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As the world's population increases, the worldwide demand for food from animals is also expected to increase by 50% by the year 2020. This, coupled with agroterrorism threats, emerging diseases and the increased globalization of the food chain, are all increasing the demand for food supply veterinarians.
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Food Supply Veterinary Medicine, Part III: The Food Supply Veterinary Shortage
Cows...and pigs... and sheep... and goats...and poultry need veterinary care, too. But if the shortage continues, there won't be anyone around to do it. |
Not only is the demand rising, our nation is in a critical shortage of veterinarians working to protect our food supply. Only about 17 percent of veterinarians work in food supply, including practicing veterinarians and veterinarians working for governmental and corporate organizations. This is in contrast to the turn of the 19th century, when virtually every veterinarian was a food supply veterinarian. Moreover, research forecasts a shortfall of 4-5 percent per year in the ranks of food supply veterinarians.
We are at a crossroads.
Americans are demanding, now more than ever, healthy and wholesome food, and there aren't enough veterinarians on the front lines helping to make sure their expectations are met.
The AVMA is one of many organizations working to spread the news that food supply veterinary medicine is at a critical juncture and deserves national attention. This is why it is so important to us to share information, build coalitions, lobby for legislation and to help recruit more students into the food supply field.
We need more veterinarians, including new graduates, to enter and stay in food supply careers. We need more veterinary medical students to consider the careers in food supply veterinary medicine and more pre-veterinary students with plans to go into this critical discipline of veterinary medicine.
This is why the AVMA is dedicated to the goal of promoting food supply veterinary medicine. We are working with state veterinary medical associations to advocate for food supply veterinary medical legislation. We are working to provide tools for state agencies and college administrators to use to help train and retain food supply veterinarians in their states. We are also working with our veterinary allied partners and industry to post their recruiting tools, opportunities and other incentives for veterinarians on our Web site.
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