farm blogger helping farmers blog
At his blog, Meat of the Issues, Travis is dedicated to helping consumers better understand the science behind the meat industry.
1. Tell a little about your ag background.
, and was exposed to academic agriculture research at a very young age. In addition, Arp Family Farms has been in existence for nearly 125 years. It has always been a diversified livestock and crop operation, raising hogs and cattle as well as raising corn, soybeans, and hay. In the early 90′s, my dad bought our first group of purebred Gelbvieh cows and we started Arp Gelbvieh. This got my siblings and I involved in 4-H and FFA at a young age, and we grew up showing purebred heifers and steers, as well as the occasional market hog and lamb. My family currently runs all of our cows at my grandparent’s farm in north-central Missouri, where we have about 75 head of purebred and commercials cows. I have a small group of cows that I own and market the bulls and heifers born annually.
I really saw a need for science based ag information. I was friends and colleagues with Dr. Chris Raines at Penn State University and really admired the creative work that he did with www.meatblogger.org. He and I discussed frequently ag, specifically meat science, blogging and had always encouraged me to give it a try. With is passing, it really inspired me to charge ahead with it and pick up where he left off.
As much as anything, though, being involved in the meat industry, I’ve noticed the disconnect between what we do and what the consumer perceives or thinks we do. As a whole, our industry isn’t the best at consumer relations, and I hoped that by starting this, I could shed some light to meat science practices in a consumer friendly medium that would hopefully open some eyes to the quality product farmers, ranchers, packers, and processors produce.
Hopefully I can keep writing about pertinent ag issues and become a reliable source for consumers questioning where their food comes from. People question science constantly, but I’m hoping my blog can eventually be a partial bridge to that gap between industry and consumer. I would of course like to write more, but the schedule of research and writing my dissertation are a little inhibitory to that. I’d also like to update my format and customize it a little more to make it more user friendly and look a bit more polished. I’m very new to the blogging game and threw my site together rather hastily. Hopefully I can dedicate more time to changing the format. But as always, I just want to write meaningful posts that readers will enjoy, discuss, and share with everyone else.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/travarp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
I think Travis’ blog looks pretty darn good for just throwing it together. What do you think? Do you have any questions for him?
Hello, I'm FARMnWIFE: A wife that farms in the middle of the mid-west. I created this site to help anyone involved in ag to raise their voice and tell their farm story online by creating or improving their blogs.
