Beef Sales Strong Despite Panic in Europe

The national media has done an Orson Welles spin on mad cow and foot-and-mouth (a.k.a. hoof-and-mouth) diseases, making consumers feel as if they should grab the wife, kids and family pet and run for the nearest fallout shelter.

Fortunately, for local cattlemen, Welles was more believable during his 1938 “War of the Worlds” broadcast, where he had radio listeners believing Martians had actually invaded Grovers Mill, N.J. But U.S. consumers appear undaunted by the nightly reports on CNN that show stricken cattle abroad, hinting a similar fate awaits American bovine.

First of all, the deadly mad cow disease — bovine spongiform encephalopathy — has been around since 1989 and has actually been cornered to only about 100 cattle in the British Isles. In fact, fewer than 70 cases of humans being affected by mad cow-infected beef have been recorded, and as one local cattleman said, there have been billions of pounds of beef consumed worldwide during that period.

Secondly, while foot-and-mouth disease has an economically catastrophic potential for the meat producing industry, it is not a health issue. Meat from a foot-and-mouth infected animal is not harmful to humans.

Meanwhile, neither disease has been detected on the North American continent.

The American Association of Meat Processors and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association have tried to educate the consumer concerning the status of U.S. beef. The lesson seems to be working.

Richard McGinnis of Richard’s Country Meat Market Inc. in Fayetteville said he sees little fear in his customers’ eyes.

“People are concerned,” McGinnis said, “but they’re still coming in. They ask more questions about it now, so I have to keep up with [the disease stories] now. If a story comes out in the newspaper, I have to sit down and read about it.”

The only noticeable change in meat prices has been with pork products. Baby back ribs were between $4-4.50 per pound a year ago at McGinnis’ store, and today they’re about $6 per pound. The foot-and-mouth outbreak in Europe has led to a massive slaughter of swine, sheep and cattle.

“Baby-back ribs are costing me what I sold them for last summer,” McGinnis said.

The United States imports about $300 million worth of meat from the European Union, two-thirds of that being Danish pork. Baby-back ribs account for 60 percent of the Danish shipments.

Outback Steakhouse, which has a Springdale location, has a six-week supply remaining of Danish ribs, but the restaurant chain is considering switching from its Danish ribs to American.

The U.S. has a temporary ban on meat imports from Europe.

Bacon is also higher, about 20 cents more per pound than before the foot-and-mouth outbreak in late January.

However, since 97 percent of McGinnis’ lamb products are domestic and the other come from New Zealand, lamb prices have not been affected. The United States doesn’t export much lamb.

More good news for U.S. meat consumers is that beef prices have also remained relatively steady. Ground chuck and ground round have even dropped a few cents per pound, while steak prices have kept true to past form, rising only slightly this time of year as more people are grilling outdoors and the demand is higher.

McGinnis gets all of his beef products from Kansas and Nebraska feed lots, and any increase in cost is due to a lack of heavy cattle as a result of a rough winter.

“Everybody seems to be concerned about [foot-and-mouth] except the consumers,” said Dick Lobb, director of communications for the National Chicken Council. “There are e-mails flying around and seminars being held about it, but there is nothing to indicate consumers are particularly concerned. If people are scared about beef, they’re expressing it in a strange manner. The actual consumption of beef has gone up from last year.”

Studies show beef is consumed 77.3 million times each day across America alone. But Lobb said “people will switch” to chicken because of its convenience more than anything else.

“Chicken is easier and quicker to cook and harder to ruin than beef,” Lobb said.

All Farmers in Danger

Some analysts have said the foot-and-mouth outbreak will help the chicken industry with consumers’ fears. They say beef and pork prices will rise with smaller numbers. But others believe the chicken industry would suffer greatly if foot-and-mouth ever reaches the United States.

Tom Hulls, a Lincoln cattleman and president of Cumberland, a poultry equipment leader based in Assumption, Ill., said foot-and-mouth would change farmers’ lives as they know it today.

Hulls’ wife, Dr. Diane Balich, is a veterinarian who just returned from a convention where vets discussed the hypothetical scenario.

“Several vets feel the poultry industry could be hit the worst because to stop the spread there would be a total lockdown of farms,” Hulls said. “Nothing moves. You don’t go in and you don’t go out. You can’t even bring feed in. It would be catastrophic because the majority of chicken producers in Northwest Arkansas have cattle.”

Arkansas has about 1.23 billion chickens, 27 million turkeys, 1.82 million cattle and 660,000 hogs.

Arkansas’ $2 billion annual beef cattle industry ranks 16th nationally, and the Northwest corner — Washington, Benton and Carroll counties — ranked one-two-three in the state. There were 29,000 cattle farms in the state’s 1997 census, 97 percent of which were family owned and operated.

Washington County’s farms have a total value of land and buildings of about $8 billion, while Benton County is at about $7 billion and Carroll County $3 billion.

A veterinarian in England discovered foot-and-mouth and he and his family have been quarantined to their family farm ever since. The kids can’t go to school and groceries are left at the end of the road by a vehicle that is disinfected after delivery. In Scotland, the army gaurds entry points to try and stop the spread of the disease.

To prevent mad cow, the United States Food and Drug Administration banned at-risk animal protein in cattle feed. To prevent foot-and-mouth, the USDA has banned imports of all animals and animal products from the European Union.

On April 22, the British government’s top scientific advisor, David King, released a statement saying foot-and-mouth had been brought “fully under control.” King said the average count of new cases of the disease had dropped from 43 to 23 since the beginning of April.

Billy Joe Bartholomew, owner/operator of the Washington County Livestock Auction, said operations have remained pretty normal around his business since the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

“It kinda put a scare in some people for a little bit, but that was more on the buying side than on the selling side,” Bartholomew said. “I don’t think anyone has panicked too much. Our prices have remained pretty consistent.”

The real scare has been felt in Italy and Greece, where beef sales are down 80 percent. And while Europe is rightfully concerned about the disease outbreaks, more exotic meats such as ostrich, rabbit, pigeon, duck and even horse have made their way to the table.

“You cannot find a duck anywhere these days in Europe,” said Bernd Paech, director of the Havelland Express gourmet wholesaler.

Northwest Arkansas consumers seem to be quite content for now with their more common meats.

There are media outlets trying to fan the flame of fear. Then there is Ingrid Newkirk, president and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She was recently quoted on a national talk show saying she “wished” foot-and-mouth would hit U.S. farmers so they would be hurt economically, adding that the animals would not suffer any worse a demise as they do at the slaughterhouses. But others pointed out that Newkirk is also the one who suggested people should “drink beer instead of milk,” and ran an advertising campaign with a milk-mustachiod New York mayor Rudy Guliani that read: “Got Prostrate Cancer?” Guliani does have the highly fatal cancer.

Martians may not have landed in Europe, but its doubtful if they did if they would be feared as much as the meat diseases. Reportedly, the four most used words in England recently have been, “I’ll have the fish.”

Fortunately, for Northwest Arkansas farmers and restaurants, many consumers are not that chicken and still prefer their beef.