I wish I could tell you all about the fantastic adventure I had on Saturday at "Sheep and Goat Education Day" in Tooele, but I can't because I wouldn't consider an adventure, exactly. The only adventurous thing about it was getting up at 4:30 am to catch my ride there. The rest of the day consisted of sitting on hard bleachers in a cold barn and trying to understand complicated lectures (and trying not to fall asleep!) and only ONE sheep and two lambs. Bummer. I did get to try sheep stew and sausage which were good. I also ate some goat sausage- but I don't think I'd order that at a restaurant or anything. It tasted a little bit like what I imagine a goat would taste like if you took a bite out of it while it was still alive...
There were a few sessions that I really enjoyed- one by a veterinarian (who works for USU Extension) named Dr. Rood. He spoke on "Public Perception of Livestock" including "10 Ways to Lose to the Argument About Animal Ethics." I loved that presentation. It reminded me again of why I'm an Agricultural Communications major. Maybe in a few posts I'll put some fun clips on here about how agriculture is framed in the media.
I also really enjoyed a presentation on BioClip technology, it was really interesting. Basically, they have this new technology being developed in Australia for wool sheep (specifically Merino or Merino-related breeds), what they do is inject a megadose of the natural hormone that makes your hair fall out, so that the sheep sheds all their wool and you don't have to spend time and money on shearing them. It seemed really cool, I'm excited to see what will happen when the technology comes here.
Do you know anything about the horse slaughter debates? I've been hearing a lot about them recently. The gist is, from what I understand, that horses shouldn't be slaughtered because they are tools for humans and should be revered, or considered pets, like cats and dogs, and not eaten. So anyway, apparently they're trying to ban horse slaughter in Italy, where the consumption of horse meat is actually very popular. You can read the article here. What do you think? Are horses too valuable to eat?
Last of all, I've started working with my coach Rayne on interviewing questions. I'm excited for the interview round, I think that's something I'm naturally pretty good at, and I'm hoping with some training that I'll be really good at it. Also, my friend Brittney gave me the phone number of a woman who may be able to help me- she trains beauty pageant queens. I feel like I'm reconnecting with my parents this week...beauty pageants (Mom was a beauty queen) and Tooele (my Dad was born there). Weird.
Have an awesome week!
Rachel
No comments:
Post a Comment