COUNCIL COMMUNICATOR PASTURE-TO-PLATE EDUCATION by Makenzie Neves, director of producer communications, California Beef Council After a two-year hiatus, the California Beef Council (CBC) brought back its annual Pasture to Plate Beef Tour. The in-depth experience immersed foodservice, retail and nutrition professionals in the beef lifecycle production process, engaging participants in an open and transparent conversation about the beef industry. The tour consisted of several stops in the Central Valley that included: a cowcalf ranch, dairy farm, calf ranch, auction yard, feedyard and a beef processing plant. Insightful guest speakers spoke on current beef topics, and tour stops provided a chance for participants to mingle with cattle ranchers and dairy farmers. The tour welcomed over 20 participants, representing different companies such as Costco, Smart & Final, WinCo Foods, Jack in the Box, Panda Express, UC Davis Health and more. Attendees and producers were able to have important conversations. Attendees received a pre- and post-tour survey, and sentiment toward the beef industry positively shifted for the attendees as a whole. After experiencing the tour, every participant felt the positives of the beef industry strongly or somewhat outweighed the negatives and no participants reported to have felt the negatives of the beef industry outweigh the positives. Here is what one participant had to say about their experience: “This is a wonderful tour to promote transparency within the industry. Everyone that is involved within the industry should know the information that was provided on this tour to fully understand the environment. I will absolutely be keeping my eye out for more tours hosted by the CBC and others to further expand my knowledge in
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this field. Thank you to all that put this on. You are truly doing an amazing job. Looking forward to the next one!” – Costco, Assistant Buyer- Grind Sizzled in California The CBC is kicking off their seven-week summer grilling “Sizzled in California” campaign, which includes 15-second SmartAudio spots and mobile/geo-fencing location-based display ads that drive consumers to the campaign landing page, SizzledInCalifornia.com. The campaign landing page includes a link to our beef offer, video content, sweepstakes entry portal and a selection of curated summer grilling recipes. Our beef offer allows consumers to earn $2 cash back on a $10 or more purchase of middle meat beef cuts through the Checkout 51 mobile app. In addition to the online and digital elements, the CBC has partnered with Neptune Retail Solutions to deploy in-store point-of-sale (POS) in the meat case at more than 450 California retail locations. The in-store POS provides a scannable QR code to drive consumers to the SizzledinCalifornia.com landing page. Visit SizzledInCalifornia.com for more information. Nutrition Program Update In line with the California Beef Council’s priorities, the CBC has placed an extra emphasis on communicating beef ’s nutritional value and importance to consumers. This short five-minute video shows producers some of ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 92
