Academic Food-Supply Veterinarians: Future Demand and Likely Shortages

The Food Supply Veterinary Medical Coalition (FSVMC) was formed in 2004 with a mission to assure the public that food continues to be abundant, safe and wholesome by ensuring that veterinarians are appropriately involved throughout the food supply system. The premise of the Coalition is that food production is enhanced, both in safety and wholesomeness, when veterinarians are included in all steps of production and processing. Listed alphabetically, the following organizations are the founding members of the Food Supply Veterinary Medical Coalition (FSVMC): American Association of Avian Pathologists, American Association of Bovine Practitioners, American Association of Food Hygiene Veterinarians, American Association of Small Ruminants Practitioners, American Association of Swine Veterinarians, American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, American Veterinary Medical Association, Association of Veterinary Consultants, and the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. Although not officially a member, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association was very supportive of this research program, and was instrumental in data collection in Canada.
 This study was commissioned by the FSVMC in May 2004 to implement a far reaching research program to examine the demand and supply trends for food animal veterinarians and the issues shaping those trends. The study was funded by the FSVMC and a grant from Bayer Animal Health. Similar in spirit to earlier extensive research on the veterinary profession provided in the KPMG mega study and the Pew report, the final report, entitled "Estimating FSVM Demand and Maintaining the Availability of Veterinarians for Careers in Food Supply Related Disciplines in the United States and Canada" consists of over 1600 pages that describe many different studies on various facets of the supply and demand for food supply veterinarians. Representing 16 months of literature review, data collection and analysis, the entire report can be found at the following website: http ://www.avma.org/public_heal th/f svmc/fsvmc_toc.asp. Three summary articles have also been published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) that highlight the major findings from the research program. The first article deals with veterinary student career path attraction to food production medicine in the USA and Canada. The second article, examines career switching and the retention of food supply veterinarians in the career. The third article15 addresses the patterns of growing demand for food supply veterinarians. Each article contains recommendations to improve the profession based directly upon the results from this research.
 The research program that examined demand issues from 2004 thru 2016 in food supply medicine was comprised of thirteen panels of experts who participated in a multiple-round Delphi forecasting exercise. The research program addressing career attraction and career retention issues consisted of 1 7 studies, seven focus group studies and ten surveys, which provided insight into FSVM career path attraction and retention in the United States and Canada. Unlike some previous studies, this study found that there will likely be a 4% to 5% yearly shortfall in bovine-interested veterinarians graduating from US and Canadian veterinary colleges over the next 10 years. As demand for these veterinarians will rise only a modest 1% per year, most of this shortfall will be due to a lack of supply of new bovine-interested veterinary college graduates. To alleviate this shortfall, multiple tactics were suggested to: increase the likelihood of recruiting bovine-interested veterinary students into veterinary college, create cattle interest in students already in veterinary college, help these students as they begin their careers post-graduation, and provide further ongoing support to prevent them from switching from bovine medicine in their first five years of practice.

"Thinks curriculum model a start in right direction . . . . Thoughts on food supply veterinarians . . . . Revision to gallbladder mucocele article" published on 15 Jun 2004 by American Veterinary Medical Association.

Food supply veterinarians who intend to enter dairy cattle practice or other related career activities are in need of up-graded skills to better serve the dairy industry as it continues to evolve. The time available for students to increase their abilities within the conventional professional curriculum is scarce, especially as those with food-supply interests are a minority of students competing for time and resources. The dairy industry has need of skilled veterinarians who are not only well versed in their traditional capabilities, but who also have an understanding of the complete picture of that industry as a "farm-to-fork" experience. Society at large also stands to benefit from the presence of skilled dairy veterinarians contributing to the production of safe, affordable dairy foodstuffs in a manner deemed sustainable and humane. Veterinarians in practice can and do acquire the necessary skills to make themselves relevant to their clients and consumers; however, better preparation of entry-level veterinarians could increase their value to their employers, clients, themselves, and society in a more timely manner. Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine developed the Summer Dairy Institute to provide an avenue for advancing the skills of new veterinarians as a means to address the current and future needs of the dairy industry. This article describes the need for, concept of, and experience with that program.

Food supply veterinarians who intend to enter dairy cattle practice or other related career activities are in need of upgraded skills to better serve the dairy industry as it continues to evolve. As knowledge in all phases of veterinary medicine increases, the time available for students to increase their specific abilities within the conventional professional curriculum becomes more difficult, especially for those with food supply interests, as they are a minority of students competing for time and resources. The dairy industry has need of skilled veterinarians well-versed not only in their traditional capabilities, but also with an understanding of the complete picture of that industry as a "farm-to-fork" experience. Society at large also stands to benefit from a presence of skilled dairy veterinarians contributing to the production of safe, affordable dairy foodstuffs in a manner deemed sustainable and humane. Veterinarians in practice can and do acquire the necessary skills to make themselves relevant to their clients and consumers; however, better preparation of entry-level veterinarians can increase their value to their employers, their clients, themselves, and society in a more timely manner. Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine developed the Summer Dairy Institute (SDI) to provide an avenue for advancing skills of new veterinarians as a means to address the current and future needs of the dairy industry. The SDI has accumulated, from its nine years of existence with 183 participants from 38 veterinary colleges, valuable insights to aid in constant improvement of its offerings. This article describes the need, concept, and experience with the program.

