What's the Beef?

Monday, 17 October 2005

When I think of Kobe beef I imagine steers housed in lavish barns, fed choice grains hand harvested and selected for quality, drinking beer out of their troughs while being massaged from head to tail by topless virgins. . . But that's just me. Perhaps that's what the myth and orbital price have led me to believe is behind Kobe Beef's value.

Back in reality, True Kobe Beef is beef from 4 breeds of so called Wagyu cattle, specifically from Kobe Japan. " Wagyu" stands for "Japanese Style Cattle". The main bread, Tajimna-ushi, or Japanese Black, is raised for its rich marbling which leads to tender, moist meat. Further, it is true that Kobe Beef is pampered--in Japan. The cattle are typically fed grains and well cared for grasses. During the summer the cattle get to enjoy a diet full of beer. It seems to stimulate their appetite in hot weather and allows for richer fat-marbling. In addition to this, they are given Sake rub-downs and ARE massaged daily (although I haven't been able to ascertain if their caregivers are topless). All this is said to lead to happier cow, and better beef. If all this is true, then perhaps the Japanese are right to pay over $100 a pound for this luxurious treat. After all, it is a true small quantity, age-old, craft product with out the taint of mass-marketing, cruelty and graft, right?

Head West (or keep flying East) from Japan and enter BSE and all associated fears. It seems that since 2002, due to outbreaks of Mad Cow in Japan the US banned all imports of Japanese Beef. Even though it seems that a well maintained, highly regulated herd which is ONLY fed grain products, Kobe Beef was lumped in with the Mad Cow crowd. So theoretically Kobe Beef should not be appearing on menus, right? WRONG.

Apparently some Tajimna-ushi cattle were imported before the restrictions and have been bred with Angus cattle and are being sold as Kobe Beef to premium restaurants right here at home. Hmmm. What bold entrepreneur decided to hand raise a rare type of cattle which requires a lot of care and special handling? Surely they are dedicated to an all natural, even organic system and raise these precious cattle in small herds, justifying the quality and expense, right? Right? No.

If you buy Kobe Beef in America today you are getting the overpriced product of possible, indeterminate breeding (by which I mean--not purebred and no way of telling which bloodlines are being mixed):
"An inferior breeding program can mean cattle that have been cross-bred with American breeds so often that they are only shirttail cousins of their Japanese forefathers."
"Snake River Farms, the largest and probably the best American wagyu company, started about 15 years ago. It is a subsidiary of Agri Beef Co., the nation's eighth-largest feedlot operator. For the first seven years, it raised beef for the Japanese market, offsetting the transportation costs with the lower cost of growing beef here. As its herd grew, it gradually introduced its product to an American audience.
Today Snake River Farms raises about half of the wagyu grown in the United States (it also produces highly rated American Kurobuta pork). At first the company wasn't sure there would be any interest among Americans. Now, says Jay Theiler, its president, the business has quadrupled over the last four years." (from LA Times) Did someone say, "Cash Cow"?

I have yet to find information stating that the American-Kobe Beef is given anything close to the consideration the Japanese give it to deserve its reputation. But the fact that Agri Beef, among others is involved makes me think it is not. And are consumers being informed of where their Kobe Beef is coming from, do they care? No, and I think not. If you can afford to pay for Kobe Beef, you can afford not to care where it comes from--or at least to believe the cost means it really is from where its name says its from. Sounds like big business is winning, once again, through false advertising.

(from the Seattle PI)