Agricultural News
Alisa Harrison Reminds Producers Their Beef is Still the Preferred Choice to be Found in the Meat Aisle
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 06:51:19 CST
One of the breakout sessions at this year's American Farm Bureau convention down in Austin, Texas, was looking at the "Changing Lifestyle in the Meat Aisle." Alisa Harrison, Vice President for Global Marketing and issues Management for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association was on the panel. She talked specifically about what some folks like to call fake meat, alternative meat products that are right now available to consumers.
She says the key as far as NCBA is concerned, is to make sure those offering plant-based proteins are being truthful, "From our standpoint, we're not against these products, we're not against technology. We think being innovative and using technology is just a part of all of agriculture. What we do have concerns about, especially with some of the newer products that are out there, when you have them marketing it and disparaging beef at the same time, that's where we have a concern. The CEO of one of the companies has publicly stated that his whole goal is to do away with animal agriculture, and as you can imagine, that kind of gets under our skin a little bit. They are marketing it based on what we think are false narratives as far as the sustainability study, the nutrition part of, trying to give consumers all of these reasons to choose their product, and they're either using some data and some information that is just not true. So our work is on this has focused primarily on getting the right facts out in a very positive, proactive way, and also making sure that consumers understand the comparative data on it."
Harrison says their research has shown its best to take the high road and focus on the positives attributes, "Overall we think that beef has so many positive attributes on its own. There are three things that consumers tell us that they like about beef. Number one they liked the people who produce food, they liked farmers and ranchers, they trust farmers and ranchers, but they have a lot of questions. Consumers today want to know more about how their food is produced than ever before. And not only that they want to, but they're demanding it. They have access to more information today at the tip of their finger, so we have to be there as well too."
Harrison goes onto say that consumers have questions about how beef is raised, the nutritional value, and even on how to cook it. Consumers love the taste of beef, and Harrison says that is the number one reason people choose beef, "That is the one thing that separates us, and makes us unique compared to some of the other protein choices."
For more information and recipes for beef, you can visit the Beef - It's What's for Dinner website- available here.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the complete interview with Alisa Harrison as she talks With Ron Hays.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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