This is U.S. Sustainability

E2: Animal welfare, with U.S. expert views and a dairy farmer’s perspective

Just because the U.S. does things differently doesn’t mean that its animal care practices aren’t as robust as more regulated countries, as our experts explain. 

We also feature a real-life example of animal care in action, from a cattle barn that offers the ultimate in cow comfort – from waterbed mattresses to a milking robot.

Tune in for expert views and on-the-ground experiences from:

• Tina Hinchley, a dairy farmer from Cambridge, Wisconsin
• Cheyenne McEndaffer from the U.S. Meat Export Federation, and a former food safety animal welfare officer
• Tiffany Lee, Director of Animal Care and Compliance at Clemens Food Group, a pork production company, and a trained veterinarian

E1: Family farms, featuring 4th generation cotton farmers and an Alaskan fisherman

In our first episode of the series, we focus on America’s family farms, which make up 98% of all farms in the United States.

We’ll be hearing from:

Jay Hardwick, a cotton farmer from Louisiana who’s in the process of handing over the reins to his sons – the fourth generation;

Native Alaskan Bill Thomas who has been a commercial fisherman for 52 years, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, his great uncles and his uncles before him.

We’ll be talking about the importance of leaving the land in better shape for the next generation and learning about responsible fisheries management in Alaska, where sustainability has been part of the State Constitution since 1959.

Trailer

Welcome to This is U.S. Sustainability, a new podcast series from the U.S. Sustainability Alliance.

Over the course of the series, we’ll be debunking some of the most common myths and misperceptions about U.S. agriculture and production, by talking to the people who know best.

In each episode, we’ll be speaking to the farmers and fishermen responsible for growing and catching our food to get the inside track on some of the most talked-about issues of the day, from animal welfare to the role of science and innovation in feeding a growing world population.

We’ve got some fantastic guests lined up, such as Tina Hinchley, a dairy farmer from Cambridge, Wisconsin, whose barn offers the ultimate in cow comfort, and Monte Peterson, a fourth-generation soybean farmer from North Dakota who has increased sustainability on his farm by using GMOs.

But before all that, our first episode is dedicated to family farmers, who make up 98% of U.S. farms. These farmers care deeply about their land and passing it on to the next generation. There’s Jay Hardwick, a third-generation farmer, who’s in the process of handing over the reins to his sons – and native Alaskan Bill Thomas who has been a commercial fisherman for 52 years. You could say that fishing is in his blood, just as sustainability is embedded in Alaska’s State Constitution. 

Want to hear more about what’s really going on in U.S. ag and production? Subscribe now on your favourite podcast app.