Let’s Not Follow Chicken Across the Road

A typical comment made when first trying some type of exotic meat: “Tastes like chicken.” But most foods don’t really taste like chicken. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, there’s something else that doesn’t taste like chicken these days: chicken. The Journal reported last week, “Chicken companies spent decades breeding birds to …
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Bison at Forefront of Eco-Marketing at Expo West

Natural Products Expo West, the nation’s largest trade show for natural and organic products taking place in California this week, is a cacophony of competing marketing claims. The nearly 80,000 retailers, product buyers, marketers and others wandering through the 3,000 exhibits packed inside Anaheim Convention Center are steadily bombarded with claims regarding “no GMOs,” “Gluten …
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Reason, Not Rhetoric Needed in Green Discussion

I’m deeply immersed in public policy but do my best to steer clear of politics. After all, the National Bison Association has cultivated strong personal relationships during the past two decades with leaders on both sides of the political aisle. Bison is our National Mammal because Republicans and Democrats in Congress worked together over a …
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Bison Build Bridges with Urban Students

The agricultural community has long been concerned about the lack of understanding or concern from their city cousins. A common refrain among agricultural producers and others in Rural America is that “city people just don’t care about us.” The National Bison Association’s recent Junior Judging competition at the National Western Stock Show provided some refreshing …
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Hybrid Vigor? Look Somewhere Else, Please

Ever have one on those moments when you read an article that makes you think: “What the ******* are they talking about????” Yeah, I had one of those moments this week. The article, published in a national political news website, was entitled FDA Doubles Down on Failed Biotech Regulation. There were a number of items …
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Meat Without the Animal? Not a Great Idea

It takes quite a bit to shock me these days, but a recent quote by the CEO of one of the world’s largest meat producing and processing companies set me back on my heels. “If we can grow the meat without the animal, why wouldn’t we?,” this CEO said in a recent interview with Bloomberg …
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Water Buffalo in Bison Clothing is Deceptive by any Measure

Some three decades ago, the small cluster of bison ranchers—or “buffalo ranchers” as many called themselves—sprinkled around the United States and Canada were privy to one of the best-kept secrets in the American food marketplace. That secret: The animals under their care produced an absolutely delicious, healthy meat. They were convinced that, once this secret …
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Help Us Stop Deceptive Labeling in Pet Products

The National Bison Association needs your help in correcting the existing pet food labeling loopholes that allows companies to deceive their customers into believing that the water buffalo in their products is actually North American bison. The growing demand for bison ingredients in pet products is adding important value to the carcass price paid to …
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Bison Producers Care: From Start to Finish

In today’s hyper-polarized world, complex issues often get lumped into simple, black-and-white perspectives. It’s either good, or it’s bad, with nothing in-between. So it is with the finishing protocols used for bison. In recent years, intense debate has emerged over livestock finishing methods. Most of that debate has centered on cattle, but it’s starting to …
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It’s the Holiday Season in Bison Country

If red and green are the traditional colors of Christmastime, it certainly looks like the holiday season across much of bison country this month. At the ranch where our herd grazes in eastern Colorado, and on farms and ranches across the country, brand new red-calves are bounding across rapidly greening grasslands. It’s a season of …
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