The American Veterinary Medical Association has launched “Chew On This,” a podcast about food safety and protecting the [U.S.] food supply. Dr. James Cook, AVMA President, says, “We’re going to explore and investigate many of today’s topics surrounding food – where it comes from, how it gets to our tables and why it’s important to keep our food safe, abundant and affordable.”

We mention this because the premiere episode, published this week, is a Thanksgiving show, featuring a poultry expert discussing holiday meal safety. I wish this technology had existed back in the late 80’s, when I cooked Thanksgiving dinner without my mother’s help … I baked the turkey, unaware that there was a bag of stuff inside it that was supposed to be removed first.  It was pretty gross. (I’m a much better cook now, thanks).

This begs the question: why (human) food advice from veterinarians? The association says they do this because their 76,000 member veterinarians are “engaged in a wide variety of activities dedicated to advancing the science and art of animal, human and public health.”

Pet-related podcasts are also available from the AVMA website.