By Kerry Rahm
krahm@wbcowqel.com
This year’s Rural-Urban Day, held Tuesday at the Hord Visitor Center, united both city and country over concern about local food supply and safety practices.
The event brought the Bucyrus Rotary Club, the Hord family, State Farm Insurance, and FFA students under one roof for discussion and education about the subject.
Attendees included farmers from Bucyrus, Galion, and even Richland County as well as city officials, Rotarians and Pioneer students.
Local FFA students opened the event with official proceedings, while Tami Tima, Bucyrus Rotary Club President, recognized all who contributed after attending to Rotary procedures. This gave way to the introductions of Duane, Pat, and Phil Hord.
Duane Hord touched upon the Hord family history, one that reaches back over 100 years and includes three generations of farmers now involved in the family business- operating their pig, cow, and grain farm.
Pat Hord, President of Hord Family Farms, delivered a slideshow presentation entitled “Feeding Families: Building Trust in Our Food System.” He emphasized five core values which local farms should treat as best practices.
“The past is connected to the future,” Hord said as he displayed a picture of a tree with branches labeled Courage, Trust, Innovation, Care and Empowerment as the five values.
“Feeding families through sustainable food production” is the Hord family’s core purpose.
The presentation was technically savvy as well, as Phil Hord connected to one of their pig barns via smartphone and took the audience on a real-time tour of the building. The demonstration illustrated how a pig is fed using a computerized tag affixed to the pig’s ear – a method employed to monitor exactly how much the pig has eaten and will need to eat at its next feeding. Later in the presentation, the sows birthing room was shown, complete with newborn piglets, just two to three days old.
Pat then continued the slideshow with points labeled “Trusting The Process” when it comes to concerns over food safety. These points include “Using locally sourced feed, supporting the judicious use of antibiotics (‘No meat that you purchase at the grocery has antibiotics in it,’ stated Hord), and maintaining a high level of biosecurity.” Biosecurity is all of the measures one takes to protect an animal against disease. Protocols are indeed in place if an animal becomes ill, and they include prompt veterinary care.
The hallmark of the presentation was an emphasis on the need for farmers to provide “excellent animal care and well-being,” a key factor which is crucial to food safety success. Pat and Phil then answered questions from audience members.
Tami Tima then related why Rural-Urban Day is an excellent opportunity for two sides of the same community to meet in the middle, and said, “I know nothing of farming, but working on this project every year has made us come together as a community.”
The focus of this event was not lost on one of the youngest members of the farming community, FFA President Ethan Stuckey. In regards to questions the average layman may have about food safety, he has this advice: “Don’t make assumptions, ask questions. Get to know where your food comes from… Ask a farmer.”