Authors: Michael Moss
275
where 1,800 workers
Joe Jerzewski, president and business manager of United Food and Commerce Local 536 to author.
276
Behind the workers
Photographs of assembly line taken on or near the first day’s run.
277
dubbed the “Food Playground”
Stephen Quickert and Donna Rentschler, “Developing and Optimizing the Lunchables Concept,” Philip Morris Product Development Symposium, December 5, 1990, in LT.
278
In the great churn
Estimates from various grocery retailing experts.
279
hitting $217 million
Bob Drane to author.
280
A net loss of $20 million
Ibid.
281
walked Maxwell through
With Bob Drane at this meeting was Jim McVey, CEO of the Oscar Mayer unit, who shared his recollections with me. “The nice thing about working with Philip Morris is, if you had something that had real potential, they were glad to take funds from their other products and put it behind the product that was moving,” McVey told me.
282
Maxwell turned to Drane
Jim McVey and Bob Drane to author.
283
The founders were two Bavarian
“Oscar Mayer Foods Co.,”
International Directory of Company Histories
, vol. 12, St. James Press, 1996; Bucher and Villines,
Greatest Thing Since Sliced Cheese
.
284
horrors that were later exposed
Upton Sinclair,
The Jungle
(New York: Doubleday, 1906).
285
has 3.5 grams of saturated fat
Data from Calorie Count.
286
red meat consumption fell
Oscar Mayer to Philip Morris, 1991, in LT.
287
“From 1986 to 1988”
Philip Morris Product Development Symposium, December 5, 1990, in LT.
288
On a scale of 1 to 10
Bob Eckert, president of the Oscar Mayer unit, to Philip Morris Corporate Products Committee, October 20, 1995, in LT.
289
“Talent Search”
Ibid.
290
“We completed over”
Ibid.
291
To keep their discussions lively
Bob Drane, “Developing and Optimizing the Lunchables Concept,” project presentation, Oscar Mayer.
292
puns and catchwords
Ibid.
293
Philip Morris had all but cornered
Richard Kluger,
Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris
(New York: Knopf, 1996).
294
“a lovely business”
Ibid.
295
One Kraft executive
John Ruff to author.
296
But it had paid dearly
Stuart,
Kraft General Foods
.
297
“Hamish Maxwell was a brilliant”
Geoffrey Bible to author.
298
“I never really worried”
Ibid.
299
Philip Morris didn’t accomplish this
John Tindall to Philip Morris Product Development Symposium, December 5, 1990, in LT.
300
“Suddenly, because of the smoking”
Ibid.
301
“Obviously, there was concern”
Ibid.
302
“which I fought like crazy”
Bob Drane to author.
303
“Lunchables with Dessert”
Clark Murray, senior product manager, to Philip Morris Corporate Products Committee, January 24, 1991, in LT.
304
“Our processed meat categories”
Bob Eckert to Philip Morris Corporate Products Committee, October 20, 1995, in LT.
305
“You bet”
Geoffrey Bible to author.
306
“People could point to these things”
Ibid.
307
“Bob was very keen”
Ibid.
308
experimented with fresh carrots
Bob Drane to author.
309
“This is not some big”
Los Angeles Times
, February 8, 1994.
310
“We went through”
Bob Drane to author.
311
“The box was there”
Ibid.
312
“Lunchables aren’t about lunch”
Transcript of Bob Eckert, CEO of Kraft, to Business Week, in LT.
313
“Kids like to build things”
Bob Drane to author.
314
The group, called the Cancer Project, that examined
“The Five Worst Packaged Lunchbox Meals,” the Cancer Project, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Spring 2009.
315
Under pressure from attacks
“Oscar Mayer Lunchables Lunch Combinations Expand Wholesome Product Line,” Kraft, August 16, 2010.
316
“All things started to become clear”
Bob Drane to author.
317
“People who work”
Ibid.
318
Drane has also prepared
Bob Drane, “What Role Can the Food Industry Play in Addressing Obesity?” unpublished manuscript.
319
“Plenty of guilt”
Ibid.
320
President Abraham Lincoln created
Wayne D. Rasmussen, “Lincoln’s Agricultural Legacy,” Agricultural History Branch, USDA.
321
two buildings that form
National Registry of Historic Places.
322
$90 billion trade in snack foods
In keeping with the theme of this chapter, a good place to learn more about the snack trade is a white paper prepared by Dairy Management, an entity overseen by the Secretary of Agriculture whose goal is to increase consumption of cheese and other dairy products. “Snacking: Identifying a World of Opportunity for Diary,” Dairy Management Inc., April 2010.
323
center’s annual budget
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion correspondence with author.
324
policies on nutrition
“Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, USDA. Oversight of the panel of experts chosen to develop the guidelines every five years alternates between the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services.
325
kids between one to three years
Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee,
Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, 2010), D2–12.
326
Topping the list
Ibid, pages D3–13.
327
blunt in urging people
Walter Willett to author. The Harvard School of Medicine has developed its own versions of the food pyramid and My Plate graphics that differ in significant ways. The protein portion of Harvard’s ideal meal, for instance, advises, “Choose fish, poultry, beans and nuts; limit red meat; avoid bacon, cold cuts and other processed meats.” And instead of encouraging people to drink milk, the Harvard nutrition scientists emphasize water, with limited milk and juice: “Avoid sugary drinks.”
328
buried the information
The USDA released an abridged version of the expert panel’s report, which put the sources of saturated fat on page 25 of this 59-page summary.
329
“If you really want people”
The Diane Rehm Show
, February 1, 2011.
330
“The idea isn’t to eliminate”
Ibid.
331
finding it in the grocery store
R. Post et al., “A Guide to Federal Food Labeling Requirements for Meat and Poultry Products,” Labeling and Consumer Protection Staff, USDA, August 2007.
