This week: U.S. farmers made over 98 billion dollars last year, and consumers are upset about "lean beef trimmings," but governors are trying to diffuse the situation.
High commodity prices and surging productivity have touched off a run on farm land, a jump in manufacturing and even boosted a curious sort of farm-related export.
You might have heard the term “pink slime” in the news recently. Now the consumer uproar over what the industry calls “lean beef trimmings” is beginning to have economic effects. After grocers nationwide starting banning the product, Beef Products Incorporated, or BPI, temporarily closed a total of three meat processing plants in Kansas, Texas, and Iowa. And the Governors of those states are doing damage control. In Mid March, they toured the only BPI factory still open, in South Sioux City, Nebraska.