In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays continues his conversation from yesterday with Tom McDonald, who was recently named chairman of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef for the coming year. McDonald says the organization has grown into an important voice for the cattle industry by bringing all segments of the supply chain together to solve challenges collaboratively.
Built on Trust and Producer Leadership
McDonald said the roundtable was formed during a time of outside pressure on the beef business, but members worked to create trust and common goals. “We came together under pressure, and it took a while for the round table to establish and build that trust.”
He said one of the group’s most important principles is allowing each segment of the industry to define sustainability on its own terms. “We said every segment will define their segment. In other words, you don’t have one end of the chain telling the other end of the chain what they’re going to do.”
McDonald added that structure helps prevent outside groups from dictating production practices. “We’re trying to prevent that outside influence from dictating how we do business.”
Research and Protecting Grazing Lands
Looking ahead to his year as chairman, McDonald said one of his top priorities is expanding the organization’s research collaborative. “We’re really focusing on a research collaborative that involves multiple universities, multiple funding sources to really get at improving the knowledge about beef sustainability.”
He also said the group is studying grassland conversion and ways to help producers keep grazing acres in production. “We’ve got a task force that’s working on defining that, looking for incentives to help producers economically be able to keep grazing lands in grazing lands.”
Sharing Beef’s Story with Consumers
McDonald said membership continues to grow among food service, retail, and food companies that want to work directly with producers. He believes that creates new opportunities to tell agriculture’s story. “We always talk about we need to tell our story.”
He said many people still do not understand how efficient U.S. cattle production has become. “Most people don’t understand we’re the most efficient cattle industry in the world, and we want people to understand and actually feel good about eating U.S. beef.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR above for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
