Guest Lecture Georgie Cartanza on the Evolution of the Poultry Industry

On September 9, Ms. Georgie Cartanza visited our classroom to teach us about the Evolution of the Poultry Industry. In teaching us about the Poultry Industry, she elaborated more about the field trip we took to her farm. One thing that I found to be the most important thing about her lecture, was when she showed us a picture of what meat chickens used to look like from 1957 to 2005. In seeing this picture, I understood why others would think that farmers were pumping the chickens up with steroids because of how big they seemed in year 2005. In 1957, chickens were only 905 grams, but as time progressed the average chicken was 4,202 grams. The reason why we have bigger and better chickens today is all due to better genetics. The better the genetics, the better the bird will look. She also mentioned that the number one challenge in the Agriculture Industry was image. Being able to shed a positive light on the Ag Industry is highly important because people always have misconceptions about what happens within the Ag community. In stating this, I learned from Ms. Georgie that we have to understand where the miseducated person is coming from, and then try to inform them on what actually happens. As a whole, I really liked Ms. Cartanza’s lecture because it gave me more insight and knowledge about the Industry, and this is something that I’ll always remember.

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