A Look at Beef Policy Issues

This article was first published by Nebraska Farmer on April 21, 2021 and is excerpted here with permission.

Cultivating scholars and leaders for agriculture's future is a central tenet of so many of the University of Nebraska’s educational programs and efforts. Helping future leaders to understand production agriculture, the broader agribusiness sector and the numerous policy issues affecting agriculture also is a priority.

One program that directly addresses this need is the Nebraska Beef Industry Scholars program, an interdisciplinary effort of faculty in multiple departments in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, as well as the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The NBIS program’s 12th class of scholars finished their classes this spring, each of them earning a minor focusing on beef industry issues to go along with their existing major in CASNR.

For students in the program, the final semester of their senior year focused on policy issues in the beef industry. The group was not able to travel to industry conventions and engage in policy discussion and development as in previous years because of COVID-19 cancellations and restrictions.

However, the group still analyzed a range of policy issues and interacted with leaders and experts in agriculture to develop a strong understanding of the scope of several policy issues affecting the beef industry today — and the challenges in moving forward with policy choices.