Proceedings, 1997

National Extemporaneous
Public Speaking
Sponsored by American Farm Bureau Federation
Extemporaneous public speakers are not only faced with the challenge of giving
top-notch presentations, they have to do it with only 30 minutes of preparation. The
national winner received a $300 award, second place earned $275, third place $250 and
fourth place $225.
National Winner Second Place
Chris Welti
Plant City FFA Chapter
Plant City, Fla.
Solving the Problem of
Bacteria Contamination in
Food
Chris Vitclli, Plant City Fla.,
FFA Chapter-
Many of you may be familiar
with the late successful retailer Mr.
Sam Walton of WalMart fame. But in
the late 1950s Mr. Walton was a
struggling businessman about to open
his second five n' dime store in
country town of Arkansas. Mr.
Walton needed to attract lots of
people for his grand opening, so he
decided to give away watermelons
and free donkey rides out front for the
kids. As it started getting hot and
humid they swung the front doors of
the store open wide. Much to their
surprise it began to pour down rain.
Once the lightning began the donkeys
got spooked and began running
around outside the front of the store.
During the process, the donkeys
stepped on the watermelons, crushing
them into mush. The mush
eventually mixed with the watermel-
ons and the donkey manure, creating
an incredible mess. As the heavy rain
continued, this conglomeration
spilled through the front doors onto
the floor. Needless to say, it wasn't a
pleasant sight for Mr. Walton and his
second grand opening.
But do you know this scenario
certainly wouldn't have pleased the
food safety sector or the agricultural
industry even in the late 1950s.
Today we will focus on food safety
concerns and how we can combat the
vith contamination of our
Paul Lewis
Groton FFA Chapter
Groton, S.D.
foods. We will start by identifying the
food safety issues of today. Secondly,
we will focus on technological
advancements which play a key role
in combating the problem of food
safety. And last but not least, we will
focus on the governments role of food
safety in this country. But we'll start
with my first point of analysis, the
food safety issues.
Infectious disease and outbreak
investigations bring both excitement
and frustration. It's exciting to know
that the USDA is cracking down on
those who violate the meat and
poultry laws. But in retrospect, it's
also very frustrating to hear about
food safety problems every day.
Recently, American consumers
witnessed what the USDA calls the
largest recall in beef history.
A local newspaper in my
hometown, The Parade, reported that
Hudson Foods of Columbus, Neb.,
recalled 25 million pounds of beef.
The beef was recalled because of 17
cases of E. coli 0157:H7 were
detected in hamburger patties in
Colorado, and were traced back to
Hudson Foods, Inc. This case,
followed by a recent case with Beef
America Plant which recalled 170,000
pounds of contaminated beef, has
American consumers very apprehen-
sive of the future of food safety in this
country. We the American consumers
can control contaminants within our
homes by keeping a clean cooking
environment and cooking our food at
correct internal temperatures. We
must continually rely on the
government and the agricultural
industry to explore technological
15
Third Place
Josh Tewalt
Meridian FFA Chaptei
Meridian, Idaho
advancements for the future of food
safety. As you will see in my second
point of analysis, technology plays a
key role in combating the food safety
problem with food contamination.
On September 1, 1997,
Newsweek magazine reported that
food irradiation is one approach to
eliminating disease-causing bacteria.
In relative terms, food irradiation
involves exposing food to certain
amounts of ionizing radiation to
control contaminants such as E. coli,
salmonella or Hepatitis A. It's
important to realize that irradiated
food is not radioactive. And
according to the FDA, it does not
constitute a health risk. By law all
the irradiated food must be labeled
as such. Some consumers may be
very apprehensive of the future of
this technological advancement. But
in retrospect, it took 50 years for the
pasteurization of milk to gain
acceptance.
You see, technology plays a key
role in solving some of the food
safety problems. But until the
American consumers can identify
and accept technological advancements
such as food irradiation, we
must allow the government to
intervene and make strict regula-
tions. As you will see in my third
point of analysis, the government
plays a key role in the future of food
safety problems as well.
A recent Newsweek poll stated
that 51 percent of Americans are
taking greater precautions with
home-cooked food. An additional
poll stated that 62 percent of
Fourth Place
Katy Poth
Liberty Union FFA Chapter
Pickerington, Ohio
Americans want the government to
take strict regulations on the future
of food safety problems. The
government must comply, and meet
the food safety problem in our
American society. One way of
reaching this goal is outlined in the
Washington Newswve on August 19,
1997, which states that the
government will implement the
Hazard Analysis Critical Control
Point system (HACCP). HACCP
identifies key control points in food
processing plants to eliminate
contaminants. In addition, as of
right now the USDA has no authority
to mandate the recalls or stop the
distribution of those who violate the
meat and poultry laws. However, on
August 29, 1997, a USDA publica-
tion stated that U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Dan Glickman proposed
his law entitled the Food Safety
Enforcement Enhancement Act of
1997, which would give him the
authority to take government action
on those who violate these laws. The
government plays a key role in the
future of our food safety.
In conclusion, Sam Walton
learned a great lesson. He learned
that food safety is essential to anyone's
future in the industry of agriculture.
And the agricultural industry is
learning that food safety is very
important for the future of their
industry. The American consumers
must continually become educated
about technological advancements.
At the same time, we have to rely on
the government for the future of our
food safety concerns.