Celebrating 25 Years of Beef Checkoff Food and Nutrition Communications
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Suggested Lead: In the simplest terms, “consumer information” means food and nutrition communications, particularly about beef nutrition and other taste and associated qualities. As is clear in mainstream media on a daily basis, anti-meat factions are strong today. The difference between today and 25 yearis that the beef industry is armed with facts to keep or return discussions to science rather than emotion.
In its first 25 years, the checkoff has delivered billions of consumer impressions from positive beef messages through recipes, messages, spokespeople – including health professionals and other consumer influencers – media placements, and tools/materials such as the popular 50-page Confident Cooking with Beef booklet and the Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner website, which serve as 24-hour-a-day resources to consumers looking for reliable beef information.
Today we’re talking with Dave Bateman, feeder/farmer from Oregon, Ill., and former Beef Board chairman, about the historical accomplishments of your checkoff investment into programs which empower consumers with knowledge.
Bateman 1: “As this program started, beef was under the attack and still is, obviously, but beef was the villain if you will in many ways and has been attacked from a nutrition standpoint and from a health standpoint. And we didn’t have, number one, we didn’t have the research to back up defending the product and number two, we were in a debate with chicken if you will, about the health benefits and chicken was king of the kind of the golden part of the health issues. And what has happened as we did the research and go, ‘You know what’ – if you’re using lean meat, we’ve got a real good story to tell and we’ve got the research to back it up. And the research indicated that there’s virtually no difference from a health standpoint and lean beef can fit into a healthy lifestyle, a healthy diet, and that beef should be a part of that healthy diet. And the other side of it is that not only from a nutrition standpoint but from the added benefits – the zinc, iron, protein – that you get from beef that’s not found in other places. Those things were benefits that we didn’t have the research 25 years ago to back up and counter those claims that were made by other entities.” (1:12 seconds)
Bateman says the checkoff started with science and then had to find a way to get the resulting news about beef to consumers worldwide, in ways that they could grasp easily.
Bateman 2: “The reality of it is that we can produce the best product in the world, but if we can’t convey that to the consumer, then somehow we’ve failed in the process. And so what we’ve done is been able to identify through various media sources, ways in which to communicate the message of nutrition and health, the messages of leanness, the messages of not only tastes good but is good for you. We’ve been able to do that because we’ve got media partnerships and we’ve gotten some really solid relationships – American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association – we’ve developed relationships with those kind of folks and we have not only the research to back up what we’re saying but we’ve got credible people that say, ‘Yeah, you’re right. This is exactly right.’ And they’re willing to put their name on it and go on and say this is credible. So it becomes a third party endorsement of what we do, and it’s a way to reach consumers in a very factual way and they can’t just say, ‘well yeah, but that’s just beef advertising.’ No, we’re talking about people who are professionals in the health industry that agree with those processes and have made those statements and brought that to the forefront with our consumers.” (1:06 seconds)
In the past 25 years, consumer attitudes about beef and protein have drastically shifted, but Bateman says more changes are coming.
Bateman 3: “To be honest with you, my crystal ball isn’t clean enough to tell you exactly what the future is going to look like. Given where we are in the protein market today, in the world protein market and the economies, I’m not exactly sure but I know that the importance of taking this message to the consumer has not diminished, it’s probably increased in importance. And so we need to continue – as people get told, well you can buy beans cheaper or you can buy this cheaper to substitute for the protein source – the reality of it is we need to balance our diets and I think in the next decade we’re going to make some adjustments worldwide in how we use protein. But I think there’s a significant place for beef in the diet and I think it will continue to be.” (:44 seconds)
So what does it mean to a producer to know that their investment is going toward programs like Consumer Information?
Bateman 4: “One of the things that I think is critically important is that we understand that this is a producer-funded program. We believe in what we do, we believe in the product that we raise. And for us to see a benefit for our investment we have to look at things like the Lean Cookbook and the ways in which we continue to explore the avenues of health and nutrition and taste that bring that to the forefront. And that’s how we continue to have consumers that buy the product. And it also helps us to understand what kind of product the consumer is looking for. What is it that they want? And that product has evolved over the last 25 years as well. We’ve looked at ways in which to make the product that’s more identifiable and more palatable to the consumer.” (:45 seconds)
Be sure to tune in again for the next in our 6-part series celebrating 25 years of the beef checkoff. And for more about your beef checkoff investment, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.
Funded by the Beef Checkoff.
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