Atkins diet fires up the beef industry

First part of article posted on Free Republic this morning:

Atkins diet fires up the beef industry
The Kansas City Star ^ | September 28, 2003 | JENNIFER MANN


The hotter-than-hot Atkins diet is subtly reshaping the consumer food
chain — putting sizzle in the U.S. beef market, while slimming demand
for pasta and bread.

Hunger for beef, particularly here in cowtown, remains strong even as
cattle prices push historic highs. The Capital Grille on the Country
Club Plaza, among others, routinely “Atkinizes” orders, while
neighborhood barbecue joints increasingly offer “Atkins” platters.

Stinson Morrison Hecker attorney Jim Marsh recently peered up from the
all-meat “Atkins platter” at Danny Edwards Famous Kansas City Barbecue
downtown.

“I don't have an Atkins plan in front of me, but I've been following
the basic diet for the last four or five months,” Marsh said. “I've
lost 20 pounds, I can still eat beef, and I haven't given up my
cocktails, so it's definitely OK by me.”

Such shifts in consumer choices are threatening profits for pasta and
bread producers.

There's no definitive proof that the high-protein, low-carbohydrate
diet is the big driver. But mounting statistical and anecdotal
evidence suggests the diet is contributing to a fundamental market
shift.

After a two-decade decline in per capita consumption of choice beef,
an upturn started in late 1998 and generally has continued into 2003,
said James Mintert, Kansas State University professor of agricultural
economics.

“You can speculate on how much of it is attributable to Atkins,”
Mintert said. “But I do think there's been some kind of underlying
shift among consumers about beef versus some other products they
consume, a recognition on their part that it's OK to eat beef.”

And, Mintert said, that permission to eat beef is playing a part in
the best times ever for the entire U.S. beef industry.

Feeder cattle are fetching between $100 and $110 per hundredweight, up
about $20 from a year ago. Fat cattle are getting sold at about $90
per hundredweight, up from $66 a year ago.

“It's the first time in memory that all segments of the industry have
been making money,” said Mintert, who has tracked data back to the
1950s.

“From the producer perspective, it's almost the perfect storm.”

Here in the Great Plains, good times in the feedlot are helping lift
the farm economy out of a five-year recession.

Ranching accounts for two-thirds of farm revenue in the district
covered by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Closer to home, area businesses are rushing to cash in on the diet
fad. Just take a look at the menu at the Danny Edwards restaurant,
formerly known as Lil Jake's.

Earlier this year owner Danny Edwards noticed his customers kept
asking him to tailor their orders — pile on the meat, they said, and
pass on the potato salad and bread.

After one of his employees dropped 34 pounds on the diet, Edwards
decided to add a three-meat-and-coleslaw “Atkins platter” to his
specials board. It has become his best-selling special ever.

“We were selling about 15 of them a day without even having anything
on the menu,” Edwards said. “After we put it on the board it went to
about 40 a day. It's amazing. I've never seen anything like it.”

snipped

And even subtle shifts in eating behavior at the table are reaching
all the way back to the feedlot.

As long ago as 1999 a commodities newsletter published by The
Hightower Report in Chicago floated a theory that the Atkins diet was
driving beef demand in the cattle futures trading pits at the Chicago
Board of Trade.
snip

After years of consumers being fed the idea that beef is bad,
Schwieterman is thrilled that Atkins and diets like it are encouraging
people to indulge in the filets, strips and sirloins.

“It's been a 180-degree turn, a lifting of the fear,” said
Schwieterman.

Denting business

As more people seem to be indulging in beef, more are seemingly
shunning foods high in carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes and
pasta.

Timothy Webster, chief executive officer of Kansas City-based American
Italian Pasta, the largest pasta producer in North America, said that
after years of double-digit growth, pasta consumption in the United
States in the past several years has leveled off at about 4 billion
pounds annually.

Webster said Atkins, in his view, was definitely part of that trend.

To counter the Atkins craze, the pasta industry is planning a public
relations campaign set to start early next year that will position
pasta, made with durum wheat, as a “good carb” as opposed to many
other wheat-based products, typically made from hard red winter wheat.

“Our products have higher protein, lower sugar, lower gluten and
metabolize much more like a pork chop than a Krispy Kreme,” Webster
said.

American Italian also recently signed an agreement with the Atkins
Center to make low-carb pasta made from soy to be sold under the
Atkins label.

Others dependent on wheat-based products are also feeling the effects.

Kansas City-based Interstate Bakeries Corp. on Sept. 19 reported that
unit sales of branded bread like Wonder were down 7.2 percent from
last year, while unit sales of snack cakes such as Twinkies and Ho Hos
were off 6.6 percent.

And it is not just affecting corporate giants. Matt Hake, owner of the
Sammich Stop in Kansas City, said the Atkins craze had put a dent in
his business.

“I've been doing this for 13 years, and I've never seen one diet have
such an impact on business,” Hake said. “To counter that, I'm doing a
lot more cups of tuna and chicken salad and beef sausages without the
bun.”

poohbear wrote:

First part of article posted on Free Republic this morning:

Atkins diet fires up the beef industry
The Kansas City Star ^ | September 28, 2003 | JENNIFER MANN

The hotter-than-hot Atkins diet is subtly reshaping the consumer food
chain — putting sizzle in the U.S. beef market, while slimming demand
for pasta and bread.

[snip]

First the diminished demand for French Fries, and now this....
Money talks! Maybe the beef producers et al. can fund studies of
this WOE now....


--
Jean B., 12 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts, USA

To counter the Atkins craze, the pasta industry is planning a public
relations campaign set to start early next year that will position
pasta, made with durum wheat, as a ?good carb? as opposed to many
other wheat-based products, typically made from hard red winter wheat.

?Our products have higher protein, lower sugar, lower gluten and
metabolize much more like a pork chop than a Krispy Kreme,? Webster
said.

Yeah, sure!

Go bankrupt, you creeps.

"Jean B." wrote ...
poohbear wrote:

First part of article posted on Free Republic this morning:

Atkins diet fires up the beef industry
The Kansas City Star ^ | September 28, 2003 | JENNIFER MANN

The hotter-than-hot Atkins diet is subtly reshaping the consumer food
chain - putting sizzle in the U.S. beef market, while slimming demand
for pasta and bread.

[snip]

First the diminished demand for French Fries, and now this....
Money talks! Maybe the beef producers et al. can fund studies of
this WOE now....

Ah, but then they'll be accused of bias and the results ignored ...

P


Rachel
(New Zealand)

Supergoof wrote:

"Jean B." wrote ...
poohbear wrote:

First part of article posted on Free Republic this morning:

Atkins diet fires up the beef industry
The Kansas City Star ^ | September 28, 2003 | JENNIFER MANN

The hotter-than-hot Atkins diet is subtly reshaping the consumer food
chain - putting sizzle in the U.S. beef market, while slimming demand
for pasta and bread.

[snip]

First the diminished demand for French Fries, and now this....
Money talks! Maybe the beef producers et al. can fund studies of
this WOE now....

Ah, but then they'll be accused of bias and the results ignored ...

Sigh.


--
Jean B., 12 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts, USA