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N FLA | The menu at chef José Andrés’s Bazaar Meat in Las Vegas notes that its Vaca Vieja steak is made from a “hand-selected working cow.” The beef comes from a meat company called Mindful Meats, where, on the cow’s “final day,” employees “look each cow in the eye and say ‘thank you’ as they load onto the trailer,” its website explains.
Welcome to the final frontier in the discussion about transparency in food: meat. Consumers are demanding to know more about where their meat comes from, but food marketers say it’s more complicated and emotional to discuss the sourcing of animals than, say, turnips or salad greens. The challenge for restaurants and food providers is to give information without turning stomachs.
Fifty-eight percent of consumers say they are more concerned about the treatment of animals raised for food than they were a few years ago, according to a 2017 survey by market-research firm Packaged Facts based in Rockville, Md. As a result, language on packaging and menus is describing meat in more detail than ever before, linking food on the plate more directly to the animal and its provenance.
SunFed Ranch’s packages of meatballs describe a “deep and genuine regard for our cattle.” Pamphlets at Hunter’s Head Tavern in Upperville, Va., explain that “conventional veal calves are slaughtered at about 5 weeks of age,” unlike theirs, raised 3 miles away at Ayrshire Farm, which are “grown out to 8-9 months.” Fish producers are providing more information, too: Pole & Line Tuna says its canned albacore tuna can be traced to the vessel and captain that caught the fish.
Mr. Singer, left, and Executive Chef Brad Daniels, right, show the side of a 340-pound pig.
Mr. Singer, left, and Executive Chef Brad Daniels, right, show the side of a 340-pound pig. PHOTO: TERRY A. RATZLAFF FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the industry trade group famous for its ‘Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner’ ads of the 1990’s, is “rethinking how we talk to consumers about beef,” says Alisa Harrison, a senior vice president. Today, the group’s website features interviews with ranchers on topics like sustainability and land stewardship: “It’s this inner passion to just want to take care of these cows and this land,” says one rancher. Underneath the profile is a recipe for buffalo-style beef tacos.
It’s a fine line between transparency and oversharing. At Blackbelly Restaurant in Boulder, Colo., servers are coached to let customers take the lead in discussing the provenance of the meat, says chef and owner Hosea Rosenberg.
On a typical evening, about one-third of customers will want to order without much discussion, says Mr. Rosenberg. Another third is interested in more specifics—like cuts of meat, or particular breeds of animals—before their eyes glaze over, he says. The last third is interested in even more details, such as types of grasses or grains the cow was fed, what it weighed, and what farm it was from. Sometimes they ask if it had a name. (“We named it Dinner,” he says).
The Vaca Vieja steak at Bazaar Meat in Las Vegas comes from Mindful Meats, where, on the cow’s ‘final day,’ employees ‘look each cow in the eye and say “thank you” as they load onto the trailer,’ the meat company’s website explains.
The Vaca Vieja steak at Bazaar Meat in Las Vegas comes from Mindful Meats, where, on the cow’s ‘final day,’ employees ‘look each cow in the eye and say “thank you” as they load onto the trailer,’ the meat company’s website explains. PHOTO: MINDFUL MEATS
One recent night, diner Kirstin Johnson asked butcher Nate Singer for more information about her meat. While sawing through the front of the 340-pound Berkshire pig at a demonstration table, Mr. Singer told her the animal was fed a diet of alfalfa and local cereals on a farm 12 miles away. “We go into as much granularity as the customer wants to hear,” Mr. Rosenberg says. Sometimes servers must tell customers they can’t get the cut of steak they requested, because the restaurant is committed to only using one cow at a time.
Sara Otepka, a 41-year old investment fund manager, purchases a quarter steer once a year directly from a ranch in Idaho. She and her husband, Matt, pay about $400 for steaks and ground beef that feed the family of four for a year. She says she refrains from eating meat at restaurants or even friends’ dinner parties because she feels less confident about how the animals were fed and treated. “It’s easier to say ‘I’m a vegetarian,’ she says. She has met with the family that owns the ranch to learn about how they raise their animals on open grassland rather than in confinement.
Her husband has fewer reservations about the meat when he eats out. “I’m a meat eater and I know what that means,” Mr. Otepka says. “Someone is going to die and I’m going to eat them.” Referring to the cable show that once featured a now-famous sketch involving a couple grilling their waitress about the chicken, he notes: “I don’t go all ‘Portlandia.’”
The show ‘Portlandia’ once featured a sketch involving a couple grilling their waitress about the chicken.
While the heightened interest in meat sourcing appears more prominently in premium products, some fast food establishments are also explaining more. Wendy’s hamburger chain has run TV ads noting that their meat comes from U.S. producers rather than overseas. “Now, ‘where’s the beef’ means something different,” says a voice-over in one commercial.
Consuming humanely can be costlier. Chicken, beef and eggs that are “certified humane”—where animals are never kept in cages or crates and can move freely—typically cost 5% to 20% above conventional supermarket prices, says Adele Douglass, chief executive of Humane Farm Animal Care, a Middleburg, Va.-based nonprofit that runs the certification.
The various certifications on food can become confusing. There are now at least 30 common claims and certifications for meat, eggs and dairy, according to the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy group focused on public health.
One survey by Lake Research Partners based in Washington, D.C., tested 1,000 consumers’ knowledge on the details of various terms such as “cage free”(hens not raised in cages) and “free range” (access to the outdoors), and said that up to 65% of consumers got the questions wrong.
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals launched a campaign two years ago called Shop With Your Heart to guide consumers in labeling and throw their support behind certain certifications such as the Global Animal Partnership’s five-step rating system. (The top rating requires the animal to have lived its entire life on only one farm, which the organization says minimizes its stress).
Randy Golding, a retired chemical engineer in Cedar City, Utah, orders steaks, chicken and ground beef every three months from Firefly Farms in North Stonington, Conn. He says he has spoken directly with the farm manager, Dugan Tillman-Brown, for at least an hour, asking questions such as how the animals were treated (“They have names. They have personalities,” says Mr. Tillman-Brown) to how they are slaughtered (a quick shot to the head with a steel bolt). Mr. Tillman-Brown recalls the phone call, and several follow-ups.
Mr. Golding says those details help him and his wife, Lisa, feel better about eating meat knowing the animal wasn’t mistreated. “We’d rather pay more and have that comfort level,” he says. “It’s really delicious food.” | |
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Wall Street Journal Beef Article
