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A controversial agreement between the state of Montana and Ted Turner, involving the transfer of nearly 100 buffalo from Yellowstone National Park to the media mogul's Montana ranch for an experimental breeding program, was a featured story in the New York Times recently. Turner, the founder of CNN, also has a national chain of restaurants that serve buffalo.
His plan has brought attention to the future of bison, a still-threatened symbol of the American West, and hopes for returning large numbers of the animals to the wild. But it also highlights rising consumer demand for what many Americans once considered an exotic meat
After being hunted almost to extinction, buffalo became a protected species in the 1890s. There are now about a half-million bison in North America today -- with nearly all of them on private ranches.
Bison make up only a fraction of America's red meat industry, but buffalo meat has more protein and less fat than beef, and is typically raised on grass from start to finish, avoiding time in crowded feedlots -- an attraction for health- and eco-conscious consumers. In the 1990s, bison began appearing in many American supermarkets, usually as a specialty item. Like the cattle industry, the recent economic downturn affected bison prices and reduced the size of commercial buffalo herds. But as with beef, consumer demand has rebounded.
According to the National Bison Association, "bison demand has consistently grown in double digits for the past five years." The Association says 70,000 buffalo were slaughtered in the U.S. last year under federal and state inspection -- more than double the processing figures for 2002.
The Denver Post reports that the average retail price of ground bison has gone from about $5.30 a pound in 2006 to $6.20 today -- with buffalo steaks selling for $15 to $20. And the USDA estimates that American consumers eat 1 million pounds of bison each month.
Full text: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/growing-demand-for-the-other-red-meat-buffalo/19487940/ |
