NCBA Receives Prestigious American Dietetic Association Foundation Award

DENVER, CO (October 17, 2000) -- The National Cattlemen`s Beef Association has received the prestigious Corporate Award for Excellence 2000 from The American Dietetic Association Foundation.  The award recognizes the organization`s many years of support of, and work with, registered dietitians, the ADA and the ADA Foundation.

The award was presented at an ADA Foundation dinner attended by thought leaders in the nutrition community.  Accepting the award on behalf of NCBA was CEO Chuck Schroeder.  Also on hand for the presentation were Jay O`Brien, beef producer from Amarillo, Tex., and chairman of the beef industry`s Nutrition & Health Committee; Nelson Curry, beef producer from Paris, Ky., and Nutrition & Health Committee vice chairman; and Wade Zimmerman, a beef producer from Sugar City, Colo., and chairman of the industry`s Health Professional Influencers Subcommittee.

"Dietitians are very important to our society, since so many of the guidelines and recommendations for American diets are developed by this group," according to Curry, whose operation includes 200 purebred and 400 commercial cows.  "It`s important that we support their efforts, as well as work with them by providing information on how beef can fit into the diets of healthy Americans."  

The dinner, which featured beef sponsored through the checkoff, was held in conjunction with the Food & Nutrition Conference & Exhibition of The American Dietetic Association, which runs Oct. 16-19.  Among checkoff-funded events held at that event were a workshop that helps nutrition professionals understand the special needs of women, and a booth at which the thousands of attendees of the Exhibition could learn more about the nutritional value of beef and sample new beef products currently on the market. 

"For years the beef checkoff has funded nutrition research that has provided us with facts about protein, iron, zinc and other nutrients that are found in beef," says Zimmerman.  "By passing that information along to dietitians we`re improving the health of both the American public and the American cattle industry."

Beef industry nutrition efforts are funded by beef producers through their $1-per-head checkoff program and are managed for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.  The national beef checkoff is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board.  This 110-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal Order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.

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Coordination for this checkoff-funded nutrition project was provided by the National Cattlemen`s Beef Association.  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.