Dan Severson spoke to the class about the livestock industry in Delaware. He touched on something I found very important, the business part of the industry and how family farms will often create an LLC or corporation to protect their personal assets. He also went over the main historical events that contributed to agriculture today.

In terms of meat consumption, beef, pork, and poultry are the top three consumed. These are followed by lamb, veal, and goat. Something surprising to me is the consumption of goat meat in the US. I would have expected it to be a lot lower.  I thought it was interesting how diverse the beef farmers are in Delaware. Many people raise beef for more local markets, and they are small producers. We have a lot of direct market beef. Feed lots are typically more out west in the US.

Comparing how much we spend on food in the US to other countries is also surprising for many people. He gave the example of Russia spending about 30% of their income on food versus the US spending 11% total. Also, he made the point about how fortunate we are to have such diverse options year round.