Lean Finely-Textured Beef: Common Sense Iowans Seek the Truth

‘Good on you,’ my Australian cousins say, when they’re trying to give a compliment. It means, ‘good job’, ‘well done’, ‘I’m proud of you!’ Well, ‘good on you’ Iowans for choosing common sense over elitist, anti-meat hype when it comes to Lean Finely-Textured Beef.

Iowans refused to believe self-appointed social media hysterics, who practically foamed at the mouth to spew misinformation about a processed meat product they gleefully called ‘pink slime.’

As someone who’s been out of news for eight years now, I really mourn the lack of investigative ‘chops’ of some national reporters who seem to serve as nothing more than a conveyer belt of information they receive; it comes in one side and goes out the other, without question. I’d like to think any of my well-credentialed former colleagues would’ve stomped on my feet if I had simply regurgitated some half-baked story about ‘pink slime’ without making a few phone calls, first.

If ABC news and their ilk had bothered to call the processors who make Lean Finely-Textured Beef (LFTB), they would’ve learned that folks like Jamie Oliver who clucked about ‘pink slime’ are just out to sell a book or two, and perhaps shouldn’t be granted social license when it comes to all things food. Case in point, a number of Huntington, West Virginia, school kids have already had a ‘belly full’ of Oliver, so they sent him and his ‘good intentions’ packing: Click here.

The other side of the story is out there, and it’s a good thing solid, serious reporters such as Des Moines KCCI TV’s Angie Hunt went out to find it: click here.

Governor Branstad, U.S. Ag Secretary Vilsack and others also know there’s another side of the story. I mean, here in Iowa, there are hundreds of jobs at stake and the oldest, most-respected industry in the state, farming, is at stake. So, they called for calmer heads to prevail. Retailers took notice: click here.

The other side of the story shows Lean Finely-Textured Beef is boneless lean beef trimmings which are 100% USDA inspected beef. It’s more like liquid protein than anything else. As for the ammonium hydroxide, it’s a gas, essentially ammonia and water, both naturally occurring compounds, highly studied and long considered safe by the USDA.

Getting bad information, or just half of a story without question or explanation, can make almost any convenience food product look less-than-appetizing. Case in point: check out how tofu is made in this Discovery Channel Science YouTube video: click here.

I’m glad consumers and moms like me are curious. I’m even more glad Iowans…all of them, have common sense enough to realize when folks are trying to ‘scare’ them into changing their eating habits. At the end of the day, it’s human nature to want to know the other side of the story. There is one, and ‘good on ya’ Iowans, for seeking it out.

Written by Laurie Johns
Laurie Johns is Public Relations Manager for the Iowa Farm Bureau.

“Rolling” back in time isn’t always good

A couple weekends ago, I met up with a few friends from my hometown for a “Girls’ Day” at the Roller City skating rink in Mason City.

When we were kids, Roller City was our favorite destination for birthday parties and 4-H outings. I was thrilled to return to a place that carries so many childhood memories, some good and some utterly embarrassing. I never got the hang of rolling skating as a kid and spent a lot of time clinging to the wall or picking myself up off the cement floor. But that’s part of the fun, right?

I was expecting Roller City to look a lot different after all these years. But to my surprise, it looked almost exactly the same. The pinball machine, the food counter, the D.J. booth and the mirror ball above the rink were just as I remembered. One of my friends noticed that the concession stand still sold giant pickles in a jar. “It’s probably the same jar,” she joked.

Even the leather roller skates – with their brown laces and orange wheels – looked like the same skates I wore as a clumsy 8-year-old. It truly was like “rolling” back in time, and I loved every minute of skating as a clumsy 30-something-year-old, still clinging to the wall.

If you think about it, how rare is it to find a place that hasn’t changed? Whenever I return to my hometown, I can’t get over how everything looks so different. The home farm where I grew up is now an acreage. The corn field right next to where our swing set used to be is now filled with prairie flowers; my late grandfather enrolled this little patch of land in the federal wetlands reserve program.

Farming has also changed a lot since I was a kid, and it’s gotten better.

Today’s farmers are adopting new technologies that better conserve our water, soil and energy resources, while also protecting the safety of the farmers themselves and the livestock they raise.

My dad used to raise hogs in a muddy pasture. Now most farmers prefer to raise hogs in climate-controlled barns to protect the animals from Iowa’s erratic weather, keep the manure contained and help ensure food safety

Like a lot of people, I feel nostalgic for the past. I miss my old swing set on the farm and the birthday parties at Roller City with my best girlfriends. But the reality is that nothing stays the same, including Iowa agriculture.

Yet that’s a good thing, because the next generation of little girls learning to skate today is depending on us to protect the land that they will inherit.

And to be honest, even though Roller City looks the same, there was one big change I noticed right away. The kids skated to music by Justin Bieber, not Cyndi Lauper.

Written by Teresa Bjork
Teresa is a features Writer for the Iowa Farm Bureau.