With the global population projected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050, the need for nations to secure food supplies for their populations has never been more pressing. Finding better supply chain solutions is an essential part of achieving a secure and sustainable diet for a rapidly increasing population. We are now in a position, through methods including life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon footprinting and other tools, to accurately measure and assess our use – or misuse – of natural resources, including food. The impact of new technologies and management systems can therefore improve efficiencies and find new ways to reduce waste. Global Food Security and Supply provides robust, succinct information for people who want to understand how the global food system works. The book demonstrates the specific tools available for understanding how food supply works, addresses the challenges facing a secure and safe global food supply, and helps readers to appreciate how these challenges might be overcome. This book is a concise and accessible text that focuses on recent data and findings from a range of international collaborations and studies. The author provides both a snapshot of global food supply and security today, and a projection of where these issues may lead us in the future. This book will therefore be of particular interest to food policy leaders, commercial managers in the food industry, and researchers and students seeking a better understanding of a rapidly evolving topic.

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Synthetic biology and other advanced biotechnologies hold a great deal of promise for medicine, public health, manufacturing, and national economies, but they also have biosafety and biosecurity implications. Using synthetic biology techniques, it is possible for a nefarious actor to acquire a viral pathogen made with chemically synthesized pieces, versus having to acquire samples of pathogens from an environmental source or from another laboratory. It is also possible to test many parallel approaches for designing new functions into existing pathogens, given that the costs of DNA synthesis continue to drop; this has dual-use implications for biodefense. These biosecurity concerns do not replace the existent challenges prior to the advent of synthetic biology but add to them, as early non-synthetic biology paths to biological weapons development are still able to be used to make biological weapons. In addition to biosecurity concerns, there are biosafety implications of synthetic biology, as the techniques are powerful, they may be used outside of traditional biocontainment, and because relative newcomers to biological containment are entering the field.

This article is a version of Professor Smith's Presidential Address as delivered at the annual meetings of the Eastern Sociological Society in Boston, March 2022. Most sociologists go into the field hoping our work will help address the inequalities or injustices we study, but academic institutions and careers strongly guide most of our work away from the engagement needed to have such impacts. With others, I argue for changes in academic careers and institutions to better recognize, promote, and reward publicly engaged sociology, which would help academia honor its social contract. I briefly engage Burawoy's concept of public sociology, then propose types of publicly engaged sociology that align with how many sociologists do such work: Reframing/Debunking Sociology, Institutionally Engaged Sociology, and Community Engaged Sociology. Next, I analyze several obstacles to publicly engaged—and especially community engaged—sociology, including epistemic assumptions and evaluative practices stemming from instrumental positivism, belief in a canonical Hawthorne effect as a clean experimental finding, and a bias against research that helps research participants or partners. Finally, I offer advice and strategies to younger sociologists wishing to do such work and recommend ways academic institutions and practices could better support publicly engaged sociology, including by training students and faculty in how to do it, creating a Journal of Publicly Engaged Sociology, and amending ASA's Code of Ethics.

Purpose This chapter examines whether the supply of food is large enough to feed an increasing world population for the 2012–2050 period. Special attention is given to the implications of bioenergy production on global and regional food security. Methodology/approach For this analysis, a global food security simulation model was developed to determine if the global and regional supply of food, in terms of calories, is large enough to meet the demand and also to estimate the impact on food prices. Findings This chapter found that the global supply of food in terms of calories is insufficient to satisfy food demand in 2050, with food shortages especially significant in Africa. Practical implications The estimated shortage of food may result in significant food-price inflation by 2050.

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Purpose: Choosing between an academic career and a private practice career is a difficult and critical decision for GI fellows. Many complex factors come into play when making this career choice. We conducted a nationwide survey of US GI fellows to identify key demographics and job-related factors to analyze this decision making process. Methods: A survey was emailed to all US GI Fellowship program directors and distributed at several fellows' endoscopy courses. Fellows filled out surveys via one of these two routes only. The survey queried respondents on their personal, educational, professional, and financial backgrounds and goals, and included a free response area where other factors could be addressed. No remuneration was offered for participants. Data was compiled and evaluated via univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: 184/404 (46%) US GI fellows submitted completed surveys. Univariate analysis identified one factor that predisposed fellows to pursue private practice: the perception that an academic salary would not meet their financial needs (p=0.04). Univariate analysis identified 4 factors that predisposed fellows to pursue academic practice: Age >35 years (p=0.003), prior attainment of a Master's degree (p=0.01), advanced fellowship training (p=0.0001), and a perception that academicians worked fewer hours (<60 per week) than private practice physicians (p=0.008). All of these factors except the perception regarding work hours were also statistically significant on the multivariate analysis. If salaries were equal, 108/131 (82%) fellows who answered the question would choose academic practice over private practice (p<0.0001). Fellows selecting academic practice were strongly motivated to publish and conduct research. The desire to teach was not a strong motivator for either group. Surprisingly, existing level of debt, the presence of a positive relationship with a mentor, and research experience were not significant factors in the decision. Conclusion: Salary plays a key role in the decision to pursue academic versus private practice, with those desiring more money strongly favoring private practice. Fellows choosing academic practice tended to be older, plan to pursue advanced training, desire fewer work hours per week, and appear to have a stronger preexisting academic background as evidenced by a high rate of prior graduate study. If salaries were equal in both academic medicine and private practice, the overwhelming majority (82%) of fellows would choose academic medicine.

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