Farms & Feasts: A Thanksgiving Tribute to Agricultural Production

Happy Thanksgiving from the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department! 

In this episode, we're focused on the hard work that sometimes goes unnoticed, but is critical to putting food on the table for our holiday feasts and everyday meals. 

FRE undergraduate student Savannah Bailey and AEC assistant instructional professor Dr. Heather Young join us to discuss their experiences growing up on cattle farms in Florida and Upstate New York, and how CALS can serve as a connector for students to their food systems. 

The opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their sole responsibility do not represent positions, policies or opinion of the University of Florida, UF/IFAS, or the UF/IFAS Department of Food and Resource Economics.

Got thoughts on the episode, questions for us, or an idea for what we should cover next? Reach out to us by email at fre@ifas.ufl.edu

Intro and Outro Music - "Just Kidding" - Ahjay Stelino. Used under the Mixkit Stock Music Free License.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;08;29

Alena Poulin & Caleb Stair

Marginal revenue. Marginal cost. Welcome to FRE Lunch!

00;00;09;01 - 00;00;12;17

Caleb Stair

Happy holidays from FRE lunch!

00;00;12;19 - 00;00;18;13

Alena Poulin

To celebrate, we got you a gift! A very special seasonal season of FRE Lunch.

00;00;18;15 - 00;00;21;13

Caleb Stair

Are you allowed to say seasonal twice like that?

00;00;21;19 - 00;00;25;12

Alena Poulin

Anyway, For anyone who just got here, I'm Alena Poulin.

00;00;25;14 - 00;00;26;21

Caleb Stair

And I'm Caleb Stair.

00;00;26;21 - 00;00;32;16

Alena Poulin

And this is the official podcast of the Food and Resource Economics department at the University of Florida.

00;00;32;19 - 00;00;44;07

Caleb Stair

Each episode of this mini season will provide a bite-sized insight into economic aspects of your favorite holiday traditions, and the hardworking producers who make them possible.

00;00;44;07 - 00;00;48;23

Alena Poulin

With that, we hope you'll enjoy the season. And on with the episode.

00;00;48;25 - 00;01;01;04

Caleb Stair

From milking cows to using a plow, today's episode in our special holiday themed season is all about appreciating how much effort those involved in agriculture give when producing our food.

00;01;01;09 - 00;01;05;13

Alena Poulin

That's right. Today's episode is a tribute to the crew behind every bite.

00;01;05;20 - 00;01;14;09

Caleb Stair

Have any of us ever thought about how much goes into producing the mashed potatoes, green beans, and turkey that fill the dining room table on Thanksgiving?

00;01;14;09 - 00;01;21;28

Alena Poulin

Imagine you're up before dawn fixing fences, watering crops, milking cows, collecting the eggs.

00;01;22;01 - 00;01;24;07

Caleb Stair

And, you've done plenty of those things.

00;01;24;07 - 00;01;34;14

Alena Poulin

You know what? So what? Maybe I haven't. Do you want to know why I haven't done those things, Caleb? Because they're hard. And that's why I'm so thankful this year for our farmers.

00;01;34;16 - 00;01;39;28

Caleb Stair

Anyway, they all do things so that we can have delicious meals with our families.

00;01;39;28 - 00;01;50;03

Alena Poulin

And while some of our listeners are the very people that we're thanking, there are many of you who, like myself, might only get to appreciate the food at the tail end of its journey.

00;01;50;06 - 00;01;56;15

Caleb Stair

So before you carve into the turkey or slice that pecan pie, we want to remember all the hard work

00;01;56;15 - 00;02;02;07

Alena Poulin

To help us with that. We're joined by two guests today who have both been directly involved in our food system.

00;02;02;09 - 00;02;08;29

Caleb Stair

These two guests are both at different stages of their careers. The first is an undergrad at UF and an FRE major.

00;02;09;04 - 00;02;24;13

Savannah Bailey

My name is Savannah Bailey. I am a senior graduating this spring in the food and resource Economics department. I'm on the Food and Agribusiness Marketing and Management track, also earning two minors in AG and Natural Resource Law and Leadership.

