There is so much to pack into each ACS conference (or maybe because many of the attendees work with dairy animals) things start early; with breakfast at 7:30am, Kevin and I woke at 6:00am with the sun clearing the horizon and the Progress Energy building across from the Marriott; the moisture in the air is visible this early, though the locals say that we’ve been very lucky. The temps have *only* been in the 90s the last few days, and that trend is forecast to continue — a serious cool down for August.

After breakfast (largely of Vermont cheese for me, though muffins and bagels were also available) Temple Grandin kicked off the conference this morning. She had a lot to say about animal welfare, organic versus conventional agriculture, BIG ag versus small ag, Europe vs. US ag, and the shocking lack of basic biology knowledge in the general public. Her speech was inspiring, especially in how she was able to convince huge corporations to care about the animals the processed– she claimed that right now more than 50% of the animals slaughtered in the US are processed using equipment she designed. The speech was also reassuring because I know many farmers who are using similar measures to what she described as necessary so that any animal has “a life worth living” even if they are grown to become meat.
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