Raising The Steaks

Thrown to the Wolves…

By: Michelle

I had the opportunity to sit in on a guest lecture by Gene Baur, co-founder of Farm Sanctuary and hear his viewpoints on animal agriculture. The audience consisted of a mixed group of ag students and faculty with most of them never having the opportunity to hear from someone on the otherside. If one was an average consumer and had little to no education about the livestock industry, then Mr. Baur’s discussion would have been very convincing and seemingly factual. Mr. Baur is a dynamic public speaker when it comes to feeding off of his audience’s emotions and guiding the discussion where he wants it, but that’s the only positive thing I could see, if you can even call it positive.

What Mr. Baur had to say differed completely from what his website had to say about what their organization was all about. The website presents a viewpoint saying that the organization is focused on “raising awareness about the negative consequences of industrialized factory farming and our cheap food system”. Today he discussed his advocacy for going vegan and that the ultimate goal of stamping out animal agriculture completely. While he stands on his soapbox of his own personal beliefs, the foundation of his speech was based on weak, unreliable science. And despite persistant questioning from several members in the audience, he seemed to always find a way to avoid answering the question and going back to his personal agenda.

The few audience members that could see Mr. Baur’s true colors were disappointed and disgusted. What concerned me the most, however, was that there were many ag students sitting in there absolutely confused as to what to think, let alone what to say or ask.

I feel fortunate to have had my experience as a Beef Ambassador and to be able to really see how public relations works on both sides of this particular issue. Also having the training and skills to be able to address people such as Mr. Baur is essential to telling our story.

But what about the rest of the students in that room? Some of these kids haven’t even seen the otherside and don’t have enough of a knowledge base to support their own cause. To have a powerful activist leader such as Mr. Baur come and speak to these students is like throwing these kids to the wolves. While the experience is important and being aware of the other side is essential, I think some preparation and perhaps even a practice session would have been much better than what had happened.

I guess my point out of all of this is don’t bite off more than you can chew, especially when it comes to something you really care about. In this case of defending animal agriculture, where the industry is dependant on consumer tastes and preferences, good speaking skills and research to back it up is key to having a productive discussion with anyone, vegan or not.

Tying it all Together

By: Leticia

With warmer weather and longer days, this could only mean one thing:  Summer is just around the corner!  What I like most about summer is getting to go home and help out on the ranch.  Only one thing stands between me and that trip home:  finals!  And while I should be studying for my statistics test, I am taking a break to reminisce over this semester.

With a full eighteen hour class load, I have had my fair share of homework, tests, and quizzes, but I think that the best measure of what I’ve learned is actually applying those skills I’ve learned in class to the real world.  What really surprises me is how much each of my classes relates to what the National Beef Ambassador team and I have been doing throughout the year.  So where exactly do those long hours of class lectures associate to what we do?  Well, here are just a few examples of how it all tied together.

Tuesdays and Thursdays started out at seven thirty in the morning, where I would go to my statistics class.  The relation:  When the National Beef Ambassador team went to Washington, DC, we actually got to tour the National Agriculture Statistics Service at the USDA.  It was there that we learned about their process to collect data and how that information eventually reaches out to the farmers and ranchers of our nation.  They taught us about the important role that these statistics serve in our economy and daily lives.  Well, I guess that stops my questioning about why Experimental Statistics is a required course in my major.

Next was my Meat Technology class.  Though it may have been my favorite, it was also my hardest.  A business major has no business in a science class!  What I liked most about it, though, was that it was the most relevant class to my job as a National Beef Ambassador.  We learned about what increases the tenderness of meat, about the meat processing line, and for our final we actually have to read an article about beef production and find the false statements and fix them….does this sound familiar at all?  One homework assignment that we had to do was visit the University of Nebraska’s bovine myology tutorial, which I had a hard time finding, until one day I was poking around on beef.org and found a direct link to it.  In the middle of a lecture on how to improve tenderness, I was reminded of our very first trip we took as a team was to the Certified Angus Beef headquarters in Wooster, OH where John Stika and the rest of the staff taught us about the “Science Behind the Sizzle,” and what products they had to offer consumers.

Speaking of consumers-I also had an agricultural marketing class that helped me realize different ways to create a product that consumers wanted.  The teacher lectured over ways to increase consumer demand, which is one goal of the producer funded beef check-off. Just as in my World Food Problems class, we discussed current issues facing the agriculture industry and finding that median between producers and consumers.

If there was ever any doubt in my mind about not learning enough in school, or worse, learning a lot of useless knowledge, it has all been put to rest.  In just a few days, Las Cruces will be behind me, my room mate will be left to man the fort on her own, and Hewey, our roping dummy in the back yard, will be given a few months of rest in our absence.  The Spring ’08 Semester will be over, books and notebooks will be closed and left on shelves to collect dust, and we students will trade hours of class work for hours of internship work.  But lessons learned in those closed pages of notes and in classrooms now closed will not be forgotten, instead they will be put to use, in our jobs, our personal lives, and our efforts in spreading the truth about beef.

Team ZIP and the 2008 Boston Marathon…

By: Michelle

With the sun shining and summer just weeks away, the athlete in me is itching to get out and stretch the legs. I’ve been busy playing and refereeing soccer games, but with the Utica “Boilermaker” 15k run coming up in July, I know I need to lace up my running shoes and start getting some miles under my belt. And with the recent trip back East for the 112th running of the Boston Marathon, I’ve never felt more inspired to get started. 

This year’s race had over 14,000 runners in it, with participants in their teens up to their 70’s. Individual runners were their for their own personal reasons but had one common goal of finishing the marathon with their heads held high.

The 2008 Boston Marathon Health and Fitness Expo was held April 18-20 at the Hynes Convention Center, where marathon runners and health-conscious consumer alike gathered to get the latest on how to keep their bodies in shape. Big-time athletic companies like Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Mizuno had some impressive interactive booths where one could go to see how they run via a video screen and a treadmill. There were also plenty of other booths with energy supplements, coming in the form of bars, chews, drinks and pills. But the booth that surprised a lot of people and was a big hit as far as taste goes was our beef booth.

Working with the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative, Pennsylvania Beef Council and New York Beef Council; fellow ambassador Jennifer Rassler and I handed out samples and spoke with thousands of consumers at this wonderful event. For the consumers’ sampling pleasure, we had Roast Beef Veggie Wraps that tasted great and a copy of the recipe so that even the worst of cooks (me being at the top of the list) could prepare this dish in minutes. And for those who were willing to try their hand at some beef trivia, we had steak rub to give away as prizes. We also had several handouts with great recipes and even more on nutritional benefits for not only athletes but also for children, infants, expecting mothers and more.

We surprised a lot of people with how beneficial beef really is, especially when it comes to an athlete and demanding so much of your body. With a 3-ounce serving being packed full of nutrition, including protein, zinc, vitamins B6 and B12, iron and more; the only way to match that is with a man-made energy supplement. Plus I think (and I think that others would agree with me on this) that beef is probably the tastiest nutritional supplement you could take.

So besides our hard work at the booth, we had the opportunity to sample some tasty local food as well as visit the oldest fire house in the city, which just so happened to be right outside the convention center. The station has one engine (#33) and one ladder truck (#15) and each respond to about 4400 calls a year. The guys were wonderful and I did take them some wraps and steak rub so they could keep their energy up in keeping us safe.

So all in all it was a great trip and I’m more inspired than ever to get out there and start running. The runners’ stories, the individual consumers that we reached out to and the friendly people of Boston have left me feeling good about sharing the story of beef and running towards a great summer.