Whole New Meaning to Space Food

Farming On Mars: NASA Ponders Food Supply for 2030s Mission            by Clara Moskowitz, Space.com

WASHINGTON —The first humans to live on Mars might not identify as astronauts, but farmers. To establish a sustainable settlement on Earth'ssolar system neighbor, space travelers will have to learn how to grow food on Mars — a job that could turn out to be one of the most vital, challenging and labor-intensive tasks at hand, experts say.

"One of the things that every gardener on the planet will know is producing food is hard — it is a non-trivial thing," Penelope Boston, director of the Cave and Karst Studies program at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, said yesterday (May 7) at the Humans 2 Mars Summit here at George Washington University. "Up until several hundred years ago it occupied most of us for most of the time."

NASA is actively engaged in researching how to farm on Mars and in space, as the agency is targeting its first manned Mars landing in the mid-2030s. And some NASA officials are wondering if that mission ought to be of long duration, rather than a short visit, given the difficulty of getting there and the possible benefits of an extended stay. "Sustained human presence — should that be our goal? I think that's a good discussion," Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said here Monday (May 6).   Read More

See rocket scientists understand that the basics for sustaining life in the new space frontier.  Have you stopped to think about food production research that is being done?  It makes me wonder if some of the plants are also being genetically modified to suit the change they will need in order to grow on Mars.   
-Stacy

Food Defense Drill

TPS holding 'food defense' drill today 

by: ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
11/8/2011 10:59:54 AM

Tulsa Public Schools and local emergency responders will be conducting a "food defense" drill Tuesday. 

Officials said evaluations of potential terrorist threats revealed that the school district's food production and distribution system could be vulnerable to attack from an individual or group wanting to cause public panic or harm to children and their families through the intentional contamination of food.

In addition to TPS officials, Tuesday's drill will involve the Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency, the Tulsa Health Department, emergency response and law enforcement agencies and local healthcare providers.

"Our job is to evaluate potential threats to our schools, and there is always the possibility that schools could become a target," said Bob Roberts, emergency management coordinator for TPS. "It's important that we act proactively to prevent the tampering of foods that are used in schools. We need to be prepared for emergency situations, to respond quickly and effectively if a crisis occurs and to have recovery plans in place.

The practice exercise will test our battle readiness and ensure that we are in the best possible shape to act should an event occur."

The exercise will be a discussion-based drill based on a Department of Agriculture toolkit that will guide participants through a mock scenario of an intentional food contamination in the schools.   Read More


A couple of things crossed my mind when I read this.  First was about how things have changed over the years.  We've gone from nuclear attack drills now to food defense drills.  And the second thought I had was that this should remind everyone how important a home-grown food supply really is.  The quickest way that our country could lose it's sovereignty is by relying on other countries to produce the food and fiber we depend on.  So when we see anti-agriculture groups trying to regulate farmers and ranchers out of business in this country they are really damaging our country's ability to survive.   -Troy

Let's Advocate for Eating a Balanced Diet

Katy Perry struggles to stay vegetarian

By Vicky Allison Aug 22, 2011, 12:40 GMT

Pop star Katy Perry is finding it hard to stick to her pledge to stay vegetarian and has been secretly eating chicken and turkey, according to a friend.

The 26-year-old, who is currently on the US leg of her California Dreams tour, has failed her challenge to go vegetarian like husband Russell Brand.

British funnyman Brand, 36, was crowned sexiest vegetarian last year by PETA, but the Teenage Dream hitmaker likes meat too much to stick to his diet.

A source told British newspaper the Daily Mail: 'Russell has been a veggie for 22 years, but Katy adores meat.

'She did give it up for a while for Russell's sake but is finding it a struggle.'  Link

I will be excited for the day when we stop seeing celebrities urging people to be on this fad diet or that one.  We should all be able to agree that eating a well balanced diet that includes eating meat and dairy products is still the best bet.  Especially for children, we should never be advocating they eat an unbalanced diet even for a single day.  We continue to see people that struggle with their diet and health.  Regular exercise and a balanced diet would eliminate many of the problems that are occurring.  

A Spokesman for Agriculture

So many people have said we need to have some sort of official spokesman for agriculture.  On the surface this sounds like a good idea.  That's what most anti-agriculture groups do to distort the truth of food production.  They cart out some celebrity who has never given agriculture a second thought and try to convince the public that they are somehow an expert.

We are fortunate enough to get to share our story with other producers quite often and we always emphasize to them that we are the true experts.  That's why it's so important that we are out telling the real story as often as we can.  And that's also why I don't want some celebrity trying to be a spokesman for me!

We've seen how difficult it can be to get the real story of ag out to consumers.  The last thing I want is a paid celebrity trying to tell my story for me.  Some people will say that celebrities can reach a broader audience than we can.  That's not true.  If every farmer and rancher told their story to one new person every day just think how many people we would reach with the truth.  Even Mike Rowe said that farmers and ranchers are their own best spokesmen.

It may seem difficult for us to reach a new person every day but through things like social media and programs like Farm American we can do it.  Social media lets us talk to people all over the world without ever leaving home.  Many conversations about agriculture are taking place on social media so it's important that we are there to be part of them.

The Farm American program is an incredible opportunity for us to use the resources of Furniture Row to spread the message.  Between their NASCAR team and their retail locations, we can reach 160 million people a week.  The main goal of the Farm American program is to highlight the farmers and ranchers themselves so they can share their story.  The folks at Furniture Row don't pretend to be experts in agriculture, they just want to provide platforms for the real experts to talk to consumers.

Family farmers and ranchers don't need a spokesman, we are the spokesman.  Nobody will tell our story with the same accuracy and passion as we will.  That's one of the main reasons why we continue to give our fellow producers the tools to tell their story.  Its also why we are avid supporters of the Farm American program.

SDSU Students Study Unwanted Horse Issues

SDSU students outline unwanted horse problem

Steve Miller Journal correspondent | Posted: Sunday, January 30, 2011 9:00 am | (2) Comments

The number of unwanted horses in the United States is growing by nearly 150,000 a year since the closing of the last U.S. slaughter plants, and no single, easy solution is in sight.

Those were some conclusions of a study conducted by students in South Dakota State University’s animal and range sciences department.

Ten students presented their study Friday to a small audience at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center during the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo.

In 2006, the year before the last three horse slaughtering plants closed in the United States, about 105,000 horses were killed, said first-year graduate student Kathy Koch of Crofton, Neb.

The plants were forced to close after Congress eliminated funding for federal inspection of horse meat for human consumption.

Since then, thousands of unwanted U.S. horses have been going to slaughter plants in Mexico and Canada.

An outright ban on the sale or transportation of horses for slaughter is pending in Congress.

Koch said there are now about 170,000 unwanted horses each year.

She said that even if all 432 adoption facilities in the country could take 50 horses each, only 21,600 horses could be adopted, leaving a net of 148,400 unwanted horses.    Read More

The issue of unwanted horses continues to grow.  While many of the animal rights activists think everything is fine and refuse to engage in real discussions of how to handle so many unwanted horses, there plenty of people in agriculture that are looking at a real problem and offering real solutions.  There seems to be plenty of people that think we live in a world where nothing ever dies and life is always happy and easy.  The real story is this, the only way life can continue to exist on this planet is if something dies every day.  The success of life depends on death.  We have the ability to use these livestock as a resource that not only assists us in their life but also in their death.  There's nothing wrong with using horses to feed people.  For thousands of years we have relied on livestock to benefit our lives and that still holds true today.  The cruelest thing we can do for these horses, to mother nature and to ourselves is waste this natural resource.