My sister, a retired teacher who lives in a city, spends a month each summer at our cottage and close friends of hers often come up for a visit on a weekend or for a few days. As can be expected, the city folks have a negative view of farming. One woman visitor last summer said she seldom eats beef and when she does buy it she drives quite a distant to a shop that sells grass-fed, organic, hormone-free beef. “I don’t want beef that is fed hormones and steroids,” she said.
This 60-something-year-old woman thought farmers dish out hormones and steroids and sprinkling them on top of the feed so the “cows” would grow faster. She was surprised when I told her that never happens. I gave her a tour of my beef barns and cattle and she went away impressed.
That was just one person I was able to convince. But, there are thousands of people who think the same way. And fast-food restaurants like A&W are only adding to the confusion.
Are organizations such as the Beef Farmers of Ontario doing enough to get the message out to consumers that beef advertised as “hormone-free” is misleading because there is no such thing as hormone-free beef. Hormones occur naturally in all animals, plants and people.
Promote the beef as “no hormone implants used” or “no growth promotants used” or, simply, “organic beef”.
Using hormone implants in cattle (steers) help cattle convert the food they eat into muscle more quickly and easily. This means they will develop more lean meat. In Canada and the U.S., an animal can be given a hormone implant (also called growth promotant) early on. It works via a tiny implant placed under the outer skin of the ear. These are slow-release products that last about 180 days, but are used long before (at least 200 days) an animal heads to market. You could say it’s good for the environment as fewer crops are needed to feed the animal, less manure is produced and fewer gasses.
Two-and-a-half-years ago, A&W made the decision to source their beef products from producers who are not using hormones or steroids. “Beef raised without the use of hormones and steroids” is their advertising slogan and it has driven up sales at A&W — up 10 per cent in a single year across the company.
I checked out the outlet in Renfrew and was surprised by all the propaganda on the wall as you enter. The order counter is confusing —so much stuff there about hormones and steroids. But guess what? They don’t promote their beef as “hormone-free”. They also don’t advertise their beef as “Canadian beef” because most of their beef comes from Montana and from Australia.
A&W certainly overuses the words “hormones” and “steroids”. Those two words conjure up a lot of concern for people.
Beef is a really excellent source of protein, zinc, iron and a lot of other essential nutrients. It’s a really poor source of hormones.”
Considering there are about 45,000 ng of estrogen in 75 grams of white bread, the bun probably has far more estrogen than the beef!
Next week the Beef Farmers of Ontario have their annual meeting in Toronto. They’ve gotten on the climate change bandwagon with the theme of their convention being “Rising to the Climate Challenge”. They have a panel discussion on it too.
Would it not make more sense if the cattle producers focused on the fact that consumers are dictating what kind of food they want, and how it was raised? Their influence is becoming greater every year. The food industry is listening and producers better start “Rising to the Food Challenge”. Look at what the fast-food restaurants are now telling farmers. McDonalds Canada recently stated they will only buy cage-free eggs by 2025. That’s just a start.
There are already more than enough self-interest groups and governments focusing on climate change or challenges.
