Temple Grandin Interview

This year the joint annual meeting (JAM) kicked off with an interview of Dr. Temple Grandin by Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute.  If you are not familiar with Dr. Grandin's work, it is some of the most challenging and altering to the livestock industry in recent decades.  She focuses on animal welfare and behavior, making the necessary handling and transport procedures less stressful for the animals.

During the interview she answer questions relating to living with autism, animal welfare, making her movie in Hollywood, and getting more and better infomation to consumers and those who need it.

Here are a few great quotes:

"When we've got people who think bacon comes from wheat, we've really got a problem" 

"We need to clean up the house and then electronically open the barn doors and show the public what we do"

Dr. Grandin also said she has hope for animal welfare in the future. It's helpful to talk about bad practices and communicate with public.  This is a theme I've been hearing for several years.  I think that my generation of scientists and farmers is taking this to heart. There is no denying that there are bad apples in the livestock community.  We need to acknowledge that they are there and work to make them better or remove them.  We also need to show the world that most of us are in this field because we genuinely love animals.  We want to show you what we do and why we love it.

==========

From ASAS on twitter: Temple Grandin, animal scientist, explains her life and career in JAM opening ceremony pic.twitter.com/w8RoAif5

Related articles

• Ranchers take Dr. Grandin's recommendations to heart
• A Vegan at a Feedlot: A Tale of Conflicting Stories.

Travel to Phoenix

 Rocking chairs in the Charlotte airport. (Photo credit: nickhall)

Just getting to ASAS every year is a adventure.  Between making sure I have the clothes and shoes and definitely don't forget the poster, to planning what presentations I'll see.  There's a lot going on and I love making the plans.  This year I flew out early  to attend the pre-conferece put on by the Nutritional Science Association and take part in the graduate student poster competition. 

            Wonderful glass atrium in the Charlotte airport.             (Photo credit: Nicola since 1972)

But, to get there, I had to fly East to go West.  Fortunately, my layover in Charlotte was lovely.  I love all the windows and rocking chairs! Oh, and the musicians.  I almost wished for a longer layover.  As it was I had time to grab a late lunch and rush to my next plane, no time for pictures even.

Cloud sheep?

Then, it was on to Phoenix!  I love watching the scenery from the sky, especially when heading into place I have not been before.  I've spent most of my life East of the Mississippi, so Phoenix was a unique view.  My first thought was wow, it's so brown.  But over the 5 days I was there I began to see the shades or tan and cream and cocoa in that brown.  The mountains in the distance around the city were so lovely to see every day walking back and forth to the convention center each day.  It's a different and beautiful landscape.

Phoenix from the sky!

After 4.5 hours on the plane I was happy to be getting out.  It was a bit of a walk from the gate to luggage and about half way there I was completely distracted by the carpet when I realized the pattern had airplanes in it.  So neat!  I then promptly forgot about the carpet when I noticed the mountains!

Airplane carpet.

Mountains!

I stayed downtown, just a few blocks from the convention center at the Renaissance.  All week I wondered about the buttons on the elevator.  The lack of a 13th floor I understood.  Fairly standard for older buildings.  But for the life of me I could not figure out what they had done with floors 2-4.  On my last night in Phoenix I finally learned the answer to that mystery.  Those are their conference center floors and accessed by a separate set of elevators and escalators.  Interesting solution to keeping hotel activities separate.

Bad picture of the elevator missing floors.

Back and Busy

I got back from Phoenix last Thursday and jumped right into the last research project for my PhD on Friday.  It's been crazy since this project involves a week of living at the farm 24/7.  But, that should mean plenty of time to write.  I've got plans for everything from Temple Grandin, to exotic cats to immunology.  

My boys settling in for the night.  They are rockstars!

Quick News from Phoenix

Phoenix as seen from South Mountain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This week I'm at the annual American Society of Animal Science meeting.  This year we are in Phoenix, AZ.  The mountains in the distance make for an amazing view.  I'm trying to remember to take pictures and notes of my trip so that I'll have lots of the latest research to write about here.  I'm sure there will be lots of fun stories and information in the weeks to come.

But, for now, just a quick note to say that today was awesome.  I presented my poster at the graduate poster competition during the American Society of Nutrition sponsored pre-conference event yesterday.  And, as a complete surprise, I won first place.  Crazy-ness.  I was just having fun explaining my last project.  Apparently that appealed to the judges.  Woohoo.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled quiet.  I'll be back to normal on Thursday and hope to start writing more regularly next week.