Pay the Rent

Keynote speaker shares positive outlook on future of American agriculture.

by Kasey Miller, Angus Productions Inc.

DENVER, Colo. (July 26, 2012) — Organizations do a great job of defending the industry against activists, Jay Lehr, senior fellow and science director of the Heartland Institute, told audience members at the first general session of the 2012 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver, Colo., July 25-28. However, industry members can’t rely on those groups. He urged producers to spend two hours a month telling people — and not members of the industry — about the good things the industry does.

Lehr called this paying the rent for being a part of the greatest industry, the beef industry.

At 78, Lehr is an ironman triathlete — a race, he said, in which vegans can’t compete. He prepares for races by eating steak, and noted that a recent visit to a steak house in Denver found every seat full, signaling demand for beef and economic recovery.

 

“The only other voices consumers have heard in your lifetime have been from terrorist organizations like HSUS (Humane Society of the United States), PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and the general media reporting bad things,” he says.

 

The object is to win back the public’s hearts and minds, Lehr emphasized, and the good thing is that people are interested. Conversations just need to be started.

 

As an example, Lehr said antibiotics are a hot topic, but people don’t know that the NCBA developed an antibiotic protocol in 1987 that advises producers to stay away from antibiotics used in human medicine, to use medications sparingly and to administer only to sick animals.

 

Lehr called denying antibiotics to animals that need it inhumane. Unfortunately, he said, people think antibiotics are used “willy-nilly.”

 

“We can only beat this problem — and we can beat it — if all of us get involved, and not just leave it to the leaders and the trade groups,” he said.

 

Despite the obstacles of drought, high corn prices and low margins, Lehr asserted that this is the golden age in agriculture. Meat intake will increase as world income increases and as biotechnology increases efficiency, he said.

 

If these obstacles had happened 15 years ago, producers wouldn’t have been able to handle them as well as they can now, he said. In 15 years, they will be handled even better. Technology is finding more water in deeper wells and improving irrigation practices.

 

Lehr concluded with a quote by Admiral William Halsey: “There are no great men, just great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstance to meet.”

 

To read other summaries from this conference, click here.