Suggested Lead: Cattlemen Everywhere Know Ranching Is A Difficult But Rewarding Way Of Life

Beef Board Video News 01/2016 “Beef Checkoff funded programs helps producers share their story with consumers”

Suggested lead: Most Americans today don’t know much about how the food they eat is produced. Filling that information gap with the facts about how producers work to provide safe and nutritious beef is one aim of the beef checkoff, as Brian Baxter reports.

Reporter: THE HILLS OF SOUTHERN PENNSYLVANIA ARE A GOOD PLACE TO RAISE CATTLE, AND JANA MALOT HAS BEEN DOING JUST THAT NEARLY ALL HER LIFE. SHE AND HER HUSBAND CLEM SPEND THEIR DAYS IN WIDE OPEN SPACES, KNOWING THEY'RE WITHIN TWO HOURS OF MAJOR CITIES LIKE WASHINGTON, DC AND NEW YORK, WHERE MILLIONS OF CONSUMERS OFTEN HAVE LITTLE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW BEEF GETS TO THEIR TABLE. (:20)

Jana Malot, Uncle Clem's Place Harrisonville, PA: "There are a lot of myths about beef. It seems consumers try to find information and they don’t always go to a reliable source to get their facts on the way our commodity is produced." (:10)

Reporter: JANA SERVES AS A MEMBER OF THE CATTLEMEN'S BEEF BOARD, AND SHE SAYS ONE IMPORTANT WAY CHECKOFF DOLLARS ARE USED IS TO BUST MYTHS AND TO PROTECT THE IMAGE OF BEEF. (:10)

Jana Malot, Uncle Clem's Place Harrisonville, PA: "The Beef Checkoff helps to build the image of our producers and safeguard our reputation by helping us spread the word. Spread the word on what we do on our operations, how we handle our livestock, how we feed our livestock, how we manage our land, how we market our livestock and the quality of beef." (:16)

Reporter: IN RECENT YEARS, THE BEEF CHECKOFF HAS FOCUSED ON REACHING MILLENNIAL AGED CONSUMERS WITH CREDIBLE INFORMATION ABOUT BEEF. (:08)

Jana Malot, Uncle Clem's Place Harrisonville, PA: "They’re tied in to social media and they’re tied in to anything on the internet, our website FactsAboutBeef.com just makes a logical place for us to put information up there that they will find it pretty easily and read it. And then that gives them the credible source that they need so that they know about beef, how it’s raised, how it’s marketed and how consumers can even prepare it. The nutritional facts about it, they’re all there on FactsAboutBeef.com. (:32)

Reporter: JANA SAYS ONE POPULAR FEATURE OF THE WEBSITE IS SHORT VIDEOS OF PRODUCERS TELLING THEIR STORY, IN THEIR OWN WORDS, DEMONSTRATING TO CONSUMERS THE PASSION AND CARE THAT GOES INTO PRODUCING BEEF. IN PENNSYLVANIA, I’M BRIAN BAXTER REPORTING. (:12)

TIME: 1:50