Brain power from animal-source foods
I was once again privileged to spend time at the 98th annual National Block and Bridle convention in Orlando, Florida. This year about 370 college students from 33 different colleges and universities across the country gathered and reassured me that the future of farming is extremely bright.
It has been 12 years since I first spoke at a National B&B meeting and it appears the development, thought process and knowledge have greatly excelled.
The speaker lineup on the last day was tremendous. For the record, I spoke the first day. The first speaker of the day was able to tie everything that I have ever talked about together into one presentation and it made me wonder, “Why haven’t I done that?”
Gbola Adesogan put it all together so well. Adesogan is the director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems sponsored by USAID, which is housed at the University of Florida. I would like to share a nutshell of what the program is all about.
Animal-source foods are commonly lacking in the diets of the poor and vulnerable in developing countries, particularly children and women who need them the most. Due to their high content of quality protein and bioavailable micronutrients, increased consumption of ASF can improve the nutritional status as well as the growth, psychomotor functions, cognitive development and health of children, especially infants under the age of 2.
Adesogan spent a tremendous amount of time covering research on how kids under 2 years of age globally are dealing with “stunting”. Global hunger and starvation does get some media attention but what is never discussed is the fact that the absence of ASF from daily diets leads to severe developmental problems. Not only with brain and cognition but the failure of including ASF early in a toddler’s life leads to a long list of chronic diseases starting with diabetes.
As a side note, I recently learned that we currently we have a small movement of mostly affluent folks in this country spouting off about not needing ASFs. So we have the poor and the wealthy of the world who now share the same developmental challenges. You show me someone who does not consume ASF on a regular basis and I will show you someone who suffers from a greater number of health issues.
Adesogan did go into great detail about research that has been conducted throughout the world and particularly in Kenya about the difficulties students have when ASFs are not consumed. In fact, during a study over five school periods, students who were supplemented with meat improved cognitive performance by 45 percent and milk by 28 percent. On the other side of the equation, students supplemented with energy showed a 7 percent lower performance level and control was 10 percent lower.
Again I am diverting from the Future of Food message to remind you that recently the USDA altered the school lunch program and to which side did they err? Sadly we have been trying to feed our kids in school like the poor African children who cannot afford the right food. We are just stupidly standing by and letting them put our kids on a path of starvation and deprivation.
The Future of Food Lab is also aware of the fact that the anti-milk, meat and egg crowd has tried to plant the seed that ASFs are somehow detrimental to a healthy environment but of course Adesogan shared the real science of Frank Mitloehner, a professor of animal science and air quality specialist at UC Davis, who has proven that livestock contribute only 4.2 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Frankly, I don’t care that animals produce GHGs because it is all part of God’s plan and he put those animals on this earth to improve both the planet and human health as this program is proving through science.
There are so many aspects of this program that I could go into and will do so in my next book. This is the book that I have been re-inspired to put together because all of this good science reminds us that human life, since the beginning of time, has been improved by our relationship with animals. Adesogan did take a short walk down memory lane and shared about the growth in the size of the brain in the humans once we began eating animals. From draft to transportation to higher levels of cognition, so much of what we have to celebrate today is thanks to the animals placed here on earth in our dominion.
More information about the Livestock Lab, visit http://livestocklab.ifas.ufl.edu/about-us/.
Editor’s note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
