Mike Wooley is a second-generation butcher in the beef business. And despite the recent mad cow scare, the owner of Long’s Meat Market said he isn’t worried about his business or the scare’s effect industry-wide, because of his faith in American beef lovers.
“I think people are actually getting reacquainted with meat,” the 45 year old said.
Wooley said his customers are particularly loyal because all of Long’s beef comes from grain-fed cattle, and the meat is ground on site.
Although he has seen a number of new faces walk up to his counter since the Dec. 23 discovery of an infected Holstein in Washington state, Wooley said the last six years have shown a steady enough increase in the beef industry to keep his competition in business.
“We do have Dr. Atkins to thank for the rise in business, as well as other diets that have meat as a focus,” he said.
According to Cattle Fax, a national beef industry marketing research firm based in Colorado, U.S. domestic beef sales and demand remain strong and largely unaffected by the occurrence of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Although producers did not ship any of the diseased parts of the Washington dairy cow — including the brain, spinal cord and small intestines — national news media brought worldwide attention to the several precautions taken after the shipment.
After a brief beef recall and an extended investigation into the age and origin of the cow, the scare has died down to a point where some wonder what all the fuss was about. Nevertheless, beef exports are being rejected in countries like Japan.
Oregon Beef Council Executive Director Dianne Byrne Johnston attributes the scare-factor to sensationalized media, which influenced other countries to cancel their orders. However, considering exports only account for 10 percent of beef business nationwide, Johnston said carnivorous Americans should help to cover the industry’s losses.
“I think the people’s confidence in beef has been restored,” she said.
During the past two years, Johnston said the stability of the multi-billion dollar beef industry has been reinforced by several factors, including popular protein-based diets and new convenience products like precooked or pretrimmed beef cuts.
Although she remains confident in the industry, Johnston said it may be too soon to tell if mad cow will significantly affect the industry.
“It’s going to be a few weeks before we know the true impact of the scare,” Johnston said.
Johnston said her confidence also stems from recent results from a nationwide food safety issues study checking consumer awareness and loyalty to beef. In September, the study showed that 61 percent of Americans knew of mad cow. In a follow-up study performed last week, 96 percent of Americans knew of the disease, a dramatic increase that resulted from a huge, predominantly negative amount of press attention.
However, 88 percent of Americans said they were confident in the safety of beef in September and 89 percent said the same last week.
“Confidence has stayed very high,” Johnston said.
Vic Hastings, owner of Custom Meat Co., a local beef retailer and custom meat producer, said he thinks beef is making a comeback after unfounded connections to cholesterol caused some to switch to white meat.
“People are starting to swing more towards the meat that they shied from before,” he said.
After receiving some concerned calls from supermarket customers about mad cow, Hastings said he predicts more people will start to buy beef from small markets and farms owned by friends and neighbors.
“The custom business will probably pick up a bit,” he said.
Although the beef industry has been slow to create new national advertisements since the “Beef. It’s what’s for dinner” and “Where’s the beef?” commercials, Johnston said new pro-beef ads are coming soon.
“There will be a new campaign, and we will roll it out a bit earlier than planned, by a couple weeks,” Johnston said.
Considering both American and Canadian beef producers haven’t fed their cattle with cow brains or spinal cord remains — the main causes of mad cow– for about five years, Johnston said mad cow disease will be history soon.
“In time, we just won’t see any more cases,” she said.