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A few years ago I had an interesting exchange with a young man from the Bronx in New York City. We were doing a little welding job at a smelter in Columbus, Montana. While waiting to start work early one morning, we were drinking coffee and talking when this guy from the Bronx piped up with his complaint.
"Man, it stinks around here", he said.
I looked at him and asked what he meant. I couldn't smell anything. We thought he was referring to the smelter.
He says,"It smells like cow **** everywhere I go around here".
I told him that folks in this part of the country raise beef and the smell was just an added bonus. I knew he was from New York City, but I still was surprised by his next statement.
"I don't know why anyone would wanna raise cows. If ya wanna steak, all ya gotta do is go to the store and buy'em".
I and a few others tried to explain that someone had to actually raise the beef before a steak could be had. He didn't get it.
Has the rancher really done that good of a job telling his side of the story? Do we really need beef comercials in Wyoming (or the ranching states)? Or, could that money be better spent teaching the big cities where their food comes from?
Food doesn't come from the store. That's where it goes.
 
We don't need beef commercials in Wyoming, but the beef producing states also have the most ag-friendly media. Also the most affordable media. I believe that many of the big beef states defer some of their checkoff dollars to other, more urban states for use in promotion. We should absolutely focus on urban areas as much as possible. It takes quite a little coin to do that. :shock:
 
That is my biggest "beef" with the beef check-off. They spend untold millions "preaching to the choir". Ads in every single trade publication. We are going to eat beef regardless. Spend that money in Dallas, Chicago, LA, New York, ect..

It's as if they don't have a lick of common sense. That is my money and I want them to spend it BETTER.
 
Back in High School in FFA we went to elementary schools and did "Foor For America". We'd spend an hour showing a movie and talking about how food gets from the farm to the plate. Then we had a feild day where all the schools would come to our ag barn and we had animals and canned fruit and such where they could see hands on what ranching and farming was like. Our high school was a town of 20000 and we would find kids in every class we went to who thought milk came from a jug and beans from a can. That was in the 80's. It can't have gotten any better. EVERYONE, from me to the check off dollars, needs to do a better job of educating folks who buy our products.
 
I remember as a kid, I was watching the news with my folks one evening and they were discussing the farmers on strike. The farmers were all driving their tractors to Washington. The news anchors were asking the publics opinion about the strike and how they thought it would affect them. One lady allowed that she supported the farmers in their plight, but it wouldn't affect her at all. She'd just go to the store like always.
 
My wife was in a college physiology class when the prof. made a reference to the grain of meat in relation to muscle type. A girl beside her wrinkled up her nose, "eewwww, meat is made from muscles?".
Our brightest new minds...........
 
Before we had the money for advertising (rancher dollars going into
the beef checkoff) there were horrible anti-beef articles that ran
in all the womens magazines. After those same magazines started running beef ads, that stopped and the magazines began running
postive news about beef. That was advertising money can't buy.

I don't want to turn this topic into a beef checkoff debate, just sayin'
what happened to get the women's magazines to give a better slant
on eating beef. You guys wouldn't know about that, cuz I bet you
don't read women's magazines. It made a huge difference in what
was put out to women about beef. Before that, they ran every celeberity
they could that bashed beef. Afterward, they ran celeberities that
touted beef...even in diets.
 
I heard a stat, not to long ago, I't stated that 50 years ago over 45% of the US population had a direct connection with agriculture, either worked or lived on a working farm or ranch. Today it is less than 2%. Very few people in the US have any concept of what it takes to raise crops or livestock and how gov't policy, weather, fuel price, etc impacts the end cost. If you ever want to have your eyes open talk with someone that lives in a large city and has no knowledge of ag.
 
Or come with me to the farmer's market in the summer.

One day a little girl looked at at package of green beans, and asked me what they were. I told her they were beans, but I don't think she believed me. Beans are little brown things that come in a can. Then there was the lady who was amazed to find out that red peppers are the same as green peppers, only riper. She was old enough to know better, too.

The toughest one was on the day I had to try and explain what to do with raspberry jelly to someone who came from China, didn't speak English, and had never eaten toast for breakfast... :)

We spend a lot of time explaining what to do with the fresh produce we sell, but the people who are there are there for a reason, and that's to learn about it. There are more of them around all the time. People are getting tired of food in a box with unknown ingredients. A backlash is beginning, and that leads to opportunities.
 
Do you think more advertising will git that fella at the construction site educated? You couldn't explain it to him face to face.
 
Faster horses said:
Red peppers are the same as green peppers, only riper?
I didn't know that! So, what are yellow peppers?

I know I can eat red and yellow peppers, but green ones
upset my stomach.
Click to expand...

Maybe the reason they upset your stomach is because you are eating green red peppers. Y'know, like green apples?

Yellow peppers are the ones that aren't green anymore.

:lol:
 
Greybeard--the wife or the woman usually buys the groceries for
the family. That's why it was so important to direct beef advertising
to HER.

Down here yellow and red peppers are a lot more expensive than
green ones. I certainly had no idea they were one and the same.
 
thought we lived in an ag comunity , we took a bum lamb to the grade school one day, had to explane to the teachers what an orpanded lamb was. One techer too offence to the lamb being named dinner too
 
Did you know that peppers are rich with the antioxidants lycopene, carotene . Also red have much higher levels than green, one large red bell pepper contains 209 mg of vitamin C, which is more than double the 98 mg in one large citrus. So eat lots of peppers ... :)


To educate the public you need to target the shopper or the cook in the family. Also I bet when men do the shopping at some point they go straight to the beef, most likely steaks . :wink:

It is sad that some of my old friends that I went HS and college with have no clue where food actually comes from and what is entailed to get it from the farm to the plate. I grew up in the city too, but was always educated where the groceries in the store actually came from .
 
Do we really need beef commercials in Wyoming (or the ranching states)? Or, could that money be better spent teaching the big cities where their food comes from?
Food doesn't come from the store. That's where it goes.
Click to expand...

Living out east for a bit longer then I planned or would have liked to, I think ad education would be wise, There are alot of misconceptions, but most people somewhat understand where the food comes from,.

the funniest comment I overheard was from a woman who "loves" veal, when confronted with it by one of her friends, after the "lecture" she acknowledged that the veal factories were cruel,.

she said it would be better if they let them run free and grow up before making veal out of them.. :?

I didn't have the heart to inform her of the problem with her logic,
 
I was in southern Calif. visiting my brother and family. I showed my nephew a picture of me plowing with my horses. He proudly proclaimed that he knew what that was. A Tractor.
 

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