This past January, the American Feed Industry Association celebrated the launch of the Friend of Pet Food Award by recognizing Gail Kuhlman, Ph.D., and Kate Shoveller, Ph.D., for their achievements in support of companion animal nutrition. With AFIA’s Pet Food Committee all ready to begin the process of selecting the award winners for 2021, I wanted to highlight our inaugural winners and share the importance of their work.

I am sure you saw the headlines a few weeks ago about Burger King’s new advertising campaign and how the fast food retailer plans to reduce greenhouse gases by including lemongrass in cattle diets. Well, surprise, surprise! Their description of cows emitting gas (aka farts) is just plain wrong and the research they used on the feed ingredient is inconclusive.

Use less water. Use less electricity. Use less plastic. People, communities and organizations all over are trying to use less to help protect the environment and lower carbon footprints. But in the animal agriculture world, using less goes by different words: feed efficiency.

Our summer issue of the AFIA Journal is out! As the editor of the biannual publication, it is always my pleasure pulling the content and design of this piece together, but this issue is much more meaningful to me for several reasons.

Is there any better cooking device than the grill? I don’t think I could be convinced otherwise. You can cook anything on the grill! Burgers, chicken, vegetables, fruit, beans – even pizza. As a grilled-meat lover, I can’t wait until the weather warms up enough to fire up the grill. So, when I learned that July is National Grilling Month, I thought we had better take the opportunity to commemorate the occasion and thank all of the feed manufacturers, farmers and ranchers who make summer dinners on the grill possible.

As a farmer-owned cooperative, Land O’Lakes sees firsthand the enormous strain the coronavirus pandemic has caused for communities across rural America, and for the agriculture industry that was already reeling from trade dynamics and poor growing conditions in 2019. Like everyone else, farmers and their rural neighbors have also grappled with the dramatic shift of carrying out everyday activities via online platforms due to COVID-19. Land O’Lakes sees first-hand how the digital divide (those that have high-speed internet access, commonly known as broadband, and those that don't) has only been further exacerbated by the pandemic, making it nearly impossible for rural residents to keep up with schoolwork, business and even doctors’ appointments.

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.

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.