Ep 026 Temple Grandin. Not Just Outside the Box - She Redesigned the Damn Thing (for cattle, anyway)


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Sep 02 2019 30 mins   1
Temple Grandin is one of the most well-known and professionally-respected names in livestock production today, and has become a pop-culture icon. And for good reason. You might know many things about her. She brought awareness to the general public of the issues relating to autism. She has such a great story that they made a movie out of her story (Claire Danes in the role). She is an author with numerous books to her credit. She is in great demand as a speaker, and travels around the world to speak on things dear to her heart. She teaches classes on livestock handling and behavior at CSU. She is a consultant to the livestock industry, and has revolutionized and redesigned livestock processing facilities ("slaughterhouses," to be blunt) in a way that has not only become a more humane thing for the animals, but has eased the handling process and become cost-effective for the commercial side as well. A win-win, when trying to bring about positive change, as demonstrated by the fact that half of the beef processing plants in North America are said to use facilities designed in part by Dr. Grandin. All of those things have become a part of her commonly-known story. But what we found really interesting (among many, many things with this fascinating and highly intelligent woman) was that the thing that many people look at as a disability - being diagnosed with autism -- has become such an incredible strength for Dr. Grandin. She has the ability to observe life in detail, and get inside the head of the animals she is studying. By understanding things from the animal's perspective, she has discovered ways to figure out the "why" part of behavior in an innovative and insightful way. Bringing animal products to our table is something we have done for thousands of years - but Temple Grandin has brought more "humanity" to it in our lifetimes and for the future. We don't know if she could have done it without her unique perspective. Disability? Ha. We think not, and are thankful for it. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/agriCulturePodcast)