STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann

UNL Extension Educator,

Webster County February 4, 2011 Edition Well, here we go again. Oprah Winfrey took another shot at the animal agriculture industry this week—and not just meat. This time she included dairy and eggs as well. I don’t watch the Oprah show, nor will I ever, but I have good sources that told me that this last Tuesday’s show focused once again on veganism. It was entitled “Oprah and 378 Staffers Go Vegan: The One-Week Challenge.” Oprah put out a promo on the show, “No meat, no milk, no animal anything!” What is troubling is that she has a huge following of people that will do her beck and call, and even worse is that she has the power to reach millions of people in just one hour, and no one is allowed to question her. I doubt she would ever allow a beef producer or eloquent speaker on behalf of animal agriculture get equal time. I was hoping that this “influential” person would leave us alone after her first famous “Meat Stinks” campaign about 15 years ago. In 1996 when Oprah did a show on BSE in cattle and exclaimed that she would never eat another hamburger. A group of Texas cattlemen, including Nebraska’s own Paul Engler, filed a defamation lawsuit against Winfrey, but eventually lost their case. What many people may not remember that their lawsuit in 1998 was also against, believe it or not, another cattleman. Most of us had not even heard of the Humane Society of the United States back then, or if we did didn’t really know what they were up to. I did some back-checking and wouldn’t you know it, that beef producer, Howard Lyman, is an organic food proponent, was president of the International Vegetarian Union and get this---Program Director of the HSUS and a good friend of Wayne Pacelle. Hmmmm…Are we starting to see a pattern here? One thing was very obvious. Winfrey’s irresponsible and biased show did do great damage to the million American farm and ranch families who raised cattle --including myself. The show, in giving vegans and anti-meat activists a platform for biased and unsubstantiated claims against beef, also did a tremendous disservice to millions of American consumers. The show was one of beef-bashing -- not a responsible discussion of BSE and the safety of the American beef supply. She took a complex technical issue and turned it into an hour of unjustified scare-mongering all on the basis of “we are all going to get this! Well, she was wrong then, and I think she is wrong again in attacking animal agriculture, and my base opinion of her has not changed one iota. I will, however, give her this: one segment of the show did feature a tour of a Cargill meat packing plant near Ft. Morgan, Co. and a beef spokesman from there ( http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Inside-a-Slaughterhouse-Video ). But of course to off-set any positives for the meat industry she also had “modern agriculture” critic, Michael Pollan, as one of her guests. That is the same guy that wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and was instrumental in the film “Food Inc.” both of which bashed the meat and animal agriculture industry. Oh, and did I forget Kathy Freston, a vegan model, hawking the virtues of veganism and of course her new book “Veganist.” She, of course. espoused the health, spiritual and environmental benefits (as she sees them) of shunning all animal products. My guess is that those 378 staffers didn’t have much choice in if they would participate or not. After all, Oprah is the boss. I did find it humorous, however, in that one staffer was brave enough to say --“It tastes gross; no wonder people lose weight on this stuff!” I would guess she was mourning her daily hamburger routine. She was promptly ‘corrected’ by Freston, who told her –“Your protesting taste buds and hunger rumblings are because you are an ‘addict’ going through withdrawal”. The rest of the ‘vegan resistors’ were met with similar corrections by Freston and Oprah. I am probably ruined now. Shoot every time my stomach growls when I smell the delightful aroma of a steak on the grill, I will have to join a support group, stand up, and admit that “I am an addict!” The one thing that we must remember in all of this is that a “vegetarian” makes a choice not to eat meat, and a “vegan” doesn’t want anyone to eat meat or use any animal product. I guess we know where Oprah stands. I thought she was retiring….! What bothers me is that people like Oprah and this vegan fringe likes to portray their opinion as the majority view and want to implement rules and regulations that limit consumer choice and decrease food production. I think we are faced with the task of making sure that consumers, retailers, and policy makers understand that the food we produce is safe and that agriculture needs to produce more to meet growing world food demands. What we need even more than ever are efforts by all agricultural groups to bring about a unified voice to speak for agriculture. We can no longer sit back, watch Oprah and think all is well in our world. This is getting to be serious stuff. I know it sounds daunting and that we don’t have anything really on our side, but take heart. There are some positives, but we need to work on those positives. In my opinion everything pretty much lines up for our message; the consumer data is on our side, the economic impact, the environment, and I think even the moral reasoning are all on our side. Right now there is a willingness to listen and learn, and we must take advantage of it. I believe however that with everything that is happening with the anti-animal agriculture movement --that the timing is critical. We must begin to get this message out quickly. My reasoning is that over the next two years, food prices will likely rise to the highest-ever levels and this will cause consumers to ask some tough questions. Agriculture must be ready with the answers when the time comes. Are you ready? The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: www.webster.unl.edu/home