocery aisle. It’s one reason we spend a tiny fraction of our disposable income on food,” Dr. Durham said.

How do pesticides affect the environment?

 There are tradeoffs to using pesticides, to using organic methods or to using nothing at all. Proper pesticide use can help protect part of the environment.

“They allow us to maximize production on the smallest footprint of land. This is called ‘land sparing.’ If we decided to forego pesticides, we’d need to appropriate a much larger chunk of land to do the same job and land that happens to be the most biodiverse and at-risk,” Dr. Durham said.

Efficiently using farmland – growing more food on less land – also protects forests and wildlife habitats from being cultivated. For instance, farmers who do not use herbicides to manage weeds in their crops can instead use tillage, which increases soil erosion and contaminates water sources.

“Fungicides and bactericides can make food safer to eat by reducing toxin levels,” Dr. Durham said. “How? Microbes occupy wounds made by pests. In the process, they produce dangerous toxins. It’s their biology – and also potentially. double jeopardy for consumers.”

“Chemical weed, disease and insect products often require much less time, equipment and energy than traditional production practices; thereby generating a lower carbon footprint and environmental benefits,” Graybill said.

But using chemical pesticides does involve some risk. The compounds are designed to kill a living organism such as a microbe, weed or insect, so they need to be used responsibly, Graybill said.

Some crop protection chemicals have a negative impact on beneficial insects, such as bees and butterflies. The agricultural industry is researching ways to reduce the negative impact. Some of the older, more toxic compounds have been banned and replaced by newer ones that are more targeted to specific species.

Learn more about pesticides and the environment.

As we evaluate tradeoffs in this series, we see that pesticides can have environmental risks because they kill certain plants and insects. Crop protectants also benefit the environment by reducing the amount of land, water and fertilizer needed to grow crops, which protects wildlife areas and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Is my food safe from pesticide residues? 

 Pesticides are regulated in the United States to be sure that they are as safe as possible for people and the environment.

“The United States has an extensive regulatory system, and whether it’s household chemicals or agricultural herbicides and insecticides, all chemicals go through extensive toxicology testing to look at the benefits and the risks of the product. This is especially true of pesticides used on food crops,” Graybill said “Since these chemicals are designed to kill a specific weed or pest, they must be respected, so when looking at human and animal health implications, regulatory agencies have very stringent standards.”

All foods, whether they are grown with conventional farming or organic methods, are regulated and safe. Even those on the Dirty Dozen are well below the acceptable threshold for residues. This Food Safety Calculator shows how much food a person can consume without experiencing adverse effects of pesticides.

“Any pesticide that comes to market must be approved and certified by the EPA, USDA and FDA. Toxicology data is peer-reviewed and is combed over very intensely. The government agencies then make a determination if there are any negative impacts and whether those negative impacts are outweighed by the good that the chemical will do,” Graybill said in a previous post on Best Food Facts.

Learn more about pesticides and food safety.

What are alternative methods of crop protection? 

Organic methods are often considered more natural. USDA certified organic foods are produced in compliance with National Organic Program (NOP) standards

Organic does not mean that foods are pesticide free.

“It means only that the product was produced according to the standards of the NOP. While organic growers are commonly committed to using limited to no pesticides, they can—and often do—use pesticides allowed under the NOP standards,” said Dr. Paul Vincelli, Extension Professor and Provost’s Distinguished Service Professor, University of Kentucky.

Often conventional – or non-organic – farming involves using natural practices, Dr. Durham said.

“Organics suggests that old standbys like crop rotation and fallowing (field resting) are somehow organic exclusives, when they’re clearly not. Some practices never go out of style. Conventional growers use them regularly, melding the old with the new,” he said.

Following all regulations, using pesticides according to the label and also using integrated pest management can reduce the risks of pesticide use.

“Farmers proudly eat what we grow. We have full confidence in our practices and food safety,” Dr. Durham said.

Various types of pesticides are used to protect crops from weeds, insects and microbes. The decision to use chemicals, non-chemical methods or a combination of both approaches results in tradeoffs that can affect food affordability, food waste, land use and carbon footprint.

Learn more about Optimizing Sustainability.

The post Sustainability: What If Farmers Did Not Use Pesticides? appeared first on Best Food Facts.

In this series, we’ll look at the science-based pros and cons of different food choices and farming methods, and their impacts on sustainability – not only on the environment, but on animal well-being, our health and our pocketbooks.

What is Sustainability?

It’s not just about being “green.”

For farmers and those involved in food production, the principle is known as the land ethic – to leave things better than we found them, according to Marty Matlock, executive director of the University of Arkansas Resiliency Center and professor of ecological engineering.

“Sustainability is a general term that describes the ability to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s not just an environmental term,” he said. “Farmers want to sustain the quality of life for their children, community health, environmental health and soil health. Conservation organizations want to sustain critical habitats and biodiversity around the world.” As farmers around the world work to grow more food to feed an exploding population, conservationists and farmers champion sustainable production so “we do not eat the remaining wild places on earth.”

Learn more about Optimizing Sustainability.

Dimensions of Sustainability

Dr. Matlock describes the key dimensions of sustainability for agriculture this way.

