A "hot topic" today, Ferket said, is gut health. "We're at a crossroads," he said, "a critical time with tremendous economic challenge."
He sees some contemporary challenges:
Economic sustainability. Some "companies will fall because they can't sustain a certain way of doing business";
Consumer confidence. While consumers have a high confidence in poultry, "we have to sustain that. There have been crises in pet food and peanut butter, and in the past we've had our own"; Food security;
The information explosion and the fact that a lot of information "is not very good"; and Global trade is becoming an issue. "We have to make sure our production system" fits what foreign buyers want.