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the important programs carried out by AEB on behalf of the U.S. 

 egg industry. The fact is that we need not only to continue our cur- 

 rent efforts, but to increase them considerably in the future if we 

 are to achieve a reasonable level of competitiveness in the market- 

 place. Cereal manufacturers, our major breakfast competitors, 

 spent $823 million advertising their products in 1992. Frozen waf- 

 fle manufacturers spent $45 million. 



Producers of other agricultural commodities with checkoffs are 

 effectively advertising their products at much higher levels than we 

 in the egg industry. For example, AEB is spending about $3 million 

 annually on advertising. It estimated that the National Dairy 

 Board spends about $150 million; the Beef Board, about $22 mil- 

 lion; and the Pork Board, about $12 million. So if we're going to 

 compete, we're simply going to have to do a better job, and this 

 takes funding, and funding at levels that most individual egg pro- 

 ducers could never achieve on their own. Through AEB, however, 

 we can make our industry goals a reality. We're not gambling with 

 our money; the egg checkoff program has already proved itself time 

 and time again. This is why we are willing, as they say, to "put 

 our money where our mouth is," because we know that we stand 

 to gain when we are united behind our product and committed to 

 building and maintaining a strong egg industry. 



The American Egg Board has established many programs to ac- 

 complish these goals. One area on which we have worked particu- 

 larly hard and on which I would like to focus today is the area of 

 nutrition. 



Through AEB we have established the Egg Nutrition Center, 

 which is an organization to assist egg producers and processors in 

 providing consumers, health professionals, the scientific commu- 

 nity, and the media with accurate information about eggs and egg 

 products. A wealth of educational materials has been created to 

 reach health professionals and consumers alike. 



The American Egg Board has a scientific advisory panel of well- 

 known and respected scientists and physicians to advise us on pro- 

 grams, nutrition research, and other issue areas, and to provide ex- 

 pertise for consumers and the media as needed. Due to the large 

 number of consumers over the age of 65, a panel of independent 

 scientific experts formulated practical diet, health, and lifestyle 

 guidelines for this group. The findings of the panel have developed 

 into a paper titled "Nutritional Needs of the Elderly." 



Through AEB grants, nutritional education programs have been 

 developed at Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard Medical 

 School. AEB is sponsoring a faculty education project at Harvard 

 Medical School to train instructors to teach nutrition to physicians 

 and medical students. The objective is to reach future physicians 

 with accurate information about cholesterol and egg nutrition. AEB 

 has funded independent research that demonstrates that eggs are 

 not the culprit in increasing blood cholesterol levels in a healthy 

 population. The results of an AEB study at Columbia University in 

 which the effects of eating zero, 1, 2, and 4 eggs per day on a low- 

 fat diet are expected to be published in a major medical journal 

 soon. 



In order for our industry to be best served by our checkoff pro- 

 gram, these kinds of efforts must continue and be expanded in the 



