Chef’s view of animal welfare to be presented at upcoming symposium

Chef Michael Formichella, president and co-owner of Chella Foods, will present his unique perspective on animal welfare Aug. 9 during the Center for Food Animal Wellbeing’s second annual symposium on advances and current issues in food animal wellbeing. The center is a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and the University of Arkansas.

The event will be on the university campus at a location to be announced. Registration is free. Those planning to attend should register by Aug. 3.

Formichella has more than 40 years of culinary experience directing food product development – from creating ideas, conducting research and development through the introduction of new products into the marketplace. A Certified Master Chef, he leverages an international scope of experiences and disciplines to produce innovative products. He has presented his skills on nationally syndicated television shows.

“I am excited about bringing speakers with international reputations to speak on animal welfare research and related issues of current interest to those of us in animal agriculture,” said Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton, director for the Center for Food Animal Wellbeing.

Other topics that will be presented include Undercover Videos – It Can’t Happen to Us; A New Look at Feed Withdrawal; Communicating from TV to Pinterest; New AVMA Euthanasia Guidelines; Dairy Welfare and Milk; Factors Impacting Public Perceptions of Animal Welfare and Rights; Enforcing Animal Welfare Standards, and Why Science Isn’t Enough – What Consumers Need to Trust Today’s Animal Agriculture.

Thaxton said the goal for the Center for Food Animal Wellbeing is to improve animal health, animal handling, food safety and productivity by developing and defining objective measurements of wellbeing including measures of behavior, stress physiology, neurophysiology, immunology, microbiology and production efficiency.

Registration information and the program are online at http://foodanimalwellbeing.uark.edu/AnnualSymposium.html