FROM THE STATE VET’S OFFICE
The Possible Burger
In my position as State Veterinarian, husband, dad, son, and brother I would say that I enjoy most every day and what I get to be a part of. I am honored, proud and often humbled to work with people invested in animal agriculture along with the many good people here at the Department of Agriculture. There is, however, the occasional thing that I encounter that troubles me or maybe even causes irritation. For example, it troubles me that there are 10 hot dog wieners in a package and only eight hot dog buns in a package. It irritates me that some people do not take their shopping carts to the shopping cart rack in the Walmart parking lot. They have just walked 10 miles up and down the aisles looking at every brand of cereal and can’t walk the 10 to 20 feet to the cart rack! Then there is the rare issue that to be honest sometimes I get downright mad about. A few weeks ago, Commissioner Pate gave me an article from a magazine that he thought I might find interesting. The information coming out of this article did leave me in this emotional state of being pretty up18
Cooperative Farming News
set and so I’ve decided to discuss it here. A side note might be advisable to add that I am aware of the Bible verse that says I can be angry but sin not! The article was about the founder and CEO of the Impossible Foods that has marketed the recently advertised Impossible Burger. I will say from the git go that it seems the intent of the author was to just report on this individual’s attempt to develop alternative protein food sources, reduce greenhouse gases from the earth and the marketing strategies to pull this off. We have talked before about the fact that the world’s population will approach nine to 10 billion people by the year 2050 and that food production systems will need to double. Developing alternative sources of protein is certainly admirable along with enhancing existing livestock production systems. Things like genetic selections for increased feed efficiency of feeder calves and dairy cows that produce more pounds of milk per animal, feed sources that are drought-tolerant and insect-resistant, and mapping the genome se-