00;02;24;14 - 00;02;26;10

Caleb Stair

How did you end up at UF?

00;02;26;11 - 00;02;57;07

Savannah Bailey

So I grew up 45 minutes from here, have grown up a Gator fan my whole life so my dream has always been to come to UF and earn my degree here. I originally was going into the business school to be a finance major because I enjoyed dealing with numbers, and then I met with Dr. Charlotte Emerson, and she told me about food and resource economics and how that combines my AG background, but also with finance and dealing with numbers. And that's how I'm here.

00;02;57;14 - 00;03;08;16

Alena Poulin

Our second guest is Doctor Heather young and instructional assistant professor in the Agricultural Education and Communication department at the University of Florida, and recent CALS alumni.

00;03;08;18 - 00;04;05;10

Heather Young

So I came to the University of Florida in November of 2020. So during Covid, which was an exciting time to move across the country, I was working on my master's degree at the UF online program while I was working full time for Dairy Farmers of America, and so I was doing that to working professional on the full time during the day, taking care of my kids in the afternoon evening, and then turning into, college student at the at the evening/ wee early morning hours. So once I finish my master's degree, I transitioned into a PhD program in agricultural education and communication. And that brought me down here to Gainesville in person. And so after I finished with my PhD program, I ended up applying for the position that I was the lead TA for while I was doing my program. And I ended up being successful in that role. And now I am an instructional assistant professor.

00;04;05;10 - 00;04;10;12

Caleb Stair

While both grew up in different parts of the country, they have a common connection in cattle.

00;04;10;13 - 00;04;20;28

Savannah Bailey

I grew up in Lake City, Florida. I’ve grew up on a beef cattle farm. For as long as I can remember. Growing up, I raised goats and then pigs and now cows.

00;04;20;28 - 00;04;23;07

Alena Poulin

Which one was your favorite?

00;04;23;09 - 00;04;34;14

Savannah Bailey

Hmmm… Definitely the beef cattle, because you learn a lot more responsibility that way. It's more of an in-depth project and a lot more time management was needed as well.

00;04;34;15 - 00;05;35;19

Heather Young

So my family's farm, I'm actually the sixth generation of farmers in our family. And so our original farmstead was built in 1862, and our house that I grew up in was actually moved in two sections by a team of mules from the river that we lived next door to, and they rolled it up on logs. And so our house was put back and split In two and then that's where we lived. But our farm is located in the central part of New York state, so definitely not New York City, but not Canada either. Right smack in the middle by, Syracuse Orangemen. So go Orangemen. But that was where I spent all of my childhood. Figured I would spend all of my adult life there working on the farm, but the cards kind of had different plans. But growing up on our family's farm, we spent a lot of time with my grandparents, and my granddad was really big in cattle genetics and specifically with milking short horns. And so we had milking short horns and Holsteins.

00;05;35;19 - 00;05;42;09

Alena Poulin

Growing up on a farm for Savannah and Heather meant that the average chore list might be a little bit more extensive than you would expect.

00;05;42;13 - 00;07;04;08

Heather Young

Yeah, it was definitely not your traditional teen life per se. I think we got to go on one family day vacation and that was it. It was intended originally to be an overnight trip to be able to make it a Saturday and Sunday, but the temporary milker that we had hired never showed up before we left, and so luckily we decided that we were going to wait until he got there to make sure he wasn't going to have any problems getting started. And a couple hours into it. No show, no call. So guess what? Family vacation canceled and we'll just make it up some other day. So definitely, family vacation wise didn't really happen. If it did happen, it was centered around, oh, we have to go pick up a part for the chopper in Pennsylvania. And so we're going to do a day trip to Pennsylvania, or it was the Empire Farm Days or the Farm Show in February. When there's snow, that's six feet above or six feet on the ground of snow, and you're driving out to the state fairgrounds hoping that all of the places that you want to stop do are all inside and not outside. And so those were our family vacations or our outings. But honestly, I really appreciate that lifestyle and the different work ethic skills that I learned through that opportunity. But there's definitely you didn't get to go out to a friend's house every weekend. You didn't get to go for a whole bunch of sleepovers. Usually people didn't want to come to your house because it meant that you would have to work while you were there.

