031126 Meaty Diets Pushing Beef Sales Up

- Latest: Until recently, a lanky Texan like Paul Genho had little interest in celebrity doctors and their diet trends. But thanks to the toppled food pyramid advised by the low-carbohydrate Atkins and South Beach diets, red-meat sales are up again.

"Beef is hot, beef is back," said Genho of Kingsville, Texas, manager of the 825,000-acre King Ranch, one of the country's top beef producers. "People are sick of chicken."

Breed bulls are going for $40,000 and live cattle prices were recently trading over $1 a pound, when just a few years ago prices were in the 50-cent range.

- How it happened: Diets can't take all the credit for the increase. A mad-cow disease scare closed off the Canadian supply, so steak distributors worldwide turned to the U.S. market, where there were no reports of the sickness. The two countries are the major suppliers of grain-fed beef, which consumers prefer to grass-fed beef. Droughts around the United States also have thinned cattle herds, so supply is down.

"But that gets you 2 or 3 or 4 cents on the pound, that doesn't get you 20 or 30 or 40," said Gregg Doud, chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "That comes from predominantly domestic demand. That's steak orders from restaurants."

The effect of the diets can't be understated in the high prices, said Ann Barnhardt, an analyst with the livestock research firm Hedgersedge.com. "I credit a lot of that to the Atkins diet," she said.

But people would be back to beef even if there weren't a dietary license, trend analyst Gerald Celente said. He said people are tired of depriving themselves after two years of a weak economy and worries about terrorism.

"Beef is also a comfort food," Celente said.

Dr. George Blackburn of Harvard Medical School said, "All roads to Rome come back to a balanced diet." That's not what ranchers want to hear, but many are realistic about the ups and downs of their industry.

"They're paying everything off, preparing for the future," Genho said.

(Associated Press)

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