The consumer rules: tender beef is centerpiece of Ninth Farm Journal Forum.Safeway Inc. and Excel Corporation, have joined to create Rancher's Reserve Tender Beef in a prime example of consumer-driven change in the supermarket. The new product is the result of more than 68,000 consumer tests. Currently, the tenderness initiative reaches back to feedlots, and eventually it will change the way cattle are produced on ranches, Mike McGinnis, senior vice president, meat and seafood, of Safeway, told the Farm Journal Forum in Washington, D.C. The theme of the ninth annual Forum held Nov. 11-12 was "Energizing energizing, adj giving energy to; revitalizing; rejuvenating. America's Countryside." Consumer focus groups complained to Safeway--which has 1,820 supermarkets in the United States This is a list of supermarket companies in the United States of America and the names of supermarkets which are owned or franchised by these companies. For supermarkets worldwide see List of supermarkets. and Canada--that they could find tender and shoe-leather-tough steaks side by side in the meat case. Original research indicated that 40 percent of beef in groceries is tough. Safeway's original goal was to cut that to 10 percent, and the company managed to trim it to 3 percent. Under the new program, dissatisfied customers receive an apology, a refund and another cut of beef Noun 1. cut of beef - cut of meat from beef cattle cut of meat, cut - a piece of meat that has been cut from an animal carcass chuck - the part of a forequarter from the neck to the ribs and including the shoulder blade . "That's like double your money back," McGinnis said. "That's how confident we are that you're not going to have that problem." The reduction in toughness comes partially from Excel's proprietary slaughter practices, including electric shocks and cracking of an animal's backbone after slaughter. The two corporations have worked with 308 feedlots. When a feedlot's cattle fail the tenderness test, a warning is issued. A second failure results in a suspension and a 90-day opportunity to make changes in such things as feed and implants. When Safeway takes the program back to individual ranchers, it will "let them know what they need to do in order to have more tender beef, to make sure the right breed influence is there, the right feeding regimen, the right implants," McGinnis said. In other speeches to the Forum: * Jay Poole, vice president, ag and environmental services The various combinations of scientific, technical, and advisory activities (including modification processes, i.e., the influence of manmade and natural factors) required to acquire, produce, and supply information on the past, present, and future states of space, atmospheric, for Altria, said that Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) is the largest food and beverage company headquartered in North America and the second largest in the world after Nestlé SA. The Philip Morris Company (now known as Altria Group), a company that produces tobacco products, acquired Kraft for has reduced fat in 200 products, thus eliminating 30 billion calories a year from the diet. * Mark Matlock, senior vice president of food research for Archer Daniels Midland The Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM), is a conglomeration based in Decatur, Illinois. ADMoperates more than 270 plants worldwide, where cereal grains and oilseeds are processed into numerous products used in food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial and animal feed Company (ADM See add/drop multiplexer. (language) ADM - A picture query language, extension of Sequel2. ["An Image-Oriented Database System", Y. Takao et al, in Database Techniques for Pictorial Applications, A. Blaser ed, pp. 527-538]. ), said companies are making enough food to average 3,800 calories per day. The federal government says a male 51 years or older should consume just 2,000 calories per day. * Gene Kahn, vice president of sustainability development at General Mills, and other speakers agreed that the popularity of the Atkins diet Atkins Diet Definition The Atkins diet is a high-protein, high-fat, and very low-carbohydrate regimen. It emphasizes meat, cheese, and eggs, while discouraging foods such as bread, pasta, fruit, and sugar. It is a form of ketogenic diet. is waning. "I think people are back on carbs because carbs taste good," Kahn said. * Jerry Steiner, executive vice president, Monsanto Co., predicts his company will release soybeans in 2008 with improved flavor and shelf life. By 2011, soybeans will have reduced saturated fat saturated fat, any solid fat that is an ester of glycerol and a saturated fatty acid. The molecules of a saturated fat have only single bonds between carbon atoms; if double bonds are present in the fatty acid portion of the molecule, the fat is said to be . * In roughly a decade, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. will isolate a new molecule that will change ethanol production by fermenting plant cellulose, said Pioneer President Dean Oestreich. * C. Boyden Gray Clayland Boyden Gray, born February 6, 1943, is the United States Ambassador to the European Union. He took that post on January 17, 2006, when President George W. Bush granted him a recess appointment to the post. , a Washington, D.C., attorney who was counsel to former President Bush, outlined a goal for agriculture to provide 25 percent of energy consumed in the U.S. by 2025. * "It makes me shudder" to contemplate the corn market without the 12 percent share that goes into ethanol, said Leon Corzine, president of National Corn Growers Association The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is a U.S. national organization founded in 1957, representing more than 33,000 dues-paying corn growers from 48 states and the interests of more than 300,000 farmers who contribute to corn checkoff programs in 20 states. . * Production agriculture is being held back by farmers demonizing their customers with attacks on processors and exporters, said Criss Davis, former chairman of the United Soybean soybean, soya bean, or soy pea, leguminous plant (Glycine max, G. soja, or Soja max) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Asia, where it has been Board. * Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., worried about the federal budget deficit, predicts the next farm bill will not be as generous as the current one. "We're going to face a very cold fiscal and political wind in our face," he said. * Elizabeth Hund, managing director and manager of the western region for Rabobank International, says her bank remains committed to becoming a major lender to U.S. producers even though its offer to buy Farm Credit Services of America failed. "We cannot be the premier in global agriculture if we don't have a major presence in the largest ag economy in the world," Hund said. The Forum was presented by ADM. Co-sponsors were Monsanto Co., Altria Shared Solutions, United Soybean Board and National Corn Growers Association. The 2005 Forum will be held Dec. 5-6. Sonja Hillgren, senior vice president/editorial of Farm Journal Media, directs the Farm Journal Forum. |
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