Industry Leader Shares His Eye-Opening Experience at the CDC

We often hear stories, alerts and news briefs from the CDC, but until I visited, I never really grasped the number of projects they work on daily to ensure Americans stay as safe as possible. The sheer size and magnitude of the facilities and staff were eye-opening for me.

I fully expected to be overwhelmed by scientific data from medical professionals and scientists, but I was pleasantly surprised that we were welcome to speak openly with CDC officials about the tasks we face daily on our farms and ranches.

The CDC is seeking guidance and collaboration from our industry to ensure that we continue to provide the safest food supply in the world. Problems continuously arise with foodborne pathogens, and we need a uniform approach to solve these issues promptly while doing what we can to prevent as many of them as possible from even happening.

Visits like this allow us to not only tell our story but also give us the rare opportunity to meet face to face with medical professionals and scientists. The tour gave producers a voice and the chance to network with officials who make rules that will impact our operations. The “realness” that this networking opportunity provides shows these officials that we work hard to provide a safe and nutritious product for consumers. For producers, it shows that the individuals making regulations are real people too, just like us.

Collaboration across industries is increasingly important as issues arise, but it’s even more important to work together to prevent issues before they arise. Through collaboration, we can work together to achieve the same goals without overlapping or superseding our efforts.

I will continue to run my operation with an open mind and note that my animals’ daily care can impact consumers down the road.

I have been involved in this program since 2019. During my first year of involvement, producers were invited to meet industry officials, and the dynamic at that point was that animal agriculture was to blame for antibiotic resistance. That first meeting demonstrated the need for producers to have a seat at the table to tell our story, to create that “realness” factor and eliminate preconceived notions that farmers and ranchers don’t care for their livestock. As these meetings have continued, I have witnessed a paradigm shift among those industry officials: producers judiciously use the tools we are given and collectively work together to accomplish more.

The Checkoff is giving producers the opportunity to have those tough conversations about antibiotic use and highlight the existing responsible use of antibiotics on our operations and our Beef Quality Assurance training. We need to improve our practices constantly, and I would encourage producers to keep an open mind. Any individual, business or industry that wants to be better at what they are doing should always reflect on their actions and their impacts and seek ways to continuously improve.