00;07;04;14 - 00;07;08;25

Caleb Stair

So just how busy you are may depend on the season

00;07;08;25 - 00;07;33;19

Savannah Bailey

So It always depends on the season that you're in. So in Florida like the winter months, like if you have to go take care of there because all the grass is dead every other day or so, but then also every day is riding around the fence lines, making sure there's no holes and fences, making sure all the cows are okay, and then if they're not, go up there, doctor them, whatever that has to be done.

00;07;33;20 - 00;07;43;02

Alena Poulin

These small family owned farms, like the ones that Heather and Savannah grew up on account for over 80% of all the farms in the United States.

00;07;43;04 - 00;07;48;21

Caleb Stair

And on these small farms where there is no extra help, maintaining efficiency is key.

00;07;48;28 - 00;08;22;04

Heather Young

So it's just my mom, my dad and my brother. And so they are the three sole bodies that are keeping the farm rolling. They milk, in the summertime, it's closer to 100 cows. And in the wintertime, just for facility size wise in cow comfort, we scale back to 60 to 80 cows. And so we make work, work for what we have available. And I still say we because I feel like I'm still part of it, even though I'm 1200 miles away from it. But with the projects that my parents do are all about what can make the process more efficient.

00;08;22;07 - 00;08;30;27

Alena Poulin

For many of these owner operators, the small size of the farm can also mean that there is a small margin for error when trying to keep the financials balanced.

00;08;30;27 - 00;09;31;14

Heather Young

There's unfortunately, there's just not a lot of money in farming. People have that big misconception when they drive by and they see these huge tractors and their shiny green carts and fancy buildings and facilities, and they think oh they must be loaded, they must be millionaires. And it's just the cost of doing the job that you have to be able to have that kind of equipment to be able to be effective and efficient. But at the same time, it comes with that cost. If you can only do what you can do with the funds that you have available. And so the fluctuation in the milk market really makes it hard to if you don't have a large number of cows to be able to kind of eat up some of that margin, it's really hard to be able to bounce back from those plunges and then the skyrockets and you have a couple of good months, but you have five years of bad. So it's kind of hard. But yeah, so being able to have employees, you have to be able to have a larger herd base to be able to supplement the pay for the employees. And nobody wants to milk cows for a minimum wage.

00;09;31;14 - 00;09;38;25

Caleb Stair

As more and more of our workforce chooses careers other than Ag., we become more disconnected from our food.

00;09;38;25 - 00;09;46;12

Heather Young

And so that's a challenge all on its own, is just to be able to have people recognize what it takes to be in the business and to do the work.

00;09;46;14 - 00;10;11;08

Caleb Stair

Picture this back before World War Two, one farmer was feeding about 20 people on average. These days, one farmer is feeding more than 150 people. That means they have to be very involved in this process. Is that a good thing? Because doesn't that mean there's now 150 people that aren't connected to their food? Well, classic economist answer. It depends. There are some upsides.

00;10;11;08 - 00;10;23;24

Savannah Bailey

This is important because the average farm day can be up to 10 to 14 hours during peak season. That means that more of us are free to pursue different careers now than when we were, when we were more connected to our food system.

00;10;23;24 - 00;10;26;26

Alena Poulin

As Savannah points out, there are also some concerns.

00;10;26;28 - 00;10;50;05

Savannah Bailey

If you're not connected to agriculture, you may not understand the land, the labor, or the resources required to produce what you eat, which can lead to unrealistic expectations for cheap and abundant food without recognizing the costs like food and water and land use. And it can also lead to food waste since people don't appreciate the work behind the production that the farmers have done.

00;10;50;08 - 00;10;56;03

Alena Poulin

That disconnect is actually what Savannah is focusing on in her research for her honors thesis project.

00;10;56;07 - 00;11;16;10

Savannah Bailey

So my honors research is on the level of connectedness of the food system for U.S. consumers. The idea is that it's unrealistic to be fully connected to the food system, because the United States has become more urbanized, and not everybody can grow their own food. But it's not good to be fully disconnected as well.

