Thinking Out Of The Box With Beef

Several years ago, USDA research chemist John Finley, who works for the USDA's Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, was troubled by an article in a local newspaper calling for an end to research into “yuppie food and nutrition" so that more effort could be focused on improving beef production.

As a former cattle producer, he understands the frustration reflected in this view, but he still believes it is dead wrong. “Production research that optimizes cattle feeding or reproduction will help producers,” he says, “but only minimally.”

“Why are people eating less beef?” he asks. “The answer is that many people see eating red meat as unhealthy. People associate eating foods such as broccoli or milk with words or phrases such as ‘healthy’, ‘strong bones’ and ‘protection against cancer or bone disease.’ Yet beef is associated with ‘heart disease’ or ‘cholesterol.’ In other words, beef is seen as something with good taste, but poor health benefits.”

The solution, Finley says, will involve convincing consumers “that beef has a place in a balanced diet.”

“Perhaps consumers ate too much beef 30 years ago, and perhaps they consumed too much fat,” he says. “But those problems have been fixed, and omitting beef entirely from the diet means losing a primary source of certain minerals, vitamins and protein. Proving and publicizing the nutritional benefits of beef is the only way to reverse declining consumption, and thus the only way to really halt the decline of the beef industry.”

Posted by Jim Langcuster at February 27, 2004 08:46 AM | TrackBack