2005 News Archive
Cattlemen Look at Future of Nutrition Research
SAN ANTONIO - With Americans' diets under increasing scrutiny, what cattlemen fund in nutrition research with their beef checkoff dollars takes on new weight.Beef producers at the Discovery Symposium at the Cattle Industry Annual Convention and Trade Show today heard from six speakers who shared their views about nutrition issues.These ranged from eating trends, childhood nutrition, obesity and weight management to other topics.
Tomorrow cattlemen in the Joint Human Nutrition Research Committee will decide on their nutrition research priorities for 2006.About $1.2 million in checkoff funding from the Cattlemen's Beef Board and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's (NCBA) Federation of State Beef Councils will fund the work.That money will be allocated on a project basis later in the year.
These projects will be initiated on behalf of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The NCBA serves as one of the Beef Board’s contractors for checkoff-funded programs.
"The purpose of the Discovery Symposium is to explore all the nutrition research opportunities that are available to the beef industry," says Dick Sherron, M.D., chairman of the Human Nutrition Research Committee .He's a physician and cattleman from Beaumont, Texas. "We're looking into the future to identify the coming issues and see how beef fits with them."
For instance, in the last few years cattlemen invested in research that showed beef is a naturally nutrient rich food.The final validation for the work came in the recently released Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which speaks to nutrient density and the naturally nutrient rich concept throughout.
"This is significant for the beef industry," says Sharon Miller, Ph.D., director of nutrition research for NCBA. "Vegetarian proponents are always working to push animal proteins off the plate. Cattlemen, through their checkoff, also funded research that shows in specific instances animal proteins are superior to plant-based proteins.Vegetarian diets have this halo of being 'healthier' which isn’t always the case or warranted."
Beef's strong demand performance in recent years has been accompanied by increased understanding of benefits from protein-rich diets. Dr. Sherron said that once again, beef checkoff dollars showed that moderate high-protein diets are an effective and safe way to lose weight. "People on those diets are more satisfied and typically do better at losing weight," he said.
Miller explains the process for moving nutrition research into the mainstream.Once research is completed, it is published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, which are read by leaders in the nutrition community.As the research gains acceptance, the key message from the research, such as naturally nutrient rich foods, filters down to nutritionists who work with consumers and related groups.In every instance, the industry stakes its claims on science to support positive beef messages.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval. The checkoff assessment became mandatory when the program was approved by 79 percent of producers in a 1988 national referendum vote. Checkoff revenues may be used for promotion, education and research programs to improve the marketing climate for beef.
Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the NCBA is the trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.