News Update
March 24, 2015
Top Beef Cattle Headlines
via ‘The Angus Report’
In the headlines: Tips cattlemen should consider before submitting taxes this April, the latest Angus sale figures from the American Angus Association, a report on beef demand with the millennial generation, and much more during this week’s The Angus Report.
Watch online or tune to RFD-TV at 5 p.m. CDT Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. CDT Saturday or 7:30 a.m. CDT each Monday morning.
Angus Seeks Applicants for Junior Breed Ambassador
The National Junior Angus Association (NJAA) is now accepting applications for the Angus Ambassador competition. An elite representative for the Angus breed, the ambassador serves a one-year term as spokesperson for the NJAA’s nearly 6,000 members. Applications must be postmarked by June 1.
Emma Jumper, Paragould, Ark., is currently serving as the 2014-2015 Angus Ambassador. A former National Beef Ambassador, Jumper’s involvement in the beef business runs deep. She and her family operate Rock Creek Angus Ranch in northeast Arkansas.
While serving in the position, the Ambassador will travel to the Angus Means Business National Convention & Trade Show in Overland Park, Kan.; a Certified Angus Beef® Building Blocks Seminar in Wooster, Ohio; the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Cattle Industry Annual Convention in San Diego, Calif.; the Beef Improvement Federation Annual Research Symposium and Convention; and the Guiding Outstanding Angus Leaders Conference in Canada.
Additonal travel options will vary depending on the selected ambassador’s location, schedule and availability.
To be eligible for the Angus Ambassador competition, applicants must be Association members of good standing, between the ages 17-20 as of Jan. 1, who own purebred cattle. They must submit a cover letter, résumé and two essay responses, which can be found online.
For more information, please view the full release.
Cattle Producers – Your Help is Needed!
The Beef Cattle Institute and the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University are seeking cattle producers to complete a survey about information sources they use to learn about strategies they can use to control E. coli contamination on their operation. Completing the survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes. Your responses will be confidential and identifying information about you (such as your name, email address, etc.) will not be collected. To participate, please click the link below:
https://kstate.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0PnEC6FwYpsW5ed
Dietary Guidelines Recommendations Create Debate
On Feb. 19, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA released the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s report, considered a recommendation to the Secretaries as they develop the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Dietary guidelines are to be released later this year, but the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) released a statement suggesting the advisory committee’s initial report is inconsistent and, if adopted, will lead to conflicting and unsound dietary advice.
“Lean meat is red meat. Today’s beef supply is leaner than ever before, with more than 30 cuts of beef recognized as lean by government standards,” said Shalene McNeill, NCBA registered dietitian and nutrition scientist. “The protein foods category, which includes meat, is the only category currently consumed within the current guidelines, and it is misleading to conclude that a healthy dietary pattern should be lower in red meat.”
Richard Thorpe, Texas medical doctor and cattle producer, said in the release that the key to a healthy lifestyle is building a balanced diet around the healthy foods you enjoy eating, coupled with physical activity.
“It is absurd for the Advisory Committee to suggest that Americans should eat less red meat and focus so heavily on plant-based diets,” said Thorpe. “The American diet is already 70% plant-based and to further emphasize plant-based diets will continue to have unintended consequences. The Advisory Committee got it wrong in the ’80s advising a diet high in carbs, and look at what that got us — an obesity problem. My colleagues and I commonly encourage people to include lean beef more often for their health, not less.”
NCBA argues that science shows lean meat needs to be recognized as part of a healthy dietary pattern just as it was in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The organization is encouraging Secretaries Burwell and Vilsack to reject the Advisory Committee’s recommendation, suggesting that the process was incomplete with flawed conclusions specific to red meat’s health benefits. NCBA’s full release is available through the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA here.
Meanwhile, more than 100 signatories from environmental organizations are publicly supporting the recommendations of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Three ads in major daily newspapers feature an open letter urging HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to adopt the the committee’s scientific recommendations on sustainability.
The signatories include Conservation International, Greenpeace USA, the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sierra Club and many others. The public statement is being issued as stakeholders converge on Tuesday (March 24) for a public hearing on the commttee’s report at the National Institutes of Health. To read the group’s full release, click here.
As announced in the Federal Register Feb. 23, the public is encouraged to view the Advisory Report and provide written comments. The comment period has been extended through 11:59 p.m. EDT on May 8.
The public will have an opportunity to attend a public meeting to hear or provide oral comments on March 24. The meeting will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the NIH Clinical Center (Building 10), Masur Auditorium, RM 1C108, NIH Bethesda Campus, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892. An agenda is available at www.nccsite.com/events/dgac/.
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