Grant Opportunity: Supporting Animal Health and Food Safety in Ukraine

Aug 16, 2022

Among the many consequences of Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an increased risk to animal health and food safety due to weakened monitoring, testing, and control systems. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service is offering a grant opportunity to provide technical assistance to Ukrainian agricultural producers, focusing on the detection and mitigation of animal diseases and prevention of their introduction into the food supply. The work will be conducted in coordination with FAS staff in Kyiv and Washington.

This work will support the recent Memorandum of Understanding between USDA and Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food to enhance coordination between the U.S. and Ukrainian agri-food sectors, sharing information and expertise and building a strategic partnership to address food security.

Source : usda.gov

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.