Beef PR War
As reported by The Guardian in 2023, "the beef industry is engaged in an all-out public relations war to pre-empt environmental criticisms of its products – and... those PR efforts are increasing."[1]
Since at least 2018, NCBA has hired top-shelf public relations firms – including Ketchum, VMLY&R and Linhart PR, who all have fossil fuel industry clients – to help devise its messaging and strategy. Building on their climate denial and greenwashing expertise, the NCBA's propaganda has been broadcast to tens if not hundreds of millions of media consumers:
In a private video training session for beef industry influencers, Sarah Reece, NCBA’s senior executive director of brand marketing, described a plan that involved paid advertising on Google, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and Instagram, as well as video and audio ads spots on ESPN, Spotify and Sirius XM Radio. One sustainability-oriented marketing effort, which ran from April to June 2021, generated 60m impressions... It’s “a surround sound approach to reach consumers”, Reese said. “We’re getting them everywhere they are.”
During this campaign, NCBA sponsored journalism in outlets such as the LA Weekly, Westword and the Denver Post did not disclose the trade industry's backing of their content in what amounts to blatant astroturfing.
Now, through the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's new "Masters of Beef Advocacy" program, the US Beef industry is creating an army of influencers and citizen activists to help amplify its propaganda. Through the NCBA's new program, more than 21,000 graduates have received false narratives about beef industry sustainability. During the course, students are repeatedly urged to 'engage' with consumers online and offline. Via a private Facebook group for graduates, the NCBA distributes infographics and industry talking points to deploy in online conversations. This propaganda denies the overwhelming scientific evidence that beef is the most emissions-intensive food; and that people - especially citizens of wealthy countries - need to drastically reduce their beef consumption to stop climate collapse.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
This initiative has been subsidized over $500k to date with U.S. tax dollars through the Cattlemen's Beef Board of the Beef Checkoff corporate welfare program, founded by Ronald Reagan in 1985. Using this federal handout, the NCBA has now created a 24/7 surveillance and propaganda faux-"military operations center":
Using checkoff money, NCBA has developed what it has called a “Digital Command Center” – a sophisticated online monitoring system that tracks media outlets and social media for more than 200 beef-related topics. Hosted in Denver in a space that “looks like a military operations center combined with the TV section at an electronics retailer”, according to a recent Cattlemen’s Beef Board mailer sent to ranchers, the command center alerts members of NCBA’s issues management and media relations team whenever stories or online chatter rise above a certain threshold. It’s staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with personnel redundancies built in to make sure someone’s always watching.[10]
Sources
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/beef-industry-public-relations-messaging-machine
- ↑ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaq0216
- ↑ https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ghg-per-kg-poore
- ↑ https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/
- ↑ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357?cookieSet=1
- ↑ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02409-7#:~:text=By%202050%2C%20dietary%20changes%20could,people%20ate%20less%20meat%3F')
- ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/vegan-vegetarian-meat-climate-emergency-scientists-environment-a9185956.html
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/19/rising-global-meat-consumption-will-devastate-environment#:~:text=A%20recent%20review%20by%20the,a%2042%25%20increase%20in%20pork.
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/five-beef-industry-myths-busted
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/beef-industry-public-relations-messaging-machine