• Environmental: Intensification of production to feed a growing population while preserving critical habitats for other life. Water resources are shifting rapidly, increasing variability in rainfall and risks from floods and droughts.
• Social: Global challenges including access to skilled labor, adequate infrastructure in rural communities (schools, medical facilities, technical support), successional planning for next-generation farmers and access to tools that lessen the risks of farming (weather extremes, pest pressures, prices for crops, etc.)
• Climate Change: Sustainable production from the land and sea requires increasing resiliency of production systems under increased climate, economic, social and political uncertainty.

Sustainability also includes factors as diverse as health and wellness, animal welfare, treatment of workers, food waste, packaging, impact on local and indigenous communities and more. In fact, The Center for Food Integrity Optimizing Sustainability Framework, an approach to help food companies weigh the tradeoffs of sustainability decisions, lists more than 250 attributes of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Dr. Janice Swanson, an expert in animal behavior and welfare and a professor of animal science and large animal clinical sciences at Michigan State University, said sustainability is often viewed through three perspectives – social, economic and environmental. Interactions between these three dimensions are complex.

“We are working to balance a dynamic ecosystem that engages human beings and animals in a relationship. And even if you decide to substitute ‘plant’ for ‘animal’ you still have a complex system where two living things are engaged in balancing social, environmental and economic impacts to be sustainable,” Dr. Swanson said.

She noted there are no easy answers when it comes to producing food for consumers, whose preferences continue to diversify when it comes to how their food is produced.

Sustainability Tradeoffs

Regardless of the dimension of sustainability, there are consequences. Newton’s Third Law of Motion says it best: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In other words, while changing one factor can improve sustainability, the change can have negative impacts, too. So decisions by food companies should not be taken lightly.

“Changes in production practices made because of pressure from advocacy organizations that are not science-based can result in reduced choices at the grocery store and can increase the negative impacts of some food products,” Dr. Matlock said.

One example is cage-free eggs – eggs from hens who live in barns where they can exhibit more natural behaviors like foraging and taking short flights, said Dr. Swanson. In conventional systems, hens are housed in cages within barns.

Driven by animal welfare concerns, some advocacy groups and customers are demanding that eggs are produced only in cage-free barns. A handful of states now require that only cage-free eggs be sold, and others have legislation on the table to do the same. But are cage-free eggs sustainable?

(Read more: What’s the Difference Between Cage-Free and Regular Eggs?)

There are tradeoffs, Dr. Swanson said, including more injuries to hens from flying and hen-pecking, reduced air quality from increased dust and ammonia (which can impact employee and hen health). In addition, more hens are required to produce the same amount of cage-free eggs, so more feed, water and land are required. It costs farmers more to produce cage-free eggs, and that results in higher prices for consumers.

Just the Facts

Farmers and companies in the agriculture and food supply chain are working to improve sustainability and being diligent about measuring, monitoring and communicating improvements, Dr. Matlock said.

That’s good news.

As the world turns its focus to protecting our earth, our health, our animals – Best Food Facts is bringing you the scoop on sustainability. We’ll equip you with the science from experts so you can weigh the pros and cons and make the best choices in the grocery aisle for you and your family. Learn more about Optimizing Sustainability.

The post Sustainability: What are the True Impacts of Your Food Choices? appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Americans enjoy chicken and may be curious to learn more about them, so we put together a fun quiz to test your knowledge. Thank you to poultry experts Dr. Sara Orlowski , at the University of Arkansas for lending her expertise.

True or false: Broilers are raised in cages.

Answer: False.

“Broilers are raised in open floor, environmentally controlled houses,” Dr. Orlowski said.

Broiler is the name for chickens raised for meat. Egg-laying hens – called layers – are often kept in cages, while some are raised “cage free.” Farmers care for the birds and adjust the barns as needed.

“The environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity and lighting are maintained and regulated throughout the birds’ life to allow for optimal comfort of the bird and efficient growth.”

Some chickens are raised “free-range,” which means that the birds must have access to the outdoors.

“That does not mean however, that the chicken is raised completely outside. It still has a barn it can stay in with access to feed and water,” she said. Being outside, however, has some risks for the birds. “Free range production can lead to an increased risk for disease in chickens and allows for the possibility of predators such as hawks or foxes to gain access to the birds.”

True or False: Chickens are amazing.

Answer: True.

Chickens have an incredible ability to grow quickly using little feed.

That is why chicken is often an affordable option in the meat case.

“Chickens are very efficient in converting feed to muscle relative to beef or pork, and feed costs account for the majority of the costs associated with meat production,” Dr. Orlowski said. “Processing of chickens is also highly automated and therefore, highly efficient.”

The food the birds eat is formulated to provide a balanced diet.

“The diet consists of corn (a source of carbohydrates or energy), soybean meal (a source of protein), a fat as well as the proper amount of vitamins and minerals necessary for growth. A chick’s diet is different from the diet of a chicken ready to process so throughout the life cycle of the bird, they can be fed three to five diets formulated to meet the need of the chicken as it grows,” Dr. Orlowski said.

True or false: Chickens are given hormones.

