Meatless Mondays. What a crock!

I made a commitment to write a blog more than a year ago. My focus and commitment didn’t last long and the result was a rather extended sabbatical! I felt liked giving it another go for several reasons. Once again, the intent will be to “connect the dots” relating to issues affecting the beef industry, social issues with potentially damaging unintended consequences and marketing. So here we go—again.

The first time I heard someone talking about “Meatless Mondays”, I thought maybe it was some movement to show solidarity for those less fortunate. Maybe it was genuine concern for those who didn’t have a choice about whether or not they could eat on any given day, much less eat meat protein. Was I ever mistaken! Oh no, it is a misguided movement attacking our food production system, specifically the beef industry.

Hardcore Meatless Monday advocates who believe eliminating meat from their diet for a day reduces our carbon footprint and somehow, magically, we are more sustainable, are delusional. They read what they want to read and believe what they want to believe and damned if the facts get in the way! They espouse junk science and follow the mantras of Michael Pollan, a sensationalizing journalist not a scientist, and others less notable but equally as influential to the uninformed.

Now Meatless Monday has morphed into MM for short and become the new and improved health movement. Check out www.meatlessmonday.com and see the A List stars and entertainers buying into the schitk. According to the website, a survey conducted by the Internet reservation service, Open Table, found that 69% of those responding reported they go Meatless Monday. Another 9% say they observe MM on occasion. The website also says, “Hundreds of chefs around the country use the campaign to raise health, boost sustainability and create compelling dishes.”

I beg to disagree. I’m betting a big, fat steak, (I prefer filet mignon—rare), hundreds of chefs use the campaign as a marketing ploy to sell higher priced, higher margin menu items to a misinformed demographic quite willing to pay for it. In fact, possibly the most telling chef to “sign on” is the famous contemporary king of all foods Italian, Mario Batali. What an oxymoron that Batali, whose made a fortune building a restaurant empire on the back of an unlimited supply of premium meats now takes a position encouraging his patrons to NOT EAT MEAT! With restaurants named Bar Jamon, Carnevino Italian Steakhouse or Manzo, billed as “a formal dining experience that celebrates meat from the U.S.” do I seriously believe he doesn’t want his patrons to eat meat? Not for a minute!

The Journal of Animal Science recently published, “The Environmental Impact of Beef Production in the United States: 1977 compared with 2007”. Jude Capper, Ph.D., Washington State University animal scientist, conducted the research comprehensively examining the beef industry’s carbon footprint. I find the research fascinating as a layman.

Then I watch the evening news. What’s even more fascinating, and potentially frightening to me is how quickly a perfect storm can build that combines ideology and ignorance. Special interest groups, smelling blood in the water, cherry pick provocative issues such as carbon footprint that make world news almost on a daily basis. Obviously, niche marketers and even restaurateurs have taken advantage of an opportunity to superficially “by in” and promote an unfounded, misguided concept. These days, we seem to have a difficult time distinguishing between social lifestyle choices and misguided ideology.

The beef industry is fortunate to have bright minds like Jude Capper. Jude not only conducted the research, she’s traveling countless thousands of miles getting in front of audiences to present her findings. One of Jude’s research conclusions refutes the claims of Meatless Monday. The claims are, in fact, baseless. As Capper rather humorously presents to her audience, “Even if we all went meatless every Monday, if we only ate lentils and tofu and magically didn’t give off any methane ourselves, it’s going to cut our national carbon footprint by less than half a percent.” “And then there are important considerations, like where would animal byproducts like leather, tallow and pharmaceuticals come from?”

It’s easy to say these socialized sound bytes bore me, and they do. But, I’m fearful we continue to take for granted consumers outside of our own, sometimes narrow, world view have any appreciation for our efforts to produce safe, sustainable food for the planet. I’m fearful they truly believe they know better than those investing generations of knowledge, experience and amazing science about how to sustain such an incredibly complex food system.

Jude Capper’s research is science we desperately need and need to understand. And now, we need to be aggressive and strategic about how we use it.

Positive Messaging and Great Prime Rib. Priceless!

