PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 499 



Increased Consumption of Meat 



There has been under consideration by the various interests handling 

 live stock and meat for some time past, the working out of some sort of 

 plan for putting on an educational campaign through the press and other- 

 wise for the purpose of offsetting and counteracting the insidious propa- 

 ganda that is being spread over this country to discourage the eating of 

 meat. 



The propaganda that was sent out by the food administration during 

 the war to discourage our people from eating meat has cost our farmers 

 and stockmen millions of dollars every year. Then aside from that, there 

 is appearing daily in our daily papers and home journals, insidious ads 

 telling of the evil effects of meat on the system, and comparing the food 

 value of a pound of meat with its cost to the food value and cost of numer- 

 ous other articles of food. All such tends to discourage the consuming 

 public from eating meat, and it appears that it is now our plain duty in 

 order to protect the live stock industry to organize in some well defined 

 manner and set about in a businesslike way to correct this wrong impres- 

 sion among consumers, and to show them in an intelligent way that meat 

 is one of the cheapest, most wholesome and invigorating foods in the die- 

 tary, and in this way restore it to its original position as food on the 

 tables of the consuming public. 



A campaign to increase the consumption of meat will not only benefit 

 the stockmen, but will automatically help the man who sells corn, for an 

 increased consumption of meat means an increased demand for live stock, 

 and this, in turn, means an increased demand for corn to fatten that live 

 stock, so that all farmers are benefited in the end. Such a campaign as 

 is contemplated will cost us some money, but I believe that under the 

 plan outlined and prepared by a committee appointed at a conference 

 held in Chicago, December 4, for the purpose of considering this matter, 

 and which I will present to. you, I believe the campaign can be promul- 

 gated and financed without becoming burdensome to any one; therefore, 

 I want to recommend that you give this matter your very careful and seri- 

 ous consideration. 



Plan 



It is proposed: 



"That a National Live Stock and Meat Board, consisting of seventeen 

 members, each having one vote, shall be created to conduct and direct an 

 adequate educational campaign counteracting the widespread and insidi- 

 ous propaganda against the food value of meat and disseminating through 

 all possible avenues correct information about meat in the diet, with a 

 view to increasing meat consumption, in co-operation with the United 

 States Department of Agriculture and other appropriate agencies, and to 

 take such other steps as may seem proper to create a wider market for 

 and an increased consumption of live stock products. 



"That the National Live Stock and Meat Board shall consist of eleven 

 members representing live stock producers' associations; two members 

 representing the Institute of American Meat Packers; two members rep- 

 resenting the commission men, and two members representing the re- 

 tailers of meat. 



