We GOT IT, Thanks--A rebuttal to the beef technologies team marketing campaign
We GOT-IT, Thanks
By Troy Bishopp, 5th generation farmer
I have to give credit to the Growth Enhancement Technology Information Team (GET IT) on the recent power play for negating the benefits of a pasture-based system in modern beef production to the farmers and consumers of this country. The hard working, diverse grass farmers providing choice in the meat case sarcastically say thank you. I wonder what it’s like to have this kind of power to deliver bombshell propaganda touting a very narrow version (based on solid science) of how eco-friendly conventional beef production is over utilizing a self propelled, solar powered system to the mainstream farming media. What’s the agenda? If you happen to go to their website (http://www.beeftechnologies.com/about/index.html), you may find your answer.
I would have liked to be a fly on the wall (or pile) when the marketing team came up with “Grass is not sustainable or environmentally friendly or affordable as a plow/corn/fossil fuel based agricultural system.” I would have asked, “Are you kidding? Is that all you came up with?” Apparently these team members are very young and have limited exposure to live farming. They must have forgotten that grasslands have been around for centuries and that the prairie was the foundation for the USA. They failed to read the 1948 USDA’s Year Book of Agriculture featuring Grass or even the Bible.
Without any power or money and wearing an appropriate bulls-eye firmly implanted on my behind, it may be time to have a Smackdown on the farming playground, because the neighborhood bully is taking lunch money and kicking sand in the faces of grass-based agriculture. I am announcing to mainstream media an old world informational program for farmers and consumers that has proven the test of time.
My unofficial Grasslands Over Technology Information Team (GOT IT) is working with Mother Nature to introduce a new economic, environmental and social marketing initiative. This campaign informs “farmers,” not producers, and their community of consumers, who own “farms,” not food production facilities, that harvesting solar energy by grazing animals and holding topsoil in place reinforces an eco-friendly way of doing business. This promotion of local pastoral landscapes and ecosystems are endorsed and paid for by the distinguished Chairman of GOT-IT---GOD.
To make statements in the press release like “Grass-fed beef is not as environmentally friendly as conventional grain-fed production utilizing growth-enhancing technologies” or “Grass-fed beef is not as sustainable and needs 5 acres of land/animal to produce a pound of beef” seems downright ludicrous. It is apparent that ignorance is bliss and creating diversions and divisions between the stewards of the land and the educated consumer over price of product and the fear of a greenhouse gas meltdown will somehow justify GET IT’s adulterated campaign. The 1% natural, grass-fed niche market must be growing more than we thought to attract so much attention in the national scene. Beware Mr. Goliath when you take on us small Davids with friends like top chef in America: Dan Barber, Tallgrass Beef Company’s Owner: Bill Kurtis, Virginia Farmer and Nightline’s newest celebrity: Joel Salatin, and an organization like PASA.
In layman’s terms, there are issues that bother me about this latest “choice-based” decision to downplay the importance of pasture in beef production. The first being that any cow/calf entrepreneur or researcher from Iowa State knows that grass is what starts the whole process of feeding this country the protein it needs and wants. How many cows do you know that don’t utilize some/all grass to feed themselves or the calf? Darn few. So they are already grass-fed, right? If anyone has received Beef-From Pasture to Plate from the Beef Industry Council and NCBA you will find that GET IT, forgot it. The 5 acre analogy for producing a pound of beef seems uncannily like an unmanaged pasture system. Maybe the GET IT crew needs to meet some real graziers that get 3 pounds of gain per day, per head, per acre off diverse pastures or stop making generalities about management intensive grazing based on the marketing campaign.
The finishing aspects of beef production are always going to be up for discussion. This can be a contentious issue, but farmers can make decisions based on their own real numbers and personal philosophies and that of their customers. It is the land of the free you know. I’m sorry we need a marketing campaign from the input generals to pressure us. Feedlots, semi-feedlots, grass-covered feedlots or no feedlots are a personal farming choice. Just like feeding full grain with implants, some grain-feeding, a handful of grain or no grain or implants are personal choices.
I have been asked by the media to comment about the industry, these comments are my opinion only. It ultimately dances around to pitting one system over another and one farmer against another. If you ask me to bash my neighbor over feeding some corn and conclude he or she is not a good farmer, we have a problem Houston. The fact of the matter is, if all the agricultural inputs and technologies are so great to keep the beef affordable then why has our farming community been diminished to the point of extinction. And why has our next generation’s soil fertility been carried out to the sea by the wind and water.
Isn’t it time to rethink all the strategies and decisions we have used and pick the regenerative ones and go beyond sustainable thinking. I am a husband to the land, the ecosystem processes and its wealth creation. However I am somehow chastised that if this mission does not include buying many inputs or discovering the latest technology, I am not a positive role model, but actually a negative contributor to the production of food for my consumers. I am hurt.
The power grab and media attention by the Captains of Industry to influence farmers to join their program shows me that profits in the boardroom are shrinking and the choices by consumers are having an effect on the way we all do business. After all the bells and whistles have run out of fuel and you have to rely on the grassland stewards again, maybe then you will finally GET IT. Published in Lancaster Farming 6/27/2009