Rancher with a cause: Trent Loos advocates agvocacy

Twelve years ago something happened that compelled Nebraska farmer Trent Loos to stand up and speak out on behalf of his industry. “I got pissed off,” he says bluntly. The sixth generation rancher attended a PETA-organised event in South Dakota where movie actor James Cromwell urged a group of 300 ranchers to stop farming livestock. The actor told the gathering that after making the movie Babe, he believed that pigs should be our friends, not our food. Trent says something snapped inside. “That was the day that I said I’ve got to stop complaining about people and what they don’t know, and find a way to get them what they should know.” So he started talking. Talking to people in his supermarket, his gas station, his tyre repair shop, anyone he could find that wanted to talk about why we need animals in agriculture. His message resonated and his audience grew, leading to regular radio shows, newspaper columns and now a full-time speaking career. He now speaks in 40 US states each year, as well as Canada. Last week he addressed the Australian Lot Feeders Association annual conference in Toowoomba and a Meat and Livestock Australia Agvocacy day at Durong in Southern Queensland. He was invited to Australia after nutritionist Matt George saw him speak in San Diego and urged MLA to fly him out to talk to farmers here...more