Foster Farms’ vet shares tips for managing a food-safety crisis in the poultry industry.

Robert O’Connor, DVM, head veterinarian of Foster Farms, in a presentation at the 2016 American Association of Avian Pathologists conference talks about what to do when facing a food safety crisis O’Connor provided first-hand lessons from his experience in August 2013, when Foster Farms received a call from the USDA and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that there had been 125 cases of multidrug resistant Salmonella illness in 15 states that seemed to be linked to the company’s products. He offered these tips to his fellow poultry veterinarians: 1) Forget the crisis-management plan. While it’s important for every company to have one, he cautioned not to rely on it too heavily. “The crisis management plan is a big abstract. However, it won’t fully address the situational, everyday kind of variables that get thrown at you during a crisis. ”The most important chapter, he added, was the plan’s contact list for key people in the company. It will be of little value, however — and also a source of great frustration — if the names, titles and contact information aren’t current. “That’s what is most important in your crisis-management plan — the contact list,” he emphasized, urging veterinarians to make sure it’s updated frequently. 2) Take the lead. On qualifying, veterinarians take an oath to use their skills and knowledge to benefit society, and that includes public health. In the cases of a zoonotic crisis such as Salmonella, technical input is essential to identify and implement solutions. The veterinarian, he added, likely has the strongest scientific education and applied experience to fully understand the technical landscape and should guide members of the executive team accordingly. 3) Gather key players. Reach out to your network and ask for help, O’Connor recommended. People with a whole range of skills and expertise are needed including a communications officer to handle the media and other external messaging 24/7, and a spokesperson to be the face of the company. Also essential is a scribe to record, for future reference, every discussion within the team and all incoming and outgoing information concerning the case. 4) Set up a crisis center – a “war room.” A room needs to be set aside for the sole use of the crisis team. It might be the company’s boardroom, and it must be fully equipped with multiple internet, telephone and teleconference connections. 5) Be prepared to take action — quickly. As scientists, he noted, veterinarians usually don’t like to take action without some data to support their actions. “But I am here to tell you, in a crisis, you sometimes do take action without the full data to support you. They don’t want you taking action tomorrow; they wanted it yesterday,” O’Connor said. 6) Measure and collect data. The crisis team’s deep understanding of the company’s business will identify possible sources of the problem. Critical thinking will lead to the most likely issues. O’Connor recommended collecting as much data as possible to support the action taken and/or to refine it to bring about a complete solution. 7) Learn lessons so the crisis will never be repeated. For Foster Farms, this Salmonella incident was officially closed in July of 2014, a full year after that first call from the USDA and CDC. But O’Connor continues to speak about it, and he explained why. “To me and for the company, it was almost doomsday,” he said. “The guarantees we make to our consumers and customers for quality and safety are our highest priority. So why keep talking about the crisis? Because I want to prevent it from ever happening again.” culled from poultry health today.

One dairy farmer gives rousing milking speech to his herd.

This Australian dairy farmer is taking no prisoners as he gears up for the spring milking season, giving a rousing sports-like pep talk to his cows before they go to the parlor. “We’ve done a lot of hard work over the last few months, setting up the season, spring is where it counts,” Adam Jenkins, the dairy farmer, says in the video. Calling out the cow 291 Jersey, he told her she has to milk really well tonight, no excuses, and that she has to be committed.Watch

FAO launches an umbrella programme to support responsible investments in agriculture and food systems.

Increasing investments in agriculture is crucial to end hunger and poverty by 2030. Achieving the first two Sustainable Development Goals will require allocating a substantial amount above and beyond the current level of investment in agriculture and rural development. At the same time, not all kinds of investments are equally beneficial. In order to generate sustainable benefits for all, it is essential that investments are responsible – addressing the needs of communities, farmers, investors and the broader environment. However, current limitations in awareness, governance, capacities and information can obstruct responsible investment. This leads to investments that may cause hardship for rural communities, including the loss of lands and livelihoods, and are unlikely to generate benefits for investors. The role of information is vital to proper investment in agriculture to ensure the goal of food security is ensured, see this Enhancing responsible agricultural investment requires supporting and engaging all relevant actors. With more than 50 years of experience and recognized expertise in all types of investment, as well as related socio-economic and human rights challenges, FAO is well placed to achieve this. continue

The innovative use of mobile phones for profitable agriculture in Uganda.

