The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) has presented the Distinguished Leadership Award to retiring President David A. Bossman for his leadership in the areas of feed and food safety throughout his AFIA presidency, focusing on methods of bovine spongiform encephalopathy prevention, international cooperation, biosecurity awareness, and third-party certification.
Bossman has been with AFIA since 1979 and has served as president since 1992. His retirement becomes effective at the end of 2004.
AMI Elects Officers, Relocates
The American Meat Institute (AMI) has elected six new officers who will serve the organization through the next year.
Elected to the chairmanship was Bill Buckner, corporate vice president, Cargill, and president, Cargill Meat Solutions. Buckner, a veteran of the Canadian meat processing industry, joined Cargill in 1987 and oversaw the construction and management of a beef processing plant in Alberta, Canada. He served as general manager of that plant until 1994, when he moved to Wichita, KS, and became president of Cargill’s worldwide beef operations. In 1997, he served as president of the Canadian Meat Council, and in 1998 was named president, Excel Corporation. Buckner graduated from McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, with a bachelor’s degree in commerce.
Robert “Bo” Manly, president and chief operating officer (COO) for farm and processing plant operations, Premium Standard Farms, will serve as AMI vice chairman; Richard L. Bond, president and COO, Tyson Foods, Inc., will serve as treasurer; and Robert Kopriva, chief executive officer (CEO), Sara Lee Foods, will service as secretary. Stewart Owens, chairman, president, and CEO, Bob Evans Farms, Inc., becomes immediate past chairman, and J. Patrick Boyle was reelected to serve a 16th year as the institute’s president and CEO.
After 24 years in Arlington, VA, AMI has relocated its headquarters to downtown Washington, DC. The new location is at 1150 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20036. The main phone number is (202) 587-4200 and the fax number is (202) 587-4300.
Crown Hires Technical Director
Crown Iron Works Company has hired Ken Carlson as technical director, Oils and Fats. Coming from RBD Technologies, a company he owned and operated since 1990, Carlson’s primary duties for Crown involve developing and implementing all technologies in regards to oils and fats processing. In addition to keeping Crown at the technology forefront, Carlson is also charged with supporting the company’s worldwide regional offices in their designing and building efforts. His career in the oils and fats industry spans more than three decades, beginning in 1973 with Alfa Laval.
FDA Issues Guidance Document on BSE-Positive Material
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a guidance document regarding restrictions on the use of materials from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)-positive cattle in animal feed. Guidance documents do not have the force of law, but instead describe the agency’s current thinking on a topic and should be viewed as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited.
The three-page document does not contain any new information, but primarily states that pursuant to Section 402(a)(5) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, animal feed and feed ingredients containing material derived from a BSE-positive animal are considered adulterated and therefore may not be used in any animal feed or feed ingredients.
The guidance document is available on Render’s Web site by clicking here.
Governor Comments on Grease Bill
Better known for his action-packed Hollywood movies, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is becoming renowned for his personal comments he occasionally places on legislative bills he either passes or vetoes. One bill that targeted grease collection received just such attention.
Assembly Bill 2633, introduced in May 2004 and passed by the state’s legislature in September, aimed at creating the “Interceptor Grease Transportation, Recycling, and Disposal Act of 2004.” The bill “establishes a new registration process to transport or manage interceptor grease, including the authority to deny, suspend, or revoke a registration based upon specified conditions; creates a new crime to transport or manage interceptor grease unless by a registrant; specifies requirements for removal of grease; requires specified manifest procedure and reporting requirements; designates who may receive interceptor grease and its use; and establishes penalties.”
Opposed by the Pacific Coast Renderers Association and other state agriculture groups, the governor vetoed the bill in late September and added his personal veto message:
“I appreciate the environmental damage that can be caused by the inappropriate handling, transport, and disposal of grease, including how this product can foul our land, rivers, and oceans. The California Department of Food and Agriculture has a system of regulating grease hauling while the Integrated Waste Management Board regulates waste. We have existing regulatory authority to address this issue. I am directing the Department of Food and Agriculture in coordination with the Integrated Waste Management Board to review and upgrade its existing system to improve the tracking and enforcement of laws governing disposal and transportation of restaurant grease.”
Kemin Appoints Team Members
Kemin AgriFoods North America has hired Andrew Yersin as product manager for pathogen reduction products in North America. He will lead the company’s pathogen reduction marketing efforts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America.
Yersin joins Kemin from the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, IA, where he had been leading the poultry program. He was previously with HyVac SPF Biologicals and Novus International. Yersin has held teaching positions at Penn State University and Texas A&M University, and has published extensively. He holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s degree in poultry reproductive physiology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and completed his PhD degree in avian patho-physiology at North Carolina State University, Raleigh.
Sheldon Spratt has joined Kemin as key accounts manager for the central United States. A graduate of the University of Missouri, he has held a number of sales positions in the feed industry, including several years at both Wayne Feeds and Kent Feeds. Most recently, he was sales manager for Trisler Seed Farms.
Renderer Opens Doors to Public
It is a brave renderer who invites the general public to tour their plant, but Rothsay did just that with great success. The Canadian renderer placed an ad in the local paper welcoming all to tour their Truro, Nova Scotia, plant on Friday, October 1. The final count was 37, which included a few government officials and agriculture folks but mostly the general public.
“All who took in the tour were very surprised overall…not what they envisioned,” said Kurt Cormier, Rothsay’s Atlantic region manager. “One government official strongly recommended that his fellow members of parliament should take in a tour.”
Located across the street from a cement plant, Rothsay’s Truro facility collects and recycles over 1.7 million pounds of material every week from over 1,200 customers throughout the Atlantic Provinces. Rothsay has been part of the community since 1950.
“I think in the right setting, it would be to our benefit to have policy makers, especially government representatives, to tour modern-day rendering facilities and heighten awareness on the role renderers play in the agri-food industry,” commented Cormier.
Smithfield Acquires Cattle Feeder
Smithfield Beef Group, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Inc., has acquired MF Cattle Feeding, Inc., from ConAgra Foods, Inc. The principal assets are three cattle feed-lots in Colorado and one in Idaho.
The one-time feeding capacity of the feedlots, which will be operated by Smithfield’s Packerland subsidiary, is 357,000 head. The acquired assets do not include any of the cattle currently located on the feedlots owned by ConAgra. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Research Center Established
Sixteen University of Alberta, Canada, researchers with a combined total of $41 million in research funds have formed the Alberta Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases. Prions are related to misfolding of proteins, an event which is related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s syndrome, and chronic wasting disease.
BSE has been an especially high priority research issue in Canada since an Alberta cow with the disease was discovered one and a half years ago. Dr. Andy Greenshaw, associate vice president (research), said work conducted at the new center will help solve mysteries of the disease, tackling it from a wide variety of disciplines.
The center’s researchers, which include seven Canada Research Chairs, come from diverse backgrounds. Dr. Stephen Moore, Department of Agriculture, Food, and Nutritional Science, is researching the genetics of BSE, hoping to discover why some animals contract the disease and why some don’t. Dr. Linda Pilarski, an oncologist, has been working with electrical engineering professor and researcher Dr. Chris Backhouse on a hand-held device that could detect cancer and analyze it to help determine the best course of treatment, quickly and inexpensively. Pilarski, one of the center’s new researchers, feels interdisciplinary work is the only way to go in solving prion and protein-folding problems and hopes her research could lead to live tests for BSE – something that is presently unavailable.
Dr. Richard Rachubinski, Department of Cell Biology, has been named director of the center.
December 2004 Render