As Americans get ready for their summer vacations and Independence Day BBQs, we thought we’d take a minute to point out a great resource for learning about the folks who keep those burgers and hot dogs safe for us to eat. The resource is the AVMA’s Food Supply Veterinary Medicine site, and it’s a must-visit for anyone interested in food safety.

The AVMA’s Food Supply Veterinary Medicine site provides colleges of veterinary medicine, states, industry, other veterinary organizations, media and veterinary medical students with the recruitment tools they need to bring veterinarians into various food-supply veterinarian careers.

Why is it important to get people in those jobs? Well, as the world’s population rises, the wo rldwide 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.

Here’s something to chew on: our nation has a critical shortage of the veterinarians who work to protect us from food-borne diseases. 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.

Check out the site. There’s lots of great info there, like food supply veterinarian data maps and clarification of some of those food safety terms that are so confusing. And remember to thank the food safety vets while you’re enjoying your 4th of July BBQ.