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TEAM ZIP?

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Now we have a Team Zip? How many checkoff dollars is this costing?
Who makes up Team Zip? Is it a bunch of NCBAers that needed someone to pay for their flashy spandex ?

Maxine -You a Zippy in spandex :???:

http://powerofprotein.blogspot.com/

http://darenwms.blogspot.com/

And I again see that the checkoff still refuses to advertise what we produce- USA BEEF, Born, Raised, and Slaughtered-- but they will still advertise a specialty product - LEAN beef...
 
Oldtimer,

I would guess because in some instances the born, raised, and slaughtered is not true.

Prior to BSE about 15% of Montana ranchers shipped their calves to Canada to be fed and then they returned to the US to be slaughtered. Thus, they were not fully raised in the US.

Additionally, many ranchers on the border buy cattle out of Mexico, again not born and not fully raised in the US.

Team ZIP is a promotional ploy by NCBA but they are going into cities and talking to people who do not know where their meat comes from besides the grocery store. Thus promoting your product with your checkoff dollars. If more ranchers were required to do store visits similar to what Country Natural Beef make their cooperators do in Portland, Sacramento, and San Fransico, such a team wouldn't be needed. But I don't think Glendive or Terry need people educating in the grocery stores. Maybe you could offer to learn the curriculm and go into Billings or better yet Missoula in exchange for paying checkoff dollars.
 
Coin, "Thus promoting your product with your checkoff dollars."

The problem with just promoting generic beef is that they are also promoting our competition's product. Whenever any beef is sold that came from a place other than the US, one of our tax-paying kin just lost out on a sale. The current situation is like having Ford pay for an advertising campaign that just promotes pickups and not Ford pickups. It makes no sense.

We need to promote a brand awareness of US beef to maximize efficiency from the checkoff dollars spent and to prepare for the future. If you look down the road just a little, you'll see tons and tons of foreign beef coming here thanks to the efforts of the USDA and NCBA. We have to get our consumers in the habit of buying only US beef today if we are to stand a chance tomorrow.
 
Sandhusker said:
Coin, "Thus promoting your product with your checkoff dollars."

The problem with just promoting generic beef is that they are also promoting our competition's product. Whenever any beef is sold that came from a place other than the US, one of our tax-paying kin just lost out on a sale. The current situation is like having Ford pay for an advertising campaign that just promotes pickups and not Ford pickups. It makes no sense.

We need to promote a brand awareness of US beef to maximize efficiency from the checkoff dollars spent and to prepare for the future. If you look down the road just a little, you'll see tons and tons of foreign beef coming here thanks to the efforts of the USDA and NCBA. We have to get our consumers in the habit of buying only US beef today if we are to stand a chance tomorrow.
Click to expand...

The just collect it on USA beef.
 
Sandhusker I don't disagree with you there but until COOL is implemented you won't see the US Brand unless it is from a niche market or branded beef product. Thus, are we shooting ourselves in the foot for marketing beef in general at the present? Are we losing customers by explaining the amount of zinc in one 3 oz portion of beef can be obtained through 13.5 portions of salmon? OR A 3 oz serving of beef contributes less than 10% of calories to a 2000 calorie diet, yet supplies 51% of the daily protein requirement?

Or is NCBA setting the stage for when COOL does happen for consumers to make decisions such as: Do I want US, Canadian, or Austrailian beef instead of do I want all the above or chicken, or pork or fish?
 
I think we've been shooting ourselves in the foot by not having COOL nor a US product focused checkoff. Now that COOL will be a reality, the checkoff should be ready to change their stance and begin promoting US beef only the day COOL is enacted.

I think we're losing sales by putting "3 oz." into the heads of our potential customers. McDonalds is trying to get people to super-size and we're telling people to eat an appetizer sized portion?

I also think we're giving ourselves a bloody nose by falling into the "lean beef" bandwagon. Robert Mac can tell you more as he has done a lot of research on that, but there's a whole lot of science that is now telling us not to avoid animal fats.

When the checkoff is telling people to eat 3 oz of lean beef, that to me, is implying that we have a product that is only partially good for you - depending on the part - and even then, you shouldn't eat much of it. That's not a very good sales pitch. That's not going to deter people from choosing chicken, pork, and fish.

I don't have much faith in NCBA.
 
3 oz is the set portion size for all meat products by the USDA, including poultry, pork, and fish. Are we losing sales by following the guidelines, I don't believe so. IMHO your opinion on supersize compared to portion size may show the obvious differences in nutrient concentration between the two products. You don't have to supersize a steak to get the RDA of the nutrients needed.

The lean beef bandwagon is an interesting topic. While 67% of the US is overweight, 33% being obese and close to 5% morbidly obese, why wouldn't we tout lean beef. The poultry and fish markets have had the market cornered for years on "health-concious" or dieting America. You look at any women's magazine and the recipes and dieting strategies will talk about chicken and fish not beef because for too long we didn't do the lean beef bandwagon. It has just been in the last 5 years that the beef councils have started the "try cuts with loin in the name" along with figuring out which cuts of beef are lower in fat then a skinless chicken thigh.

