Agricultural News
NCBA President Worries About Consumer Hysteria Over Pink Slime
Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:55:46 CDT
The President of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, JD Alexander, spoke to the opening Board of Directors Meeting of the Texas and Southwester Cattle Raisers Association in Ft. Worth on Friday afternoon- talking regulations, legislation and public perception.
He told the cattle raisers from Texas and Oklahoma that he relies on the Washington, DC staff of NCBA to watch for issues and legislation that will need to be addressed- hopefully before anyone else realizes the threat. He compared their work to one of a cattle producer watching his cattle- noticing the very first signs of an animal being just a little "off" from its normal behavior- and then pulling that animal and treating it for BRD or another disease based on the early symptoms. He had had high praise for Washington team working for NCBA, saying they have kept the industry ahead of more than one situation while he has been an officer.
Alexander talked about the hot topic of the day for the cattle industry, the public perception problems with what the industry has called lean fine textured beef- and the general public has been told is "pink slime" by ABC News. He refused to speak the slang term- but did make reference to a full page ad in USA Today that came out on Friday from Wendy's fast food restaurants. The ad asks the question that came from the famous Ad campaign of that chain two decades ago- "Where's the Beef?" They inserted the word "pure" just ahead of the word beef in the ad- and then answered their question with this statement- "At Wendy's, that's where! We use nothing but pure, 100% fresh, never frozen North American beef:
"We've never used fillers, additives, preservatives, flavor boosters or ammonia treatments.
"We've never used "pink slime" and we never will.(Never will was underlined)
"That's our promise to you. That's Wendy's Way."
Alexander, who lives in the state of Nebraska, says he went last week and toured the only remaining Beef Products, Inc processing plant that remains open after the hysteria over their process of mechanically trimming the last bits of beef from the bone- separating it from the fat and ending up with a pure lean beef product that can be added back to beef trimmings to make a lean ground beef. Along the way, the point of controversy seems to be using ammonium hydroxide gas to adjust the pH of the beef and control bacteria like e-coli. He says the process is very safe and helps the industry get as much as 15 pounds of lean beef to use in making ground beef from every animal.
After his presentation to the TSCRA, we talked with the NCBA President and he admits the industry has been bested to this point by a social media tidal wave, mostly by consumers who have never seen the process, don't like the name and are fearful of the ammonium hydroxide treatment, equating that to being unnatural and done by big bad corporate agriculture. He believes that education can help, but is unsure how to best undo the damage that has been done.
Farm Director Ron Hays talked with Alexander about regulations from the Obama Administration, Legislative issues including the battle to eliminate the Death Tax and the 2012 Farm Bill- and this huge battle the beef industry has walked into in recent days over pink slime and how this type of "attack journalism", while not new, has a new component that makes it even more deadly- that component being social media.
Listen to Ron and JD talk about these issues by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
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