This is a case study of the CELAC PROJECT. Sustainable Agriculture is a system in which the farmers realize the goal of efficient production of safe, high quality agricultural products, in a way that protects and improves the natural environment, the social and economic conditions of farmers, their employees and local communities, and safeguards the health and welfare of all farmed species. Sustainable agriculture is smart-agriculture that is eco-friendly and ensures higher yield while incorporating emotional intelligence in the scheme of things. CELAC is collecting and exchange of local agricultural project,uses three pillars to achieve their goal; (1) long term profit (2) protection of the nation’s land, air and water and (3) quality of life for farmers and their communities, These are all achieved using ICT in knowledge sharing, information management and indigenous farming methods as driving factors of CELAC. The project has used several methods but today, majoring on the mobile phone because of the vast advantages. Mobile phones are the most affordable forms of ICT even to a rural farmer. This can partially be attributed to the wide area coverage, ongoing telecom war that has resulted in low cost of internet, telephone calls and even mobile phones sold on promotion. Every home in Uganda has a mobile phone and more access to mobile phones play a multi-functional role in sharing information. The information can be by SMS, phone conferencing and telephone calls. Evelyn Ogwang, a Farmer in Apac district in Nothern Uganda says, “When I joined CELAC, “They introduced to us how to keep ducks. Before… we were, keeping bees and rearing a few local chickens. Now we have added on keeping ducks and even some farmers planting matooke. Which had never existed before. The mobile phone helped us acquire direct market in Kampala through market information from CELAC, we can now do group selling." Apac district farmers say that because of improved information on production and marketing they were able to eliminate the middle men -- the market prices for their produce went up. Simsim and sun flower can now be sold in Kampala.Ngonzi Daisy from Masaka says that when our animals are sick, we are able to call farmers from other areas to help us. We also receive messages from CELAC and this has helped us get better pest and disease control methods. Mrs. Mpungu from Masaka says that she was able to raise turkeys which she had never tried because of the mobile phone. Whenever the turkeys get sick, we would call Gwiko from Budaka and he would always give a solution. The mobile phone has been embraced by the rural communities more positively than expected. As a project, we introduced use of mobile phones to access valuable information like diseases and pests control, market and even better farming methods. Currently majority of the farmers use mobile phones for information sharing. We send text messages on pest and disease control and when they are disease outbreaks so as the farmers can take more care. When a farmer meets a challenge, she/he uses massages to consult fellow farmers.continue

Sustainable agriculture can unlock $2.3 trillion.

Embedding sustainable business practices in the global food and agriculture industry could deliver an annual $2.3 trillion windfall, according to a major new study released by the Business and Sustainable Development Commission. The research suggests that an annual investment of $320 billion in sustainable business practices aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would create a sevenfold return on investment by 2030. Such investment would also create 80 million new jobs, mostly in developing countries, the BSDC said. The SDGs, agreed in September 2015, consist of 17 time-bound targets for ending poverty and hunger, reducing inequality and tackling climate change. The research claims that tackling these goals would unlock 14 major business opportunities for the food and agriculture sector, from micro-irrigation to new farming technology and urban agriculture ventures. The world's population is expected to increase by another one billion by 2030, the global food and agriculture system requires a new way of doing business, and new approaches to feed more than 800 million people who today suffer from chronic hunger as well as to meet future demand . continue

Smart Agriculture: Ending poverty with mobile phones.

Phones have been identified as a valuable tool to fight poverty. The use of phones can revolutionize the fight against poverty. Street trading is a common phenomenon in Africa, where various commodities are sold at traffic stops,interjections and street corners. Today,the story is different,as the commodities now include recharge cards. This shows the fast adaptability , and increasing importance of mobile phone technology in Africa. 

 There is the passion for joining the phone revolution and the information age that it brings into the nooks and crannies of the world. Mobile phone technology is not restricted to urban areas any more,but even the rural suburbs are cashing in on the vibe.

Phones in the hands of farmers could actually help to achieve the food security goal as valuable information about smart agriculture can be disseminated easily. 

Echbee vet ventures has a phone-a-farmer initiative ,that continue There is another arm of the outfit that dishes veterinary tips to farmers,see.

The platform works on this model ,see.Currently,the platform is expanding to reach more zones and also talking with foreign partners to promote technology exchange,to promote smart agriculture. Self Help Africa, an international development organisation working in agriculture, has been using this model of information revolution the fight against poverty. In Malawi, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Zambia, Self Help Africa is now partnering with a range of mobile network providers to provide free, on-demand farming information across a range of crops to farmers. 

Farmers dial into the service and, using touch-tone technology, access a voice message about a specific crop or farming practice. Partnering with network providers has an additional advantage because there will be an influx of customers to the platform, agribusiness partnership to promote food security will be developed,training schemes and empowerment programmes will also be developed to further boost productivity.

 A platform for agriculture with various stakeholders will be gigantic porter of buying,selling,training,exporting hub and tech--exchange to ensure our food for all goal with smart agriculture.

Soy protein early in life may help prevent bone loss in adulthood.

New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that giving children a diet high in soy protein isolate can protect against serious bone loss during adulthood and help ensure overall better bone quality. Move over milk, soy protein early in life might be what's needed for strong, healthy bones in adulthood. New research, published online in The FASEB Journal, reports that early dietary nutrition heavy in soy protein isolate can protect against serious bone loss during adulthood. This also is the first time that scientists have used an animal model to show concrete evidence of a protective effect of an early-life soy protein isolate diet on adult bone loss. To make their discovery, Chen and colleagues used a very young female rat model. One group of rats was fed a soy protein isolate diet for 30 days (from postnatal day 24 to 55), and then was switched to a regular standard rodent diet until 6 months of age. The rats were altered to mimic postmenopausal bone loss in women to determine the amount of bone loss. The second group of rats was fed a regular standard rodent diet throughout life. This group was also altered to mimic postmenopausal bone loss and analyzed to determine bone loss. The researchers found that the first group of rats s compared to the second group of rats. continue