2005 News Archive
CONTACT: Diane Henderson 303-850-3465 dhenderson@beef.org
Joe Schuele 202-347-0228 joeschuele@beef.org
Issues Management Efforts Capture Back-to-Back Silver Anvil Awards
Award Recognizes Effectiveness of BSE Response
DENVER (June 14, 2005) – The beef industry’s management of the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States, discovered December 23, 2003, has captured another prestigious award.
This checkoff-funded effort received the Silver Anvil Award in the Issues Management category by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) during a ceremony June 9 in New York City. The Silver Anvil is awarded to only one program in each category for excellence in strategic public relations planning and implementation.
The Issues Management program is funded by America’s beef producers through the Beef Checkoff Program and is coordinated on behalf of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The NCBA serves as one of the Beef Board’s contractors for checkoff-funded programs.
The checkoff-funded initiative marks a very rare repeat win of the Silver Anvil Award in a single category. The checkoff’s BSE issues management initiative also won top honors in the same category in 2004, for its work following the first Canadian case of BSE, discovered May 20, 2003.
“Checkoff dollars were invested in preparation for such a situation, and when it happened we were ready to educate consumers and reassure them about the safety of U.S. beef.” said Al Svajgr, a cattle producer from Cozad, Neb., and chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. “Recognition of this effort – two years running – on such a prestigious national stage is very gratifying.”
PRSA is a national organization of public relations professionals. It accepts entries for the Silver Anvil Awards from many Fortune 500 companies and national trade associations, making the back-to-back awards even more significant.
The checkoff-funded management of the Dec. 23, 2003 BSE case also received top honors from the National Agri-Marketing Association, International Association of Business Communicators and PR Week.
Consumer confidence in beef did not suffer following either BSE incident, remaining at or above 90 percent confidence since the discovery – contributing, in part, to growing consumer demand for beef. In fact, the Cattlemen’s Beef Board’s Beef Demand Index reported its largest single-year increase in beef demand during 2004 – an increase of almost 8 percent.
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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.