Agricultural News
Dr. Russell Cross Tackles Pink Slime Controversy
Mon, 07 May 2012 17:07:02 CDT
The recent Pink Slime media frenzy was a major attack on the U.S. beef industry. So far it has taken 1.5 million cattle off the market and has cost at least 600 workers their jobs.
In an editorial for the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Russell Cross says the campaign which caused these losses was "totally bogus and not supported by the facts." Cross goes on to say that the cattle industry for too long has assumed the media were "playing by a set of rules that required facts and truth, but this was not the case."
Cross's editorial wonders if the beef industry's impotent response to the Pink Slime controversy has set the stage for a Pink Slime II event. Certainly there has been no shortage of attackers seeking to exploit any chinks in the industry's armor to advance the attackers' economic, social and political agendas. If the industry doesn't do something-and do it fast-Cross says more attacks will surely come. He cites numerous examples about how effective the beef industry has been in increasing efficiency and sustainability for the last 30 years, yet almost no one outside the industry knows this.
Cross recommends that everyone in the beef industry get on board to improve communications all the way up the chain from the farm to the grocer. The facts, he says, are clearly on the side of the producers, but the word just doesn't seem to be filtering down and taking root with consumers.
Cross says universities could do more to equip producers with the tools to tell their story more effectively with the public. They could encourage students to engage and explain how agriculture is feeding the world. He says communications technologies such as the social could be used more productively and proactively to avoid the next Pink Slime type incident.
You can read the full text of Cross's editorial here.
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