01/24/07 Beef education

Beef Education Sometimes the best advertisement for a business is education. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back right after this with some education comments. Not very many businesses can rely on word of mouth advertising these days. The beef business is no exception and the Beef Checkoff is the driving force to create and implement beef industry advertising. By now, I believe most people are familiar with the "Beef, It's What's for Dinner" ad campaign either from magazine layouts or the fun and entertaining radio and television spots narrated by a movie star, Sam Elliott. The Checkoff people also use education very effectively, partially by developing a new web site. You can find it at www.beeffrompasturetoplate.org. Learn beef industry history, beef trivia and view a beef glossary in the "Who Are We?" section. "Beef Production Facts" covers animal welfare, economics, environment, nutrition, safety, and production technology. Different types of beef, and cooking information are provided in the "Pasture to Plate" section. I was really pleased to learn about an education kit targeting fourth and fifth grade social studies and language art students called "Beef in Brief  How America's Cattle Serve the World." Nationwide, over 19,000 copies of this kit were sent to teachers. Exercises such as crossword puzzles tell the story of beef production safety and nutrition. Hey! If I would have had that kind of language art classes, I might have gotten better grades. I'm Jeff Keane. Ketch Pen January 2007