This was bulk emailed to me today and has appeared on Facebook as well. Nobody knows who wrote it - if anyone does I would be happy to provide them with the credit as it is extremely insightful and full of facts. Im 100% with Justintime on this one. I view this as a slap in the face as a beef producer in Canada.
Sean
How Fear Marketing Ended a Tradition
When we travel to and from Agribition, our cattle caravan always makes a pit stop at A&W in Davidson. It’s half way between destinations, we’re hungry and we always run into other cattle folk.
Thanks to A&W Canada’s new marketing campaign that tradition is over. A&W has recently started a marketing campaign promoting beef with “no added hormones that is ethically and sustainably raised”. This results in “better beef”. Now how can I be against something that is more ethically and sustainably raised? My beef with A&W is not that they are trying to separate themselves from the burger, ahem, herd. It is that they are doing it by manipulating peoples’ lack of understanding of food production, capitalizing on their fears while throwing ranchers under the bus.
A&W is claiming their beef is better as it is not treated with “added hormones or steroids and only receives antibiotics for therapeutic purposes.” Their beef is “raised right.” They claim “Our beef has been raised by ranchers who practice ethical and sustainable farming methods. Many in the beef industry told us it would be too difficult for a nation-wide restaurant to fulfill this pledge. And sure, it’s not always easy—but doing the right thing rarely is. That’s why we work with ranches like Spring Creek in Vegreville, Alberta; Meyer in Helmsville, Montana; and Teys in Australia. These ranchers and their local partners follow the same stringent standards, raising their cattle with care and without any added hormones or steroids.”
Needless to say this marketing campaign went over like a lead balloon with ranchers. Ranchers took to twitter and asked them to defend and prove that their beef was better than “conventional” beef. I also posted my displeasure over their use of fear marketing saying “shame on you A&W for your new marketing campaign implying the majority of beef is bad and only your selected beef is good”. Their response was “sorry you feel that way. Not our intention. Our consumers are asking for this beef and we’re delivering it.” To which I replied ” it was too your intention. You literally state your selected beef is better.” I haven’t received a response. Their twitter feed has fallen silent on the issue only occasionally regurgitating talking points.
So let me dissect for you why I believe this marketing campaign is shameful. A&W claims their beef is added hormone free, ethically and sustainably raised. This makes it better beef. I take exception to this message because it implies “conventional beef” is bad, capitalizing on people’s lack of knowledge of food production and spreading fear about our food, and promoting misinformation.
My first issue – for something to be better something needs to be worse. A&W is only sourcing beef from 3 hand picked sources. Meaning the beef outside this circle is not good enough for them. By emphasizing their “hand-picked” ranchers raise beef ethically, sustainably and without added hormones suggests all other beef is hormone riddled, unethical and unsustainable. By claiming their selected beef is better and “raised right” A&W is saying that the rest of our ranchers are not raising beef right. This can turn the consumer away from beef producers who in fact are raising ethical, sustainable beef and potentially negatively impacting their livelihood and with no evidence to back up their claims.
My second issue – A&W claims it is only giving it’s customers what they are asking for. There is no doubt in my mind when the marketing team rolled out their ground breaking question of “Would you prefer a burger with or without added hormones” they got a resounding “Without! For the love of god, without!” This is because people fear what they do not know or understand. We are not part of gathering our food any more. We are not part of the decisions made on the farm. We have no interest in learning which crop variety should be planted, which methods will get the highest quality yield yet keep our inputs low, what we should feed our cattle to keep them healthy while getting us enough dollars in the end to pay our bills. We have no need to research how to produce our food. Someone else does that for us. We are not part of the decisions made in the feed lots or the meat packers. Yet we need to feel in control of our lives and that we are making educated decisions in areas that impact our lives. Unfortunately it’s hard and time consuming to do real research. Many don’t have the knowledge, resources and time to dig through peer reviews scientific papers and evaluate the quality of the experimental design, the appropriateness of the statistical method used and if the conclusions drawn are more or less relevant than a different study with different conclusions. Instead we Google and watch TV until we find a source we feel we can trust. We avoid information promoted by industry groups and companies because they don’t care about the individual. We learn key words and head to the store and pick our food by the package that appeals to us the most and whose key words we recognize. A&W could have used this opportunity to educate their customers on all the things responsible ranchers do to ensure their beef is raised in the best conditions possible in a way that is environmentally sustainable while producing a safe, healthy product. Instead they went for key words such as “better beef” “raised right” to trigger emotional responses.
Lastly, I take issue with A&W’s claims period and how they place “conventional beef” outside their category of “better beef”. One tweet in particular illustrated that point. In response to a question A&W Canada responded that “not all beef in Canada is raised without hormones or steroids”. When I responded back that while true beef raised in Canada even with added hormones is still safe and environmentally safe. I’ve received no response. The big talking point in this campaign that is repeated over and over is that their beef has no added hormones. With the backlash against “factory-farming”, “franken-foods” and the movement that “natural is always better” I completely understand how a bunch of suits trying to improve their bottom line would think this is a genius marketing ploy. And it is. Average mother trying to do the best for her kids while they demand burgers from the back of her SUV will likely pull into A&W thinking she’s making the right choice buying the burger with no added hormones. She doesn’t want little Johnny to grow breasts and her sweet innocent girl to hit puberty at age 8.
