CALF_News_April_May_2021

11 CALF News • April | May 2021 • www.calfnews.net FIRE UP THE GRILL Continued from page 6 because it’s convenient, tasty and ver- satile, but also because it’s inexpensive. Does its popularity alone make it worth- while for the U.S. cattle industry? Ground Beef Sources When first named public relations manager for Monfort of Colorado in the late 1970s, I was given a tour of the com- pany’s massive 325,000 pound-per-day ground beef facility in its Greeley, Colo., packing plant. Following one of the managers as he described the operation I passed a huge alcove filled with pallets stacked with boxes proudly proclaiming, “Product of Australia.” “Why are we selling so much Aus- tralian beef?” I innocently asked the manager. He gave me a withering stare probably reserved for the ignorant or incredibly naïve. “We’re not selling Australian beef,” he answered icily. “We’re increasing the value of our 50/50 trim.” For a company that fed and processed about 600,000 head of cattle a year, that was an important distinction. Mon- fort was indeed producing some of the world’s highest quality beef, but the cuts also resulted in trim that would either need to be enhanced or sent for use as tallow. Since tallow wasn’t worth much and there weren’t enough cows, bulls or lower quality cattle to be obtained domestically to make the product lean enough, the decision was made to import lean product that could be mixed with trim to be sold as frozen burgers for quick service restaurants. Today’s leaner cattle produce trim that is about 55 percent lean, but that is still less than the 70 percent minimum lean requirement for ground beef. Since the quantity of domestic cow and bull meat is still not sufficient to meet demand for ground beef in this country, and since there is little sense in grinding higher value cuts to provide it, significant amounts of beef are still imported. That makes sense to most people in the U.S. cattle industry. In fact, it has been estimated that more than 70 percent of beef imported is destined to domestic ground beef production. In 2020, beef imports from Australia and New Zealand alone amounted to 1.2 billion pounds, most of it lean product destined to be added to U.S. trimmings for burgers and ground beef, and processed beef items, such as hot dogs. (Overall, more than 3.4 billion pounds of beef was imported in 2020.) Much of the ground beef being produced by Monfort back in the 1970s was being made into individually quick frozen (IQF) patties being sold to Burger King for its increas- ingly popular Whopper line. Ironically, 40 years later, that line of burg- ers would take a 180 degree turn to include something that contained no beef at all – domestic or imported. Fake Beef Foolery In the spring of 2019, both Burger King and Carl’s Jr. introduced fake beef burgers in their restaurants from Impossible Foods and Beyond Beef, respectively. Other independent res- taurants had been featuring fake meat products on a limited basis. Millions of dollars were poured into television and social media advertising promoting the burgers by the two quick-service giants, with huge reactions from media pundits. (The advertising is no longer featured prominently. See related story.) Research shows ground beef is used in 60 percent of beef meals. Continued on page 15  Even politicians got on board. In August of 2019, for instance, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, whose partner, Marlon Reis, is a vegan, urged the Colorado Department of Agriculture to explore how Colorado can produce meatless options, going so far as buying agency researchers Burger King Impossible Whoppers to try. Reaction from the animal agriculture community was swift and aggressive, since beef is by far the largest segment of the state’s $40 billion agriculture industry. Though it is still widely touted by many in the press, fake beef isn’t much of a competitor yet. NCBA’s Darcy says the products have less than one percent of ground sales, and only .41 percent of share when compared with all other animal-based products. Management consulting firm A.T. Kearney thinks that should change quickly. The firm estimates that alterna- tive meat will make up 10 percent of the $1.2 trillion meat market by 2025, 28 percent of the $1.4 trillion meat market