Libbi and Lindsi Loos enjoying a bone in ham at home

Pork on a fork

Last week the Egyptian government, while admitting that pigs do not pose a human health risk, began slaughtering their entire 250,000 head population of pigs. Pig farmers, stripped of their livelihoods, took to the streets in riot and were pushed back with tear gas and rubber bullets. Knowingly, the Egyptian government acknowledged the lack of risk yet chose to slaughter the pig herd. Here at home, pork producers have been struggling with high input costs and were just about to see a little light at the end of the tunnel when major media sources, along with the Center for Disease Control, turned the tunnel dark again.

Our nation’s pork producers are in desperate straights. I am one hundred percent about using the law of supply and demand but I think the answer to this situation is to find a way to increase demand and do it immediately. It just so happens that I have an idea.

Let me first state that I question whether or not the change in domestic demand for pork has been affected much by the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. It is not a scientific poll by any means but I contacted people that I know in the retail and restaurant business to get their takes on the subject. Mike Endsley, who works for Newport Meats based in Los Angeles, calls on high end outlets in Southern California and tells me demand has not cut back at all with the latest flu situation. He did tell me that they have stepped up their own educational efforts in an attempt to make sure customers have the facts surrounding H1N1 but pork is an excellent product with a lower purchase price.

Next I called on my favorite BBQ restaurant in the entire country, which happens to be in Memphis, TN, called the Germantown Commissary. I talked to the owner, Mr. Walker Taylor, about the same situation. He told me that no costumer has even asked about the situation and his level-headed costumers recognize media hype when they see it.

He did go on to indicate a certain level of frustration that bone-headed lawmakers may not have the same common sense approach that his customers do and is concerned they may attempt to put something in place that will make it even tougher to get local pork. Mr. Taylor told me point blank, “We can’t get local pork any more.” I am here to tell you that it is not because farmers in the Mid-South have lost the desire to be in business but that excessive regulatory programs have put them out of business. Case-in point is Fineberg Meats, Germantown Commissary’s former pork supplier.

Here is my plan. I believe we truly need to connect the dots not only for our over-zealous lawmakers but for media and consumers globally. You know it has been said that the best way to anybody’s heart is through their stomach. Today I am launching a campaign and encouraging all people who eat food to enter the Faces Of Agriculture sponsored event called “Pork on a Fork”.

I expect you to send photos of family members, friends, customers, anyone, anywhere eating pork. On May 26, 2009 the photos will all be judged and the winner will be announced. The winner will receive a all expense paid trip for two to the World Pork Expo happening in Des Moines, IA June 3-5 2009. I will personally see to it that the winners are given the Royal VIP treatment and access to anything and everything pork related during the event. All entries will be available for viewing during the entire World Pork Expo plus on all Social Networking sites. In fact, the winner could be recorded and become a YouTube Pork connoisseur for all the world to see.

We need to put the sizzle back into the pork business before all of our pork producers are forced to exit their operations and find a new livelihood. Just as Walker Taylor told me, he can no longer get any local pork so it is time we explain to the world the importance of the American pork industry. Another old cliché that certainly makes my point an applies here is “A photo is worth a thousand words.” I can tell you that Mike Endsley from Los Angeles is excited about telling his customers they could be awarded the pork promoter of the year and a trip to Des Moines aren’t you?. Get more details on the website at www.FacesOfAg.com. Send photos to me at trentloos@gmail.com and I will see you in Des Moines at the World Pork Expo.

Trent,

On Earth Day you spoke at Garden City Community College. I get your newsletter and was very excited to hear you speak. Just wanted to let you know that a TON of kids really loved you and the rest of the day the campus was buzzing because we actually had a pro-agriculture speaker instead of many of the liberal, Humane-Society-type speakers that the teachers like and the kids hate. Thanks for not being afraid to say exactly what you believe. We agree with you!

Andrea Kysar, a GCCC student

Written for Feedstuffs May 1 edition out next week.

A bad day

It appears as though many non-agricultural parties are attempting to paint the livestock owners of our nation as a bunch on callus, non-compassionate, axe-murdering Neanderthals. Nothing could be further from the truth. I had big plans for Josh, one of my Percheron draft horses. I have committed to taking him and his lifelong teammate, Jim, to all fifty states pulling the Loos Tales Foodlink Chuckwagon. The purpose is to feature a veteran of our nation and bring a greater awareness to the two groups of people most important for the national security of our country, the American Soldier and the American Farmer/Rancher. In the past twelve months, we have successfully made it to 10 states and had many more scheduled in the upcoming weeks.

