Where’s the Beef? Nebraska State Beef Industry Impacted by Poor Name Choice
I don’t usually blog about daily news stories here, but I thought I’d make an exception for this Nebraska Beef Ltd. recall that’s currently going on. Just this morning the company recalled another 160,000 pounds of its beef products, bringing the total under recall to 1.36 million pounds. It’s a very serious recall, as the company (after working with USDA) has determined that all this meat was produced under unsafe conditions and poses a Class 1 risk – meaning that the meat poses a serious risk of health impact or even death if consumed.
This is bad news for the affected consumers – at least 30 people have gotten sick so far. It’s worse news for Nebraska Beef Ltd. – and for the state of Nebraska, too. Careless headline writers have made this story look like all Nebraska beef is being recalled – when in fact Nebraska’s beef supply is as safe as ever. This is a problem with one (admittedly large) operation, not a system-wide problem in Nebraska, but you wouldn’t know that from headlines like “Nebraska Beef Recalled”. The American Meat Institute is asking for the press to clarify the situation before more damage is done to the safe meat processors in Nebraska.
That’s not just an idle concern. The beef industry is responsible for fifteen to twenty percent of all the jobs in the state of Nebraska, and the state is the #1 producer of beef in the United States. This recall, large as it is, is only related to a tiny fraction of the beef produced in Nebraska – 7.22 billion pounds last year. (To put it in perspective, if you had a warehouse with 6,000 pounds of beef in it, one pound of that would be beef that has been recalled.)
So, it’s important for us to maintain food safety standards and to hold the agriculture industry responsible for hygiene and safe food handling. At the same time, we have to keep things in perspective, and – especially among segments of the press that are perhaps a little bit undereducated about agriculture and farming – make sure we get all the facts straight before we start another “tomato panic”.
And, perhaps, Nebraska Beef Ltd. needs to look into a name change – one that doesn’t implicate whole states next time you mess up!
Custom 3D Illustration by IDEAVIZ