Beef: Coming back to a table near you.

The Wall Street Journal has a great article about the beef industry's fight to bring beef back to the table in a recession:

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association and its Beef Promotion and Research Board have ramped up efforts at grocery stores to lure consumers who have become less inclined to visit restaurants. For example, the industry this year will hand out 60 million coupons valued at $1 or more for beef purchases, up from 10 million coupons last year.

The industry also recently introduced an online education program designed to teach consumers how to be their own butchers at home so they can harvest cheaper cuts. For example, they'll learn how to cut steaks from a tender roast or cut beef kebobs from a sirloin steak.

Similarly, a "Bargain Beef Bundles" program is designed for shoppers who want to buy beef by the side or the quarter to store in their home freezers.

And if the falling price of traditionally expensive cuts isn't prompting consumers to open their wallets (see graph, from the Wall Street Journal) they are promoting new thrifty cuts of beef that have only bee on the market for a few years:

The Denver Cut- cut from the chuck roll area. Beef Innovations Group calls it juicy, tender and generously marbled. It made it's debut last year from the Kansas City Beef Council. Consumers are catching on, too- here is one person's post about grilling them up at home.

The Western Griller & Western Tip Steaks- AKA bottom round and tip steaks. Beef Innovations Group calls it big on size and flavor. Here is a recipe for ginger-lime beef steak that uses Western Griller steaks.

Country Style Ribs- are described as boneless and perfectly portioned.

The Denver is being tested in restaurants while the ribs are popping up in grocery stores. And according to the Wall Street Journal, some familiar cheap cuts of beef are being renamed to be more appetizing to the public:

In recent months, Cargill Inc., which owns one of the nation's biggest meatpacking companies, has begun trying to make some low-value beef cuts sound more appetizing. Thus, a piece that butchers have long called "flap meat" is being recast as "Cordelico Sirloin," while "ball tip" has been rechristened "Cabrosa Steak."

Further Reading:

The Leader-Post on the beef industry bashing the new health study findings.

The High Plains Journal on beef demand.

The Weekly Times Now on positive meat sales.

C.O.O.L is in Effect

The Final Rule is now in effect for muscle cuts of meats, seafood, nuts, ginseng, etc. Remember to review the latest changes, and if you are still having trouble figuring out how to properly label your cases, the USDA has a handy chart.

KSNT is already reporting the negative side effects:

“I happened to notice the Mexico on there and I put it down, I wasn't going to buy it,” customer Janice Cramer said.

The law is designed to give you a better idea of where your food comes from, but Apple Market manager Roger Flenniken says its just caused more confusion.

“Most of the beef in the is raised, fed and slaughtered here in the United States even though some of it may be born in a foreign country,” Flenniken said.

The Kansas Livestock Association is warning of new prices to go along with those new labels. They say now processors have to keep records of every place animal parts have been, which can be costly.

In: Chicken - Out: Beef

Bloomberg has a visual look at how the economy is affecting meat sales. Since Lehman Brothers fell in September of 2008, chicken prices have gone from a low in November to be the highest selling product so far this year. Chicken has even passed sales of pork products, and is the only product to actually rise in sales since the start of the year.

“We’re seeing more shifts in the meat category to cheaper meats -- ground beef and chicken -- than we saw earlier in the year,” said Safeway Chairman Steven Burd. There is “a trading down virtually across the board” in retail and even “non- retail” products, he said during the Pleasanton, California- based company’s earnings teleconference on Feb. 26.

Collaborating this story, Sanderson Farms, who posted a first quarter loss last Thursday, now says they are back in the black (via Reuters):

"Based on the current markets and where we think they will be when we sell those live chickens they will be sold at a positive operating margin," said Mike Cockrell, Sanderson's chief financial officer.

It isn't all goo news for the poultry industry. Pilgrim's Pride announced the closing of three processing plants. The closings will leave about 1300 employees out of work, and 430 independent contractors will be impacted. The Shreveport Times called the decision, that will help Pilgrims Pride save $110 million annually, a "bombshell":

"This is our largest employer of low- to medium-skilled workers. In our area, there aren't a lot of good alternative opportunities for them and they don't have as many resources to leave the area for opportunity as did the workers at those other companies."

The closures also likely will impact surrounding parishes including Morehouse, which still is reeling from the loss of 550 jobs when International Paper closed its mill in Bastrop, the parish seat.

Other Chicken News:

The Seattle Times on a chicken recall.
Salem, Oregon residents are asking law makers to allow backyard chickens.
Pilgrim's Pride names new executive vice president of marketing.