Agricultural News
Brad Morgan and Performance Food Group Offer Cutting Edge Programs to Market Beef
Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:18:58 CDT
At the beginning of 2015, foodservice distributor Performance Food Group added Dr. Brad Morgan to their corporate leadership team as the Senior Director of Protein for the national company. Dr. Morgan told participants at the Southern Plains Beef Symposium in Ardmore this past Saturday that one of his roles with PFG is to help develop branded meat products that can be marketed nationally to more than 150,000 independent and national chain restaurants, quick-service eateries, pizzerias, theaters, schools, hotels, health care facilities and other institutions.
Dr. Morgan began his career as a professor in Meat Science at several Land Grant schools- including Oklahoma State University. He most recently worked as Director of Beef Operations for Zoetis before accepting the position with PFG. Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Dr. Morgan in Ardmore at the Symposium and their complete conversation can be heard by clicking on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of this story.
Dr. Morgan said Performance Food Group aims to take any food product beyond being a commodity. In working with the food service industry, he said they have set out to give restaurant owners what they want, whether that's a lighter carcass, a smaller ribeye or an ideal amount of fat or marbling. He said they are listening to their customers and creating products that their customers desire for their restaurants.
Performance Food Group is also aligning the beef industry through their program called "Path Proven". Morgan said this aligns the cow-calf sector to the feedyard to the processor, distribution and end user. This is a traceability program, where a DNA sample is collected from each animal. He said this allows them to trace back each animal in the program.
"We're going to trace the path of where this animal came from, until it ends up on our plate in your restaurant today," Morgan said.
"Path Proven" isn't just for beef. This includes pork, seafood and even vegetables. Morgan said the program can identify the farm where vegetables came from, including the field and how the vegetables where handled and washed.
"We're just making sure we're doing what we say we're going to do, we do it on a consistent basis, we make it as cost effective as we can and we're telling that story," Morgan said. "That story has to be told and that is part of the program that we're trying to sell that accompanies all the produce, all the beef, all the protein that we sell to end-users."
Consumers continue to demand more traceability domestically as well internationally. Morgan said having the ability to trace-back product will allow U.S. beef producers to compete with Australia.
With tight cattle supplies, Morgan said this has created the opportunity for producers to be more efficient and make more money per head. In the interview, Hays and Morgan discuss Performance Food Group's programs like Progressive Beef and Braveheart Black Angus Beef. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below to listen to the full interview.
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