In the News
Farm Vet Shortage Continues
The Billings Gazette recently spotlighted the increasing shortage of veterinarians specializing in food-producing animals. The article mentions that only 8.5 percent of the American Veterinary Medical Association's membership deals exclusively with animals raised for food. Furthermore, those vets are difficult to find to in farm states stretching from Montana to Texas and a continuing decline in the specialty will certainly pose as an obstacle to increasing the percentage of vets who treat food-producing animals. (The link to the full text version of this article published by the Billings Gazette is no longer operational).
Investment Skills Fostered by Youth Loan Program
The Farm Service Agency’s Rural Youth Loan Program was recently featured in the Times Reporter newspaper of Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio. The story focused on the success of four area loan recipients and the investment skills instilled by the program.
Ohio youth featured in the story are Matt Demattio, 16, of Tuscarawas; Michael Crawford, 14, of Dover; and Rexx Peters, 12, and Maxx Peters, 10, of Uhrichsville. Their loan funds went towards purchases of a used tractor, dairy cattle, feed and grooming supplies for livestock, and a generator, respectively. The young men are from farming families and expressed interest in farming as a career.
The FSA Rural Youth Loan Program makes operating loans of up to $5,000 to eligible individual rural youths age 10-20 to finance income-producing, agriculture-related projects. Projects must be planned and operated with the assistance of an FFA or 4-H advisor, produce sufficient income to repay the loan, and provide the participants with practical business and educational experience in agriculture-related skills.
Washington Post Profile: Iowan Dave Murphy is Challenging the Corporate Farming of America
Three years ago, native Iowan Dave Murphy left a job in Washington to return home and help defeat a company’s petition to build a concentrated animal feeding operation for thousands of hogs near his sister's home. After helping defeat the petition, Murphy never returned to Washington and now runs a nonprofit in Clear Lake, Iowa, called Food Democracy Now. The group uses grass-roots community organizing methods, such as petitions and action alerts that promote policies for sustaining rural America.
Read Full Text of Washington Post Profile
Veterinary student Thomas Cabantac conducts an examination. Photo by Edwin Remsberg of USDA/CSREES.
