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Representatives of the Sankei Shimbun (one of Japan's five national newspapers, with a daily circulation of 2.8 million), Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun (Business & Technology Daily News with a circulation of 420,000), the Meat Journal and the Daily Meat & Livestock Food Industry Newspaper are on a week-long educational tour that includes Colorado State University's Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center, tours of a beef processing plant, feedlot and cattle ranch, as well as retail and foodservice establishments. Funding for the visit is provided by the Beef Checkoff program and the U.S.D.A. Market Access Program.
"These journalists are information sources for government officials, meat-industry executives, consumers and other journalists," said Susumu [Sam] Harada, U.S.M.E.F.-Japan senior director for trade projects and technical service, who is accompanying the journalists. "Helping them see the safety practices employed by the U.S. beef industry and the high quality standards for both livestock and finished product is important as we look to expand access for U.S. beef exports to Japan."
"There is a long-term benefit to our industry in helping to educate international media so that they better understand the policies and practices of the U.S. beef industry," said Mark Gustafson, JBS USA international sales, who hosted the visiting journalists' tour of the company's Greeley, Colo., beef plant. "There are differences between how the industry operates in the United States and Japan, but our priorities are the same. We are both committed to producing safe and wholesome beef."
One of the biggest differences the visitors will see is the scale of operations in the U.S. versus those they have seen in Japan. A large beef plant in the U.S. will process as many cattle as all of Japan. Similarly, feedlots in the U.S. can hold tens of thousands of cattle while smaller feeding operations are the norm in Japan.
The journalists also enjoyed a meeting with Dr. Temple Grandin, Colorado State University professor of animal science and industry pioneer in animal welfare.
"Understanding the differences and seeing how the U.S. beef industry can maintain a high standard of quality even with much higher volumes is important for these journalists," Gustafson said. "And witnessing the complexity of our systems to sort cattle by age and to sort products for shipment, in our case, to more than 44 markets around the world is an eye-opening experience."
Through the first seven months of 2010, the U.S. has sold 64,959 metric tons (143.2 million lbs.) of beef valued at $336.2 million to Japan. Those numbers are 25% higher than the same period of 2009.
