Veterinary Medical Education for Modern Food Systems: Setting a Vision and Creating a Strategic Plan for Veterinary Medical Education to Meet Its Responsibilities

Abstract

BACKGROUND Veterinary medicine had its origins in the supply of food. Nurturing the health of animals that are a source of food has been a central constituent of its professional responsibilities since its ancestral inception. The industrialization of civilizations gave veterinary medicine an expanded focus as supplying food of animal origin moved from being just part of the activities of individual small producers to larger and larger productionunitsthatareoftendistant fromlargepopulationcenters. Three major factors have arisen within the last several decades. Their dynamics now dominate the decisions of veterinary medicine as a whole and of food-systems veterinary medicine in particular: 1. Those now living within the increasingly urbanized communities have lost their connection with their formerly close neighbors who produce their food. 2. Increasing competition and technological advances have stimulated the development of today’s modern, often highly integrated, animal-food industry, with its ever-increasing demands for efficiency and cost-effective production. This has changed the entire set of dynamics between food-supply animal owner, food-supply processor and distributor, food-system veterinarian, and consumer.