Message from sender: Go Amanda....I think Trent had something to do with this protest.
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The Vocal Point
THE VOCAL POINT: Ambassador puts some bite into 'good news' about beef
By Dan Murphy on Friday, November 03, 2006
Most industry veterans are familiar with the National Beef Ambassador contest. Sponsored by the American National CattleWomen, the beef checkoff-funded program crowns a national winner each year in a competitive public-speaking program. The ambassador receives $2,500 in cash, a thousand-dollar scholarship and undertakes a year-long mission to become a "spokesperson and future leader for the beef industry."
The reigning Beef Ambassador, Amanda Nolz, is an 18-year-old Mitchell, S.D., high school senior set to attend South Dakota State University next year to study ag journalism and political science. In the news release announcing her ascension to the title back in January, Amanda said she wanted to combine her "passion for public speaking and the beef industry into a job that I'll love."
The public speaking she's already mastered.
As for the passion, what happened a week ago during a performance by Carrie Underwood, the headliner at the 2006 Future Farmers of America national convention in Indianapolis, ought to make every single person who considers him or her to be part of the meat industry to stand up and cheer.
Or, as more than 500 young FFA members did when Underwood began her performance on the Conseco Fieldhouse stage, stand up and walk out.
Shattering the dream
Underwood, in case you're unaware, is the much-heralded 2005 American Idol winner, an appealing young singer who, according to her "official" biography, "made her dreams come true, an uplifting and inspiring reminder of how you should always follow your dreams."
Your daydreams will end abruptly when you log onto Underwood's "official" Web site (www.carrieunderwoodofficial.com), however. Before you can even click on her bio, her tour schedule or her photo gallery – or most importantly, any of the ubiquitous "Buy Now" CD icons — you're treated to her latest twangy country single blaring out of your laptop at a decibel level that would cause the pitchman for Crazy Eddie's Used Kar Kastle to turn a shade of red nicely complementary of his plaid sports coat.
The song, "Before He Cheats," is a girl-power anthem celebrating a woman who keys her name into the doors and leather seats of her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend's tricked-out pickup, takes a baseball bat to the headlights and then slashes holes in all four tires.
Now there's an American to idolize.
Granted, the marketing of Carrie Underwood pretty much follows the blueprint for any other made-for-TV "superstar." But skimming her online bio makes one wonder: Who's writing this stuff? Paul Harvey?
Here's a snippet: "Growing up in the country, I enjoyed playing on dirt roads, climbing trees, catching little woodland creatures [presumably not edible ones] and, of course, singing."
Of course.
I'm sure that Ms. Underwood is every inch the fresh-faced performer who's proud to be the Poster Girl for Oklahoma's "Read, Y'all" campaign (I kid you not) and who honestly believes that her winning the American Idol competition was something that – according to her official bio — "only happens to characters on television."
But here's the problem with the politics of the Checotah, Okla.-born singer, and it's what prompted Ms. Nolz to organize an extraordinary protest at Underwood's concert during the FFA convention.
The Official Carrie Underwood Web site features a prominent link to the Humane Society of the United States. The link takes visitors to a recap of Underwood's support of last year's HSUS campaign to rescue pets stranded by Hurricane Katrina, a noble enough effort also supported by comedian Bill "Real Time" Maher, actress Wendie "Just Shoot Me" Malick and singer Persia White.
Yeah — I don't know who she is, either.
But HSUS is also the primary funder of Prop 204 to outlaw gestation stalls in Arizona and Prop 3 to ban dove hunting in Michigan, among other initiatives aimed at curtailing or marginalizing confinement livestock production.
Underwood is an avowed veggie who was named PETA's "Sexiest Vegetarian Alive" in 2005 and wore a "V Is for Vegetarian" T-shirt during her American Idol performances. None of that sat too well with Nolz, who grew up on a South Dakota ranch where her folks raise purebred Limousin cattle.
In true Generation Next fashion, Nolz created months of buzz on the Facebook Web site, outlining Underwood's anti-livestock affiliations and building momentum for a protest of her FFA show among the high schoolers heading to Indianapolis.
"I wanted to support FFA by buying a ticket to the concert," Nolz told Meatingplace.com, "and so I encouraged people to attend. But I was determined to make a statement that it's not acceptable for FFA to bring in a performer who supports groups that want to put animal agriculture out of business. The leadership of FFA just didn't do their homework when they booked Carrie Underwood."
As Underwood took the stage, Nolz arose and defiantly walked out of the arena.
Then turned around and realized she was all alone.
"For a moment I was worried," she admitted. "But then in small groups, and then larger ones, hundreds of kids started walking out. I couldn't believe how many people actually got up and left the show."
More than 500, according to witnesses and news reports.
In the end, Nolz said she realizes that a single protest by itself isn't going to change the world. But she emphasized that those who believe in agriculture need to stand up and be counted — not counted out.
"Carrie Underwood certainly has the right to be a vegetarian," Nolz said. "But I have a right to question her politics. I think it's important for anyone in the beef business to be willing to support producers and stand up for what they believe in."
As Nolz said upon assuming her ambassador's title, "I want to show consumers that beef isn't something that comes from a factory. It comes from real farms and ranches, from people who work hard every day to produce a quality product."
There are plenty of activists working hard every day to destroy the meat industry.
Other than Amanda Nolz, who's willing to stand up to them?
The line form right behind her.
Dan Murphy, former editor of MMT magazine, is Communications Integrator + Principal at Seattle-based Outsource Marketing and author of the forthcoming book, "Meat of the Matter."