Let me try my hand at marketing. I am proud to say that I have the best burgers. My burgers are raised by ranchers who care about their animals and are proud to raise beef in an ethical and environmentally sustainable manner. Our beef is mainly grass fed. Some are finished with a purely vegetarian diet. No animal by products are fed to our cattle. Through the use of selective breeding and scientifically proven management techniques they raise their beef to efficiently convert feed to lean muscle. These cattle use less feed, land, water and fuel to produce quality, healthy beef. Our beef has been tested safe by both the FDA and Health Canada.
Sounds pretty good. Now what if I tell you I’ve just described much of the Canadian beef program. Still looking pretty good? Now let me add that some of this beef has been implanted with hormones? Just lost support for my beef didn’t I? Well let me see if I can get you back.
Let’s discuss hormone implants. Hormone implants have been used in beef cattle since the mid 1950′s. Hormone implants are placed in the ear between the skin and cartilage. They are purposely put into the ear as the ears do not enter our food system. The implant releases a small dose of additional growth hormone over time. Implants are not permanent. They run a course of a range of days until the dose is used up. Implanting the growth hormone into the ear having known, limited, doses, and food testing ensures the amount of added hormone that enters our food supply is limited.
Hormone implants are given to cattle to give their natural hormone levels a boost. By increasing the amount of these growth hormones the metabolism of the cattle is directed to convert feed into lean muscle instead of fat. This allows us to produce more lean beef with less inputs. This increase in efficiency in beef production reduces energy, feed usage and environmental impacts. It also increases the healthfulness of the beef by reducing the amount of fat. This increased efficiency also helps your wallet by lowering the cost of retail beef by 20 to 30 cents per pound. Four implanted steers produce the same amount of beef as 5 non implanted steers. Each implanted steer can provide lunches for 7 more children than an unimplanted steer. More beef from fewer animals also means less waste.
Many people may be thinking that adding hormones to beef is just a method of helping the bottom line without a thought given to the health of the consumer. We know that hormones regulate processes in our bodies and altering them can have effects on our bodies both positive and negative. It is this knowledge that makes us leery of added hormones in our beef. It seems completely logical that implanted beef has more hormones, I eat that beef so I’m absorbing more hormones, by absorbing more hormones I could be adversely affecting my health. Therefore I will be healthier if I don’t eat those extra hormones. While this is a logical thought process (one which A&W is counting on) it fails in reality on the basis of quantities.
Let me give you a little test. I’ll even make it multiple choice:
If 1 pound of beef from “naturally raised” cattle with no added hormones contains 7 nanograms (ng) of estrogen how much estrogen is in 1 pound of beef from cattle which have been implanted with added hormones?
a) 10,896 ng/lb
b) 59 ng/lb
c)10 ng/lb
The answer is 10 ng/lb. For reference 1 nanogram equals 0.000000001 grams. So there is 0.000000007 grams vs 0.000000010 grams of estrogen in 454 grams of beef. Both measurements are tiny. The FDA has determined that beef from implanted beef is safe and the hormone levels so negligible that they pose no safety risk. Now how does beef compare to other foods? Various studies, including Hoffman and Eversol (1986), Preston, 1997, Hartman et al (1998), Shore and Shemesh (2003),USDA-ARS (2002), have tested the amount of hormones in implanted beef versus other foods. A pound of cabbage contains 10,896 ng of estrogen and a pound of eggs contains 59 ng. Interestingly, a 225g portion of potatoes contains 53 times the Oestrogen content of a 500g portion of beef from a treated steer, so if you’re heading to A&W to reduce your hormone intake, better steer clear of the fries too. The often touted “healthier than beef alternative”, aka. Tofu, contains 16,214,285 times more estrogen than the same amount of implanted beef. Even when compared to other food sources, the amount of added hormones in beef is small and is only a teeny tiny fraction compared to what your body produces daily. Pregnant women produce 90,000,000 ng of estrogen a day. Non pregnant women produce 5,000,000 ng/daily, adult men produce 100,000 ng/daily and pre-pubescent children produce 40,000 ng/daily. Even if you ate a pound of treated beef a day the amount of additional hormone you would ingest would be insignificant compared to amount you naturally produce daily and even smaller than the amount consumed from your side of veggies or fries, especially that tofu burger.
While A&W can stand by their claim that their beef is free of added hormones can they stand by the claim that it is better and more environmentally sustainable? There is no evidence that this beef tastes better or is safer or healthier but there is plenty of evidence to show that implanted cattle uses less resources while still producing quality, healthy and safe beef. This is my beef with A&W “better beef” marketing. It is a fear based marketing scheme with no evidence it is better and diminishes the great job our ranchers do to feed us and maintain productive land.