Lean beef doesn't take away from the prime rib, tri-tip or choice steak market. I think it adds and allows more consumer choices of beef compared to non-beef alternatives.

I am not saying to put your faith in NCBA I ride the fence between them and R-CALF but I do get frustrated with ranchers' cussing their efforts to try and help the industry while they sit at home and do not help themselves.

I raise cattle and horses, work a full time job, along with doing public speaking on the safe, wholesome product I produce. I speak at schools, rotary clubs, college classrooms, grocery stores, and have been known to get on my soap box at a party or bar if someone is spouting off misinformation.
I don't tell you this for bragging, I just wanted to let you know the information isn't a press release from NCBA, nor do I have any affiliation with them including a membership.
 
I applaud you for taking initiative and promoting beef. This industry needs more leaders like you and less people sitting on their hands.

The USDA using the 3 oz portion doesn't change my argument about what message I think we're putting out there about only eating a little bit of certain parts. I think it does hurt sales because you're putting "3 oz." in consumer's heads. We're trying to sell beef, we should be putting "8 oz." in their heads. I really don't care what the USDA has to say, they're not doing us any favors. Look at the date that they first came out with their food pyramid and compare that to when the obesity rates in this country really took off. Their track record isn't real shiny.

I don't think we should be using the fat statistics to promote lean beef because "fat" beef doesn't make people obese. We should be promoting the healthful aspects of animal facts via a beef delivery system. The reason the magazines and what not mention chicken and fish in their "healthy" articles is because of misinformation on animal fats. They're not bad, they're good. I think that if we jump on the lean bandwagon, we're just perpetuating a falsehood that is costing us sales. We need to vigorously challenge the notion that "fat" beef is unhealthy.
 
COIN said:
While 67% of the US is overweight, 33% being obese and close to 5% morbidly obese, why wouldn't we tout lean beef.
Click to expand...
Do you believe beef fat is responsible for the obesity problem?...heart disease?...cancer? Isn't that what is implied to the consumer when the beef industry promotes 'lean beef'?
 
COIN said:
Oldtimer,

I would guess because in some instances the born, raised, and slaughtered is not true.

Prior to BSE about 15% of Montana ranchers shipped their calves to Canada to be fed and then they returned to the US to be slaughtered. Thus, they were not fully raised in the US.

Additionally, many ranchers on the border buy cattle out of Mexico, again not born and not fully raised in the US.

Team ZIP is a promotional ploy by NCBA but they are going into cities and talking to people who do not know where their meat comes from besides the grocery store. Thus promoting your product with your checkoff dollars. If more ranchers were required to do store visits similar to what Country Natural Beef make their cooperators do in Portland, Sacramento, and San Fransico, such a team wouldn't be needed. But I don't think Glendive or Terry need people educating in the grocery stores. Maybe you could offer to learn the curriculm and go into Billings or better yet Missoula in exchange for paying checkoff dollars.
Click to expand...


Who is team Zip? How do you get involved ? ( I used to run 5 miles a day- maybe I'll get the urge again :wink: ) Is this only for NCBA members :???: using our (my) checkoff dollars :???:

I'd never heard of it- never saw anything in the checkoff publications they've mailed out- or anything....

In fact the person that infomed me of this said it was a way to get Checkoff dollars to pay for some NCBAers hobby- and suggested that some (this head honcho) are even on the Checkoff/NCBA payroll/expense account in order to go play their hobby all day in their fancy spandex....

I'd just like to know...Years of history- has made my trust in NCBA and how they stick their fingers into and manipulate our checkoff (tax) dollars zilch...
 
I would say two of the best programs that has come out of the Checkoff dollars is the Beef Quality Assurance information and the cow-calf and beef quality audits.

RobertMac- I don't believe beef fat is responsible for the obesity problem, heart disease or cancer. I believe automobiles, tractors, and a general sedentary life style is more to blame. I don't think it is implied that beef is responsible at all for these ridiculous claims when beef is marketed as lean. I believe it substatiates the claim that beef is just as healthy as chicken or fish especially when you are dealing with a media-frenzied, celebrity following, idiotic public.

I guess what I am trying to say is- Instead of complaining about what NCBA is doing why not get involved and try to help yourselves. :?

Are you doing anything better?
 
Coin, you may not believe that beef fat is causing health problems, but it's largely taken as a given by our customers and potential customers because that is what they have been told for years. Thats's exactly why you're seeing chicken and fish instead of beef in those "healthy" recipes. THAT, I believe, is the single largest impediment to sales and is what should be attacked by the checkoff.

When we promote "lean beef" instead of "beef", we're perpetuating a sales-hindering falacy on our product.
 