00;11;16;10 - 00;11;22;02

Caleb Stair

Savannah actually came up with this idea in one of FRE's classes on ethics in agriculture.

00;11;22;04 - 00;11;45;24

Savannah Bailey

So it began in Doctor Sir's ethics class when I was wrote a paper on our connectedness of the food system, but also like high cost and how there's normally like complaints about the high cost. But again, people sometimes don't realize the time and effort and the cost for it. So that was where the idea came from, was from that ethics paper. And I'm doing an extension off of that.

00;11;45;29 - 00;12;34;13

Caleb Stair

Savannah is using a similar concept that was developed by Arthur Laffer called the Laffer Curve. Now, that was an attempt to figure out what the optimal tax rate was. If I charge you 0% tax, then I don't get any tax revenue because nobody's paying taxes. If I charge you 100% tax, would you work if I took every dollar that you earned? Maybe, Maybe not. So the idea was that there's some optimal tax rate that existed between 0 and 100%. She's doing the exact same thing for our food system. Is it optimal to be 100% connected to our food? Well, you won't have a lot of free time to do anything else. Is it optimal to be 0% connected to our food? Well, that might mean that you have no appreciation for all the effort and energy and costs that go into producing your food. Savannah is using the exact same concept.

00;12;34;13 - 00;12;40;09

Alena Poulin

Like you mentioned, this project is just starting out. What other questions are you hoping you can answer by the end of the project?

00;12;40;09 - 00;13;10;09

Savannah Bailey

So one thing we're going to do is do a Laffer curve to find that optimal level of connectedness. We're also trying to determine, like the right amount of ag literacy for people as well. But one thing I've realized as well, being a student is CALS is part of a land grant institution, and a lot of students don't realize what that means. So also trying to find a way, tied in to ag literacy, of educating people about a land grant institution and what their their mission is.

00;13;10;16 - 00;13;23;00

Caleb Stair

One way we can reintegrate people to AG is through places like CALS, where here in the classroom, those with and without an AG background come together to learn and share their perspectives.

00;13;23;03 - 00;13;30;08

Alena Poulin

Have there been any differences that you've noticed in your perspective compared to your classmates that might not have that agricultural background?

00;13;30;10 - 00;13;54;12

Savannah Bailey

I think the biggest one is they don't realize the time or the costs that gets put into producing the food or producing your cattle and different things like that. Because like, I'll get asked questions like, oh what is that like? Like what all do you have to do for this to happen? So it's one of those conversations that it's kind of interesting because I'm educating them on how I grew up, and it's something that they never knew before.

00;13;54;12 - 00;14;01;15

Alena Poulin

Savannah also helps build these connections for students personally through her involvement in the CALS ambassador program.

00;14;01;15 - 00;14;17;11

Savannah Bailey

I still stay connected to Doctor Emerson through the CALS ambassadors program, which educates prospective students and current students about the land grant mission and also opportunities that CALS has to offer for students.

00;14;17;14 - 00;14;26;21

Caleb Stair

For those of you who have been listening and are like, wow, Doctor Young is so cool, I wish I could take a class with her. The great news is you can!

00;14;26;23 - 00;14;38;00

Alena Poulin

She teaches AEC 3033 research in Business Writing and AEC 3030 effective Oral communication. These are classes that apply to a wide variety of majors.

00;14;38;07 - 00;16;14;02

Heather Young

So a lot of the students that come through the courses that I teach are open major, which means that they don't have to be in agriculture or any kind of an agriculture related major to take my class. And so, it is great because it brings in a lot of perspectives that I don't see or I'm not attuned to as much. So it keeps me on my toes. But it also is a way for, at the very least, a student to walk away having just a slightest bit more knowledge or information about the agriculture community or the process, or the industry. And so in my classes, whether they like it or not, they end up not liking at the beginning because it's something that they don't know about, they're not comfortable with. It's not something that they can just easily write about or speak about. But at the end of the semester, they're really appreciative of me presenting them with the different areas and opportunities that agriculture intertwines with other industries. And so, like you think about pre-med, students are just like, I have no interest in agriculture. I'm like, well, are you planning on going into any kind of surgery or are you doing heart valve replacements? Guess what? Those come from pigs. And so being able to make those connections or artery replacements where you get those from cows. And so there is a lot of connections that they don't immediately see. They just kind of see a farmer in a field or a farmer in a tractor and think that that's it. And then you drop the really big shocker bomb on them and say, did you have breakfast this morning? Did you have lunch? Did you eat dinner last night? Oh, did you have chicken wings for the Super Bowl or any of the Gator home football games? Oh yeah, that's agriculture. And they're like, oh.