332
USDA required this information
“Nutrition Labeling of Single Ingredient Products and Ground or Chopped Meat and Poultry Products,” Food and Safety Inspection Service, USDA.
333
“to include expertise”
Craig Henry, Grocery Manufacturers Association, letter to Carole Davis, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, USDA, May 23, 2008.
334
consumer’s view was voiced
This and other comments submitted on the dietary guidelines are available through a database created by the USDA, which can be found at the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion’s website.
335
“I am concerned”
Transcript, Conference Report on the Food Security Act of 1985, U.S. Senate, December 18, 1985.
336
It created two marketing programs
“Federally Authorized Commodity Research and Promotion Programs,” U.S. General Accounting Office (now called the U.S. Government Accountability Office), December 1993; “Federal Farm Promotion (‘Check-Off’) Programs,” Congressional Research Service, October 20, 2008; “Understanding Your Beef Checkoff Program,” Cattlemen’s Beef Board.
337
yearly consumption of red meat
Carrie Daniel et al., “Trends in Meat Consumption in the United States,”
Public Health Nutrition
14, no. 4 (2011): 575–583. Consumer worries about fat are cited as a reason for decreased consumption in the beef-industry supported study “U.S. Beef Demand Drivers and Enhancement Opportunities,” Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, June 2009.
338
“I thought it was a dumb idea”
Mark Thomas to author.
339
“We’ve done a lot of research”
Steve Wald, director of new product development, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, in video released by the association, January 8, 2008.
340
promote more fast food sales
For a summary of some of these product innovations, see “Cattlemen’s Beef Board Introduces New Staff, Snack,” Cattlemen’s Beef Board, February 25, 2008.
341
Twenty-nine cuts of beef
At my request, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association examined national retail data and found that while a mere 20% of ground beef being sold was lean or leaner, two-thirds of the whole muscle cuts sold in 2012 were of the lean variety.
342
Worries have arisen
“Background Information for Letter to Secretary Vilsack on Mechanically Tenderized (MT) Beef Products,” Safe Food Coalition, June 12, 2009. For a critical perspective on tenderized meat, I’m grateful to Carol Tucker-Forman, a former assistant secretary of agriculture and now a fellow with the Consumer Federation of America.
343
“lean finely textured beef”
The term has changed over the years, with producers and the USDA arguing for various permutations. For a basic description of the product, see H. Ying and J. G. Sebranek, “Finely Textured Lean Beef as an Ingredient for Processed Meats,” Iowa State University, 1997.
344
It was 15 percent cheaper
From various USDA and industry records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and sources. Michael Moss, “The Burger That Shattered Her Life,”
The New York Times
, October 4, 2009.
345
The largest producer
Michael Moss, “Company Record on Treatment of Beef Called into Question,”
The New York Times
, December 31, 2009.
346
“It was frozen”
Charles Tant to author.
347
“I do not consider the stuff”
Gerald Zirnstein in USDA memo, obtained by author. Additionally, I am grateful to him for discussing this memo and his dealings on the product with me.
348
first published
Moss, “Company Record on Treatment.”
349
“That’s one of the reasons”
Video of press conference, Des Moines, Iowa, March 28, 2012.
350
“a staple of the school lunch program”
I am indebted to various officials of the USDA school lunch program for sharing their memos, data, and experiences on this matter with me. See also Moss, “Company Record on Treatment.”
351
“I think we are going”
James Haggerty, “ ‘Pink Slime’ Spurs Beef Backlash,” (Scranton, Penn.)
Times-Tribune
, April 15, 2012.
352
studies offered “convincing” evidence
“Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective,” World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007, 121, 123.
353
it called the “Cancer Team”
For an internal analysis of the beef checkoff campaign’s work on the cancer report, see “Project Evaluation Audit: World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute of Cancer Research Report,” Sound Governance, June 13, 2008.
354
also retained the services
Starting on April 10, 2007, the expenditure of these funds was authorized by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, with approval from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, according to records released by the USDA to author. Exponent provides case studies of its work products on its website.
355
Exponent conducted its own
Dominik D. Alexander et al., “Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption and Cancer,” National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, 2010.
356
“an emotional and frightening issue”
“Project Evaluation Audit: World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute of Cancer Research Report.”
357
“Cancer risk is not about diet alone”
Ibid.
358
“Overall, beef checkoff messages”
Ibid.
359
“The Secretary of Agriculture”
Opinion of the Court, in
Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association
, U.S. Supreme Court, May 23, 2005. For an analysis of the case by a former FDA official, see Daniel E. Troy, “Do We Have a Beef with the Court? Compelled Commercial Speech Upheld, But It Could Have Been Worse,”
Cato Supreme Court Review
, The Cato Institute.
360
“I resist ranking”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg in separate opinion concurring in the judgment, in
Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association
, U.S. Supreme Court, May 23, 2005. I am indebted to a former USDA economist, Parke Wilde, for being generous with his time in discussing his own, similarly critical analysis of the checkoff programs. See, for example, Parke E. Wilde, “Federal Communication About Obesity in the Dietary Guidelines and Checkoff Programs,” Discussion Paper No. 27, Tufts University, 2005.
361
less cheese-laden pizza
A 2006 brochure produced by the USDA, “Your Personal Health: Steps to a Healthier You,” has this suggestion for people when they get the urge to eat pizza: “Ask for whole-wheat crust and half the cheese.”
362
“The partnership sells more cheese”
Tom Gallagher, “Checkoff Is Working Hard for You!”
Western Dairy Business
, September 2009.
363
“In Mexico, a joint promotion with Domino’s”
“Report to Congress on the National Dairy Promotion and Research,” USDA, July 1, 2002.