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Dr. Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics, provided an update on the state of the meat and poultry markets. His main take away is that the demand continued to struggle late 2011.

The bad news is that these "annual" numbers for 2011 have been getting worse and worse as the year has progressed.

Steve reminds us that the indexes only describe how demand is changing, not why a change is occurring. He believes consumer incomes and spending was the major negative force in the domestic market in 2011.

Charts below from Paragon Economics, using USDA data.

Tony Flood, International Food Information Council, asks "How much time do you spend learning about something you don't think you'll need?" and provides insight on how this applies to food safety. He suggests creativity is key to implementing food safety.

How can we be better at communicating the risks of food safety? People are interested in food from a nutritional point of view and from a personal point of view. We need to make a link to those personal connections, bringing into the link the food safety aspect. We need to be better in tune with what consumers are thinking.

Learn more about the International Food Information Council Foundation via conversation with Tony Flood.

Dennis Treacy shares what sustainability means to Smithfield.

There are five pillars Smithfield looks at when talking about sustainability: Protecting the environment, animal care, food safety, how we treat our employees, and the communities in which we operate.

Smithfield actively works to help consumers understand their company and improve the relationship. Yes, Smithfield is the largest pork producer in the world. Smithfield works to communicate with the outside world about what they do as a large company, sharing the Smithfield story.

Using software and people to highlight issues is not new. But using it in agriculture is picking up steam. Food+Tech Connect and Gojee brought together journalists, tech designers, food/ag policy experts, and data gurus to explore the 2012 US Farm Bill. The goal was to highlight issues and extract data to support conversations and debate.

Antibiotics used while raising beef, poultry, and swine, has some scientists concerned. What should consumers know? Consumers are making their voice heard through new methods (ex, Chicago Public Schools buying antibiotic free chicken). Scientist continue to raise the alarm about the over use of antibiotics (ex, Union of Concerned Scientists petitions to FDA). And farmers and ranchers question the validity of stopping the prophylactic uses of antibiotics in food animals (ex, studies comparing US farm operations with antibiotic use with EU operations with no antibiotic use see no changes in antibiotic resistance).