By Amanda Hill

I came across a news story this morning from NBC’s Today Show that reported a group within the meat industry is moving toward renaming some of our favorite meat cuts in order to make them “more consumer-friendly.”

The group heading up the new meat monikers is the Uniform Retail Meat Identification Standards—URMIS, for short. They claim that consumers are confused by names of meats like rump roast, pork butt and others. So, to clarify the consumer’s choice of pork and beef, URMIS has suggested new names for more than 350 cuts in your local meat case.

By Gene Hall

Here I was, wondering what I would write about this week and suddenly the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)—a gift that keeps on giving—popped into mind.

It seems that someone at PETA took exception  to a 14-year-old boy raffling a beef animal that had been given to him to help him pay for a trip to Europe.

When a PETA representative responded to the boy, a link to their “Lettuce Ladies” website was included, apparently by mistake. My mother wouldn’t want me to actually give you that link. Google it if you are curious. The Lettuce Ladies are attractive young women wearing nothing but strategically placed lettuce to protest the consumption of meat.

By Gene Hall

Today, you all get a look at the cranky consumer in me. My wife and sons tell me it’s getting worse, and perhaps that’s true. I only know that all who participate in the delivery of a product are responsible for the quality of it. I am especially passionate about this when it comes to beef.

Last Saturday, on my birthday, my wife, as is our custom, took me to a well-known Waco, Texas, steakhouse, the name of which I will not mention. Two of my sons came along. They never miss a steak dinner.

By Gene Hall

Regardless of how you feel about the hatchet job ABC News foisted upon a perfectly honorable and legitimate company, Beef Products Inc. (BPI), and the meat business itself, the resulting court case is interesting. BPI has sued ABC News. I don’t know if they can win, but at a minimum, this should embarrass the network.

ABC is defending itself on first amendment grounds. As a former reporter, I understand that free speech and a free press have to be almost absolute in this country, but there are limits. I blogged about this awhile back.

By Gene Hall

Bad news, meat lovers: We’ll all be vegetarians by the year 2050 because we’ll run out of water to produce livestock. That’s the theory in this article on Yahoo.

 These sweeping and absolute statements can be a lot more about someone’s agenda than futuristic forecasting. When you see something like this, you should ask, “Who doesn’t want anyone eating meat?” Or, “Who wants a grant to study livestock and water supplies?”