00;16;14;04 - 00;16;21;28

Caleb Stair

While neither Heather or Savannah are still producers, they still maintain a strong connection to and passion for Ag.

00;16;22;00 - 00;16;29;00

Alena Poulin

For Savannah, this means providing a service to our farmers, finding a way to use her love of math where it counts.

00;16;29;03 - 00;17;00;25

Savannah Bailey

I've always just love just dealing with numbers. And I did an internship with Farm Credit of Florida as a credit analyst, and I've realized that there's many jobs out there that helps agriculture directly. So with what my career interest is right now, I would be helping the farmers get funds for them to be able to produce the food that we need to consume. So maybe I'm not on the farm growing the crops or cattle, but I am having an impact on the food system and the United States.

00;17;00;25 - 00;17;07;16

Caleb Stair

For Heather, she's taken her experiences on the farm and involvement in industry and brought it back to the classroom.

00;17;07;22 - 00;18;23;09

Heather Young

Definitely never saw where I am today in my cards. I honestly thought I was going to get my undergrad degrees finished with my associate's and my bachelors, and go home and work on the farm. And then at the end of my bachelor's degree, I had the opportunity to do an internship with a milk cooperative, Upstate Farms, which is in Niagara, near Buffalo area. And so, I worked with them for the summer and to the company that my parents ship milk to was got wind that I was working for the competition. And so I had an opportunity to be able to go work for them. And I think that all of the different pivots that I've had, where I've kind of just gone with the flow of what opportunities present themselves, and sometimes it works out for the long term, sometimes it doesn't and it's only short lived. But I've had great experiences because you just make things work. You figure it out and you work through it. There's no oh, I can't figure out how to get this milk pump to run right or the vacuum's not working, so I just am not going to fix it until Monday. That doesn't work. You have to figure it out and you have to be able to improvise. And so I think that's really helped where I am today. And being able to just roll with whatever happens, happens, and you just have to deal with it and move on.

00;18;23;10 - 00;18;31;06

Alena Poulin

If the audience were listen to this whole podcast, which would be about 20 minutes, what is one thing that you hope they would take away or understand afterwards?

00;18;31;06 - 00;18;51;04

Savannah Bailey

We owe a lot to the farmers that are growing the food that we consume today. So if it wasn't for them, we all would be waking up early in the morning to do things such as feed the cows or just feed the animals and grow the crops that are being produced. And we wouldn't be able to go work the jobs that we're working now.

00;18;51;06 - 00;19;02;25

Heather Young

Talk to the farmer. Know your farmer. Know who is the producer of your food. And I appreciate what they do every day because without the farmer, civilization doesn't exist.

00;19;02;28 - 00;19;07;16

Caleb Stair

Man, that was the most succinct final thoughts I think we've done in a while. 

00;19;07;18 - 00;19;12;08

Heather Young

I practiced those for the radio commercials that I used to have to do for Dairy Princess.

00;19;12;15 - 00;19;20;03

Caleb Stair

It certainly seems like we owe a lot to those who fuel the feast with early mornings, dedication and care.

00;19;20;03 - 00;19;29;03

Alena Poulin

So in the spirit of the season, we want to extend a thank you to today's guests for joining us to you, our dear listeners, and most importantly, to our farmers.

00;19;29;05 - 00;19;37;00

Caleb Stair

And maybe this year, before you dig into your meal, you can dig into a deeper discussion of the journey your food took to get there.

00;19;37;00 - 00;19;42;18

Alena Poulin

So for those of you interested in learning more, we'll put some links that you can explore in the episode description below.

00;19;42;20 - 00;19;45;05

Alena Poulin & Caleb Stair

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!