This past weekend I spent two days helping the Pork Checkoff program promote on the downtown streets of St Louis.  I know, I know...Matt you were helping with the wrong industry.  Well, our brethren in the swine industry need all the help they can get.  During my shifts, we served over 400 pounds of pork loin one tooth pick size portion at a time (it was tasty).  I would estimate we served over five thousand people. 

The event was Taste of St. Louis.  It mainly featured local restaurants and foods.   It draws a mostly urban crowed who think the suburbs of St. Louis are rural America.  The main purpose of the Pork Checkoff’s involvement was to have local producers (and one spy cattleman) to share their story, talk about how to cook pork and answer any questions people may have had.  Here are some items I found interesting or beneficial from the event:

1. Our story? – Most people I talked to had never thought about the story behind the meat they purchased.  All they knew was that a pork chop or steak shows up at their grocery store in the back of the building next to the milk.
2. Scared of meat – there seemed to be an underline fear of cooking meat, it takes to long or how do I know it was done.  The latter question was more pertained to pork.  The general attitude was to cook it longer than necessary which left a dried out tough piece of meat.  Food safety was a large topic with many questions about H1N1 or as most people said Swine Flu.   
3. I want natural, organic and grass fed – I would say half of the participants expressed a desire for the nontraditional side of protein production.  It was funny trying to explain to anti-modern Ag consumer how pigs are not ruminants and that they would stave to death on grass. 

So what is the lesson to cattle producers?

1. Our story? – We need to share our story and not just to the mass public but to our friends, neighbors and people we meet everyday.  Most people mentioned Swine Flu as their reason for not eating pork right now.  It made a huge difference to hear from a pork farmer that it was safe to eat.  We need to take a lesson from this in the Beef Industry.  We have to have the communication channels open so that if (and I pray nothing happens) the Beef Industry has its own swine flu, we are in front of it on the local level.
2. Scared of meat – the NCBA and Check Off do a great job of promoting Beef and ways to cook it but I think a grass root effort would go a long way.  The next time you have some friends over for a BBQ, don’t just cook for them, show them how you are cooking it and some different ways to cook the same thing.  Be excited about cooking beef and it will catch on.
3. I want natural, organic and grass fed – I wish I would have had about twenty grass feed steers at my farm, I could have sold all of them over the weekend.  I was amazed at how people became excited when I asked them about their opinions of natural, organic and grass fed.  Most of their opinion was flawed my miss conceptions but there is a real opportunity here for cattlemen.  We conventional cattle guys sometimes turn our noises up at this market but after hearing these comments, I can see that the niche market may not be a niche anymore.  

In conclusion, the weekend was a great experience.  I have done this on a smaller scale with our local cattlemen’s association but never on the scale as I did with the Pork Checkoff.  This concept provided an avenue for the general public and the producer to interact on a relaxed fun atmosphere. I think everyone who participated, public and producer, walked away with a better understanding of each other.  Above all, it allowed us to share our story!