I think most people would agree that ice cream is a delicious treat year-round, but there is just something about eating an ice cream cone on a hot, summer day that makes it so much better. With this weekend marking the official start of summer and June being National Dairy Month, now is an excellent time to walk through the journey that ice cream takes from crop to cone.

Since writing the first post on April 17 highlighting all the ways our members are giving back to their local communities throughout the COVID-19 crisis, I continued to see many more reports of our members going above and beyond. I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge all the great things these companies have done to help people during this time.

It seems every month has a great agricultural product to celebrate and May is no exception to that. Almost everyone in my family loves eating eggs, but I think my husband loves them the most. Scrambled, fried, over-easy, poached, hard-boiled – honestly, I don’t think there is a way he doesn’t like eggs. What makes me happy about my choice in preparing eggs for my family is not only are they very nutritious (what other product can pack in 13 essential vitamins and minerals and high-quality protein for only 70 calories?), but the egg industry has come a long way in hen health and sustainability.

Last week, the American Feed Industry Association’s Board of Directors met to gavel in the new chair, induct new Board members as well as set the association’s legislative and regulatory (L&R) policy agenda for the next AFIA fiscal year, which runs from May 1, 2020-April 30, 2021. These policy priorities dictate how the eight-person L&R team will spend their time for the next year representing the animal feed and pet food industry before Capitol Hill, the White House and domestic and international regulatory bodies. The association is always nimble to adjust to the immediate policy need, like with the response to COVID-19, but these key priorities guide the association’s strategic activities to benefit the industry.

When it comes to professional development and training, we generally want what’s quick and easy so we can get back to doing what we do best -- our jobs. What if we told you there’s a new option to build your skills that’s affordable, convenient and high-quality? I’m talking about the American Feed Industry Association’s new online, on-demand modules that allow feed industry employees to learn more about feed production and their specific roles in a way that fits their schedules and budget.

Over the past two months as we have all hunkered down in our own ways to aid in public actions against the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have looked to the comfort of homemade bread as a way to ease the effects of changed work and social norms. The power of yeast, a single-celled fungus, to convert flour and sugar to fragrant, chewy, delicious bread, is amazing. Humans first used yeast to produce raised breads around 3,000 B.C. But what about the value of yeast in animal feeds? In the last few decades, the same class of organisms that provide delicious food for humans are being considered as important nutrients and immune enhancers for many different animals.

At its recent meeting, the American Feed Industry Association’s Board of Directors discussed many topics, but Scott Druker of Church & Dwight Company, the new Board chair for 2020-21, said that at the forefront was the industry’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

If you haven’t seen the hit Netflix documentary “Tiger King,” chances are you have heard about it or seen the memes that are taking the internet by storm. (If you have time, I’d highly recommend you watch it as there is truly nothing quite like it!) One of the show’s main characters, Joe Exotic, feeds various dead prey (aka “roadkill”) and expired meat from Walmart to the tigers in his roadside zoo, and they are shown to be pretty skinny. While watching this, I couldn’t help but wonder: what would our members who make feed for exotic animals in zoos have to say about how the tigers in the series are fed?