COIN said:
I don't think it is implied that beef is responsible at all for these ridiculous claims when beef is marketed as lean.
Click to expand...
Since the mid-70s, saturated fats have been blamed "for these ridiculous claims"...beef has been proclaimed synonymous with saturated fats by the frenzied media, politically correct dieticians and doctors. By advertising "lean beef" as healthy, it implies that a Prime steak or a Big Mac is unhealthy. Do you defend the fast food burger industry in your talks?

COIN said:
I believe it substantiates the claim that beef is just as healthy as chicken or fish...
Click to expand...
Wait a minute, you just defended the "3 oz. standard" for comparing proteins to illustrate the higher nutritional content of beef...shouldn't we take the position that beef is better than poultry and fish, not "just as healthy as chicken or fish"?

COIN said:
I would say two of the best programs that has come out of the Checkoff dollars is the Beef Quality Assurance information and the cow-calf and beef quality audits.
Click to expand...
I'd add the meat profile research...but then I sell beef!

Am I doing anything better? I think so...by the way, the beef I sell is LEAN, but I take every opportunity to tell my customers that all the 'good stuff' is in the fat!!!!!
 
Lean beef is healthier to eat on a day to day basis compared to a prime steak or a Big Mac. It is unhealthy to eat a 600-700 calorie steak plus all the sides for every single meal especially when the majority of Americans do nothing for exercise or work behind a desk all day. A similar sized sirloin steak has about 300 less calories. I do not defend the fast food burger industry but I don't discredit them either. I do give a talk on the healthy cheeseburger, even though I don't eat fast food hamburgers and it is over 120 miles to a McDonalds from where I live.

On the second point. You caught me. :shock:

The meat profile research has aided in the marketability of beef, though if the meat has an abscess or buckshot I don't know who would buy it :)

As a side note- Do you market grass fed beef?
 
COIN said:
Lean beef is healthier to eat on a day to day basis compared to a prime steak or a Big Mac.
Click to expand...
That's absolutely wrong unless you have proof that animal fats are detrimental to human health...remember, red meat and the fats they contain have been a major part of the human diet since the beginning of humanity. Why over the last 100 years have they begun to harm human health????? In my opinion, two of the most health beneficial foods we can eat are butter and ground beef...and I eat a lot of both(while losing weight :shock: )!!!! The diet of the Inuit was almost totally meat and fat (what else is there to eat in the Arctic), but they were extremely healthy until exposed to the western diet.

COIN said:
It is unhealthy to eat a 600-700 calorie steak plus all the sides for every single meal especially when the majority of Americans do nothing for exercise or work behind a desk all day. A similar sized sirloin steak has about 300 less calories.
Click to expand...
All calories aren't the same...the body reacts differently to different foods. 300 calories of refined carbohydrates are much worse than a 600-700 calorie steak!!!

COIN said:
I do not defend the fast food burger industry...
Click to expand...
You should, they are the beef industries largest customer!!!!

COIN said:
Do you market grass fed beef?
Click to expand...
If that is relevant, why am I defending high fat beef???? Do you market grass fed beef? :wink: 8)
 
COIN, I'm deeply appreciative of your posts. This site has been almost totally hijacked by those promoting R-CALF, anti-NCBA/CBB rumors and fallacies, so it is good to see some positive messages about value of current checkoff programs.

Never mind that Sandhusker preaches "give consumers what they want" when it serves his anti/NCBA hysteria, but quickly switches horses when consumers tell us they WANT lean beef!!!!

From what I've seen, CBB is eager to run with promotion of MORE health benefits of beef, including the fat, WHEN THE RESEARCH IS VERIFIED AND ACCEPTED by the US medical/nutrition community and officials. Just as has been done with other nutrients such as the comparisons of nutrients between white meats, fish, and beef currently advertised.

It appears, RobertMac and others don't accept that this truly is being done by Checkoff people because poultry and fish are not being trashed by Checkoff ads.

RobertMac, is there, or is there not, a difference between eating a "...600-700 calorie steak PLUS ALL THE SIDES FOR EVERY SINGLE MEAL...." and saying to eat beef and all other food groups in moderation as checkoff information promotes?

The fact that modern times do not require the same level of work/exercise by those Inuit as back in the day when they ate that diet of "meat and fat" may have more to do with their obesity than the fact of eating a greater variety of foods and less animal fat, or a "western diet". Just as the fact most people exercise and do far less physical work today than in prior era's most likely accounts more for obesity among all US citizens than does diet.

mrj
 
Maxine- you didn't tell us if you were a member of Team Zip- and were getting taxpayer paid spandex :???:

As the great swallower of all NCBA/Checkoff koolaid (and possibly the only member left posting)--Fill us in on this ZIP program...
 
I don't know MRJ. It was said that my Great Grandmother weighed 90 lbs, when she was married and 300 lbs, when she died about 1905. during that time she gave birth to 15 children, and it was said that she cooked and did laundry to the railroad carpenters when they built the depot, section houses, and stockyards in Valentine. I don't know how much truth there is in these stories, but pictures show that she was a huge woman. I doubt if she ever had much fat beef in her diet.
 

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