Delaware’s former secretary of agriculture Ed Kee visited our class and shared with us some valuable information regarding the work he has done throughout his career. His lecture kept my attention because he was once a student in the same classrooms in Townsend Hall that we are all in and eventually had the ability to share his knowledge from UD with the world in countries such as Ukraine. His words were inspiring and introduced me to a lot of things I was unaware of about Delaware and the world. Kee referred to Delaware as a food shed because we are an eight hour drive from 1/3 of the entire Unites States population. That statistic alone was enough to get me thinking about how important the Delaware agriculture system is and how the work we are doing and the knowledge we are obtaining now is going to have an impact on future generations to come.
All posts by kpkokal
Michele Walfred and Social Media
Being a skilled communicator has always been a way to have a leg up in real world industries. More recently communication though social media and how your portray yourself has been having an affect on people before they even step through the door for a face to face interview. The statistic that Michele Walfred shared about one in five applicants disqualifying themselves from an interview just because of how they show themselves through social media was eyeopening and gave me the idea that there are some changes I should be making. Some of these changes will be easy to make such as changing profile photos and creating a more detailed email signature while some may be more challenging. My first issue is inconsistency since my presence is non existent on some platforms such as Facebook and Google+ but prominent on others such as Instagram and Twitter. Making connections and building a strong network in your field via social media is very important in this day in age therefore it is critical that I put the time into building a brand for myself and portraying myself to the world as an agvocate.
Georgie Cartanza – The Evolution of the Poultry Industry on Delmarva
I always knew that the poultry industry was prominent in Delaware but I was unaware of the impact it has on feeding the east coast. Georgie was really great at explaining how it evolved and grew over time as well as stressing that everything that is done to keep the poultry process smooth moving and safe for consumers, farmers and chickens. I found the evolution of the chickens themselves to be most interesting. The fact that the birds look so different without the help of hormones and steroids is truly fascinating. It did take fifty years with a ton of improvements in genetics, nutrition, housing and technology but the poultry industry has come a long way. I also was happy to hear that the industry is conscious about the environment and that they are making changes in their practices to include things such as vegetative buffers and putting concrete pads near the entrances to help prevent ground leaching. I look forward to learning more about the poultry industry and our field trip this week.