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It’s become a year-end ritual for me to look back on the news of the year and some of the more substantial news stories, as well as some of the more memorable, insightful or humorous quotes that people have shared.
Obviously 2020 was different, and most of these comments were not shared in person, but rather over the phone or via Zoom, but that doesn’t take away from their merit.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from WATTPoultry.com and FeedStrategy.com sources during 2020:
- “When we think about employee safety, there really aren’t difficult decisions. There are just the right decisions.” – Richard Carlson, Hormel Foods vice president of quality management, speaking during the webinar, Impacts of COVID-19 on Minnesota’s Food and Ag Supply Chain
- “I’m very, very excited about the fact that It looks like we may have a vaccine that will help us and maybe change my mind to thinking that light at the end of the tunnel is actually the end of all of this insanity instead of a locomotive coming straight at us.” – Ron Prestage, DVM, president of Prestage Farms, speaking during the Iowa Farm Bureau Annual Meeting webinar series
- “Chickens are curious. We saw that while growing, even before we were putting birds out on the range. If you are working on a chicken house and you had tools, if there are small pieces, you got to keep track of them, or birds will come over and take them. They’re just naturally curious.” – Austin Good, Perdue grower, speaking during the 2020 Perdue Animal Care Summit
- “Just like all of us, (egg carton suppliers) have facilities and operations that are carefully tuned to produce efficiently the volumes the industry needs, so when there is a huge demand spike like we had, that can affect them pretty hard.” – Sam Krouse, vice president of business development, MPS Egg Farms
- “We didn’t want to be in the position to where we were depopulating fully grown birds at the farm, because we hadn’t had to do that. We were trying to create the best circumstances to avoid that, if at all possible.” – Lisa Bishop-Spencer, Chicken Farmers of Canada director of brand and communications, describing a temporary cutback in broiler production in Canada
- “My definition of clean eating is food without physical dirt on it.” – Cara Harbstreet, registered dietitian, Street Smart Nutrition, speaking during the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit
- “Some of these plant-based alternatives do not have enough of that history with the average consumers, because these are relatively new SKUs. If I had to guess, I’d say there are very few individuals sitting back now and saying, ‘Oh wow, I remember that time with my grandma having the Impossible Burger.’ … It’s probably not desirous as a comfort food at this moment.” – Nicole Rodriguez, registered dietitian, Enjoy Food Enjoy Life, also speaking during the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit
- “I think more than ever now, our country knows where our food comes from. They’re depending on our farmers and ranchers who grow and produce that food that we need to live, and I think in times of national emergency such as this, that’s become even more apparent.” – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, speaking during a telephone press conference about the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP)
- “We’re really in that tribal communication period and we trust our influencers. We have research that shows that some Gen Zers actually believe the individuals they follow on YouTube know them better than their friends and family.” – Claire Masker-King, director of sustainability and communications, National Pork Board, speaking during the National Institute for Animal Agriculture’s Annual Antibiotic Symposium
- “I found out that I can go in front of the city council and say anything I want for five minutes, and they won’t be able to stop me. So I picked the thing I’m most passionate about, that I have the best arguments for, and I went up and I did it. It turns out, a lot of people agree.” – Ander Christensen, Nebraska resident who took his quest to end the use of the term, “boneless wings,” to the Lincoln City Council