Answer: False.

“The only hormones that will be present in the chicken or eggs that you buy at the store will be the ones naturally produced by the bird making all poultry products, whether labeled or not, ‘hormone-free,’” Dr. Orlowski said.

Chickens are not given steroids, either. The Food and Drug Administration prohibits the use of both hormones and steroids in poultry.

True or False: Chickens are genetically modified.

Answer: False

Today’s chickens reach market weight more quickly than chickens raised years ago. Is it because they are GMOs? The experts say no.

“No recombinant gene technologies such as introduction of genetic material from another species or rearranging of specific genes are used in chicken production,” Dr. Orlowski.

Then how do they grow to a larger size in less time?

“Chickens are specifically bred or genetically selected for traits such as growth rate, meat yield and welfare traits. Selection of chickens is based off of individual breeding values from various traits and their ability to pass those traits on to their offspring,” she said.

Chickens are being treated in new ways to prevent disease.

Answer: True.

Just like humans, chickens sometimes get sick and may be given antibiotics to treat or prevent disease. The most common disease they are treated for is called coccidiosis.

“This disease affects the gut environment of the chicken resulting in poor growth and even death,” Dr. Orlowski said.

However, some producers have decided not to use antibiotics.

“In recent years, based on demand from consumers, most chicken companies are choosing to produce their chickens ‘antibiotic free-ABF’ or ‘no-antibiotics ever-NAE’ resulting in a slight rise in mortality. Novel methods for controlling diseases such as coccidiosis are being evaluated by companies and universities worldwide.”

Is it safe to eat meat from chickens that have been given antibiotics?

“Yes! Every antibiotic that is approved for use in chickens also has a withdrawal time. A withdrawal time is the amount of time the chicken needs to break down the antibiotic so that is no longer in its system. If a chicken is given antibiotics for any reason, it will not be processed for human consumption until the withdrawal period for that specific antibiotic is complete,” Dr. Orlowski said.

While we may not be able to answer why the chicken crossed the road, these facts help us to know more about how chickens are raised.

The post Test Your Chicken Knowledge appeared first on Best Food Facts.

A typical broiler – the name for a chicken grown for meat – takes an average of 47 days to reach its full size of six pounds. A new type of chicken now available takes a little more time to reach market.

To find out more about these slower growing chickens, we reached out to Dr. Sara Orlowski, Extension Poultry Specialist, and Casey Owens-Hanning, Professor of Poultry Science, with the University of Arkansas.

What is meant by “slow growth” chickens?

Dr. Orlowski: “The name says it all. Slow growth chickens grow slower than a normal, conventionally raised chicken. They gain less weight per day and take about 2 to 3 weeks longer to reach market weight. Certain breeds are selected for a slower growth rate or normal conventional birds are raised on a diet that isn’t as energy rich as a normal chicken diet, slowing the growth.”

Chickens today grow to a larger size in a shorter time than in years past. Why is that?

Dr. Orlowski: “A combination of genetic selection and breeding for growth and welfare traits and improvements made in housing conditions and feed have allowed for chickens to grow to a larger size in less time. It is not because of steroid usage (a common myth) as steroids have been illegal for use in poultry since the 1950s. Chickens are also bigger in recent years because of longer growout periods for some market segments.”

There have been concerns raised that modern chickens grow too quickly. Are they able to walk?

Dr. Orlowski: “Yes, conventional chickens are able to walk. While genetic selection has focused on growth rate and meat yield, they have also been selected for welfare traits such as leg health, skeletal structure and heart health. Mortality in the chicken houses has significantly decreased over the past 30 years as a result of the genetic selection programs used.”

“However, with any livestock species, health problems do exist but are much less frequent than they were in previous years. If a bird is unable to walk, they will be humanely euthanized to prevent further pain and suffering.”

Is there a difference in flavor or texture between slow growth chickens and conventional ones?

Dr. Owens- Hanning: “There are many factors that can go into development of flavor and texture in chicken meat. Tenderness can decrease as birds get older, so it is possible that slower growing birds can be tougher if grown longer to obtain adequate meat yield. Processing factors such as the time at which breast meat is taken off the frame of the carcass can impact tenderness.  Whole birds will typically be more tender than breast meat that is taken off the bird after chilling of the carcass, which is known as early deboning.”

Is there a nutritional difference between slow growth and conventional chicken?

Dr. Orlowski: “Differences in genetic selection between slow growth and conventional birds will cause slight changes in the nutritional profile of the meat produced, but not much. A majority of the nutritional differences that will occur between conventional and slow growth birds is a result of what those birds have been fed as a diet. If both conventional birds and slow growth birds are fed the same diet, there should be very little nutritional differences in the meat.”

Why is meat from slow growing chicken typically more expensive?

Dr. Orlowski: “It’s simple. Slow growth chicken takes more money to produce through feed and housing costs than conventionally raised chickens. The cost of production alone makes that slow growth chicken pricier at the grocery store.”

Chickens grow more quickly today than in years past because of selective breeding. Neither steroids or hormones are used in chickens. Slow growing chickens are from breeds that grow at a slower rate than most other birds and are an option available for shoppers.

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