I have only had Jim and Josh for about a year but they quickly became favorites with everyone in our family. Jim a very good horse and he seems to have bonded with my wife the most. He likes to try me once in a while but Josh would always being there, telling him, “Nope. We have work to do. Quit screwing around.” Josh weighs about 2000 lbs so what he decides is pretty much what is going to happen. In fact, I have had several horses that I have taken off of the ranch and I learned that even the best ranch horse, when faced with the marvels of the big city, can be a little unnerved. Josh, on the other hand, was right on. The same trusty, reliable teamster no matter where or what the conditions were.

In the past year we have had situations where he would have to be on the trailer for hours to reach our destination just in time to get off, harness up and pull that wagon right through town like he was out in the field raking hay. His calm demeanor was most evident in his last public outing, down State Street in Chicago for the Thanksgiving Day Parade, as 700,000 people stood alongside the parade route, waved, cheered and thanked us. He proudly pulled that wagon, carrying me and Korean War veteran Tony Gallagher and his wife, right past the TV cameras for his brief national television debut, without a flinch.

All of that leads me to what was a very sad event for my entire family. On April 30, 2009, we lost Josh. He contracted a severe bacterial infection and we had been treating him under veterinary guidance. Josh and I had just made our second trip in three days to the vet clinic where he took one step off of the trailer and collapsed. Dr. Randy Grant was right on the scene and quickly administered four different substances in an attempt to save him. After ten minutes, Dr. Grant looked at me and said that if Josh doesn’t show some improvement within twenty minutes, it would be best to put him out of his misery. That is certainly not what I wanted to hear and furthermore I didn’t really want to be the one to make the decision to end his life. I kept thinking, “but what if?”

Well, I didn’t have to make that tough decision because Josh did not make it another five minutes. Honestly, there was no decision to make as it would have been the only option for his sake but that doesn’t make it any easier. The greatest bit of irony is that as Dr. Grant pulled out his stethoscope and confirmed his death at 12:35 pm, the local radio station was playing my Loos Tales radio show for the day and I was talking about the importance of re-opening horse harvesting plants in the country. Josh is a horse, not a member of my family, but he certainly holds a special place in the hearts of every member of my family. Living in a house full of girls you can only imagine that there were a lot of tears shed last night. Josh will never be replaced, and truth be told, he was the one who taught me to drive a team pulling a wagon, not the other way around as it may have appeared to parade watchers.

The one thing about life in this country today that causes me to shudder to the core is the fact that so many people who have never “been there and done that” are making decisions for others who have. It brings me back to a basic premise that I have in life: Every thing lives, everything dies and death with a purpose gives full meaning to life.

No, I am not clear why Josh had to leave us at the young age of 13 but we fully understand the importance of every life and respect that life while it is in our care. My vet said the best diagnosis he could give was a combination of health issues that were out of our control and mostly a case of really bad luck. Bad luck or not, animals do die and we must understand that. If we can make a decision to assist them in a proper death, we should do that. If we can make a decision that assists in that death and improves some other life, we should do that as well.

I decided that the best option for Josh, as a horse that was no longer living, was to be picked up by the local rendering company. I talked to the person in charge and found out that Josh would be used to assist other living animals. You know, I had much different plans for Josh for the rest of this year but some things, many things in nature actually, are out of my control. His body is gone but his presence will forever be felt in my heart and as Josh heads to greener pastures, we say “Giddy up” for one final time.

Audio feature with Sue Wallis with latest on the legal horse harvesting situation in United States. Click here to listen to Horse Tales

Brad Copenhaver joins Trent on radio program Loos Trails and Tales the day of the Boston Marathon as the American National Cattlemen's Beef Ambassadors are in Boston educating athletes about the importance of beef in the diet. Click here to listen.

I have just returned home from Daddy Daughter Date night at school. Picture Libbi Landri and Lindsi Loos with their dad Trent Loos

Mr. Limbaugh,

I very respectively have to disagree with your support of the Humane Society of the United States. Understandably, the name – Humane Society of the United States – sounds like a respectable organization but in fact, they are a misleading group and animal rights activists that just happen to dress well and try to avoid dressing in suits of lettuce like their ideological friends at PETA. In fact though, both groups have similar agendas – the abolition of American livestock production agriculture.