Time is quickly running out to get a blog written before the holidays, so figured I best get serious about writing. As every blogger, writer or journalist knows, once committed to a schedule, those deadlines begin to move at warp speed! I applaud those who write everyday and give us meaningful news to read. When we decided to write a blog, our goal was to post two blogs each week. Geez, what were we thinking! Oh well, I can add being more timely about writing to my list of New Year’s Resolutions. Whatever.

In the past few days the lead story in most beef industry news outlets have been a report first printed in the Huffington Post. Now I suspect the Huffington Post isn’t on many of the beef industry folks’ list of daily news sources. To say the Huffington Post is liberal is an understatement. However, the recent article written by Ellie Krieger, dietician and host of Food Network’s “Healthy Appetite”, and published in the Huffington Post is a perfect example of what we, as an industry, simply can’t buy. It’s priceless. Krieger writes a tremendously positive article about beef processing, arguably the segment of our industry most vilified by the anti-meat liberal elite.

Krieger writes in explicit detail her very positive experience at a Cargill meat-processing plant. She doesn’t avoid talking about the part of the tour none of us enjoy, but understand the importance of. She does, however, present the process, from a consumer perspective, that is truthful yet respectful. Ellie addresses virtually every consumer concern from food safety to the humane treatment of the cattle.

The take home message for us all is this is objective reporting from a heavyweight in the consumer food business. And, no amount of money can buy the credibility she handed our industry on a silver platter. I have no idea who was responsible for getting Ellie Krieger to west Texas for a tour through the Cargill plant, but the results are nothing short of brilliant.

We all work very hard to get a positive message out in the consuming public. We hire world-class ad agencies. We have our own brand of spin meisters. We are attacking every social media opportunity en masse. We scrape and scrounge for every inch of space or internet impression to convince a massive public audience we are doing the right thing—producing a safe, healthy and humane product. Yet, nothing can buy or have the same impact as the Ellie Krieger article.

What Krieger did on a large scale trickles down. Seedstock producers can benefit from the same positive messaging tactic as long as there is—well—a positive message. Ellie Krieger simply confirmed a message we, as an industry, had previously been communicating. The difference is she presented her perspective, not ours.

Ellie stated, “I am sure not all beef processing plants are as exemplary as the one I saw, and I applaud those who expose unacceptable practices, but it is important (and I think quite a relief) to know that there is another side to the story.” I can confirm her statement from my own experience. My business partner, Julie Tucker and I were invited on a tour of the National Beef processing plant in Dodge City earlier this year. Much like Ellie described, our tour began on the fabrication floor and ended outside the plant at the pens where the cattle arrive.

Since touring the plant, Julie and I have had many conversations about our experience. I thought I had a good idea about how our product gets to the consumer. I was wrong. I had no idea of the integrity at so many levels, built into a massive system. I saw hundreds of employees working at a very fast pace with incredible skill and accuracy. I saw a state of the art order fulfillment system preparing beef to be shipped all over the world as well as a few miles down the road. Time nor space permit me to adequately describe the positive impression, not to mention pride, I felt as we drove away from the National Beef plant.

I concur with Ellie Krieger. I, too, applaud those who expose unacceptable practices AND there is another side of the story. She saw Cargill. Julie and I saw National Beef—both shining examples of our beef processing system.

This past Sunday, I prepared an early Christmas dinner for ten friends and family. An 8.5 lb. prime rib was the center of the plate menu item. I purchased the closely trimmed and tied house brand, USDA Choice, Angus prime rib at my local Sam’s Club. My dinner guests were not the least bit concerned about food safety and animal welfare. None would have any idea about how the beef, potentially, got from one of our customers to my oven and onto their dinner plate. They were most concerned that I was carving a large enough portion for their pleasure. In fact, I can easily say I’ve never seen an entire prime rib disappear as quickly as ours did on Sunday!

The Krieger story is a perfect punctuation to end 2010. Her voice reaches millions of consumers. Mine doesn’t. But my dinner guests left completely and utterly satisfied because they were the benefactors of an industry many of us invest our lives and livelihood into.

My hope for the coming year is that many more Ellie Krieger’s have opportunities for the same positive experiences she had and are willing to use their voice to carry our message. The results will be priceless. Merry Christmas and our hope for a prosperous New Year to you all!