I have a Ph.D and teach in the agriculture department at Missouri State University. I am compassionate person, I adopt pets from the local humane societies and rescue places…both of which are desperate for funding to take care of an ever increasing amount of unwanted cats and dogs..and now horses. A few years ago, HSUS along with some other animal rights groups, joined forces to end horse slaughter here in the United States. “Americans don’t eat horses” seemed like a good enough reason to them to end the rights of horse owners to send their horses slaughter. (as a conservative – isn’t this an issue with property rights as all livestock are considered “property”). Now, as the horse rescue farms are jammed to the gills with unwanted horses, as horses in the words of Missouri House Rep. Blunt – “are being turned in the national forests” we have a glutton of horses that are being starved to death or being forced to suffer as there is simply no place to take the horses. In many cases, a person is charged a fee when they take a horse to a sale barn..before they might earn a few hundred dollars. What is most shocking about this new development is the cruelty to horses HSUS has generated. Instead of horses being slaughtered under the watchful eye of the United States government, they are now being shipped to slaughter in Mexico…a third world country with no rules and regulations as to the humane slaughter of animals. Not to mention, now that the importation of horses from the US has increased over 100%, their facilities are simply overrun. How can this be humane..in fact, I feel HSUS should be held accountable for this horrible act of cruelty.

HSUS is the most well funded animal rights group in the world with over $200 million in the bank…they spent less than 2% of this in the local animal shelters. Where was HSUS during the famous ice storms that hit the Midwest a few years ago….they refused to help because the cattle were just going to die anyways…so, I guess being frozen to death with no food is a much better death to them than a captive bolt to the head in a USDA inspected facility?

What about the little hurricane that hit east Texas last year…Ike…HSUS again, ignored the request for help from the Texas Cattlemen’s Association and refused to help even though there were at least 30,000 cows, horses and other livestock roaming through saltwater infected pastures with no fresh water in sight.

Please Mr. Limbaugh, farmers and ranchers are some of your biggest supporters…don’t let us down here by supporting the strongest animal rights group in the world….we need all the help we can get. We care about providing a safe food for America and the world and most of us do care deeply about our livestock…support your farmers and ranchers…not the HSUS…


Respectively yours..

Dr. Elizabeth L. Walker

Missouri State University

901 S National Ave

Springfield, Mo 65897

Mr. Limbaugh as a life long fan of you and your ideals I wish to inform you that I believe you have been mislead into believing the Humane Society of the United States is worthy organization.

They have two missions to abolish animal agriculture and end hunting in the United States. In fact Wayne Pacelle has opened admitted they want to be the "NRA" of animal rights.

They have supported initiatives in several states in the United States that takes the American food system down the same path as the EU.

The average cost of food per person in the EU has increased by 33% per person since 1996. During the same period of time the percent of imported food into the EU has doubled, from 20% to 40% in the past 13 years. HSUS continually rejects the science and technology that has enabled the United States consumer to enjoy the safest, highest quality and most affordable supply of food globally.

HSUS has very cleverly disguised themselves and as animal protection organization simply to improve the quality of life for animals. Yet in their own cafeteria in MD they do not allow any animal products to be served. Actions Mr. Limbaugh speak louder than words as you have personally said so many times in recent years.

Finally I am 42 years old a 6th generation United States farmer that has personally provided the daily care and well being of more than one million animals. I do not need some person representing an animal rights organization to tell me what is best for the life of an animal.

As a recent Cornell University study indicated we emit 60% less carbon per unit of food produced than we did in 1945, that sir can not be accomplished by allowing HSUS to throw their $125 million annual budget around attempting to remove food choices for American consumers.

The American Farmer/Rancher has a great story to tell the American public and I believe this is an opportunity for you to assist in getting that job done. I would love to join you any day any time on your radio program to begin that process.

Respectfully,
Trent Loos
Loup City, NE

515 418 8185

for more information

www.FacesOfAg.com
www.LoosTales.com

Nebraska Beef Ambassador contest Junior division age 12-15 years old

Winners Lacey Uden 1st place, Hannah Borg 2nd place, Shevelle Lee 3rd place

Nebraska Beef Ambassador Contest April 11, 2009 Senior division

Winners(front row)Debra Wray 2nd place, Justin Taubenheim 3rd place, Ellen Hoffschneider 1st place

Nebraska Beef Ambassador Contest held April 11, 2009 12 years and age and under

Winners in the front row Jada Jensen 3rd place, Kane Wellnitz 1st place, Libbi Loos 2nd place