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Farm & Ranch Happenings

published: May 28th 2010
by: Harvey Buehring

“National Hamburger Month Sizzles Up Different Emotions “
    May, among other designations, is “National Hamburger Month”.   This obscure, annual observance would have  escaped my attention this year if it had not been for having a little time to browse through a local weekly newspaper’s opinion page. There, shouting in bold print and occupying two columns, was an article entitled, ”We should ban the burger in May”.
    After reading several paragraphs of that article, it started to get this beef cattle producer’s dander up.   Although the author’s approach to the article was somewhat light-hearted, he, none the less , implied that hamburgers and their sales constituted  the evil root of everything from the childhood obesity epidemic to the escalation of greenhouse gas omissions across the planet. He also quickly played the “greed-card” when mentioning  the role of the highly competitive burger franchise chains in today’s fast-food industry that has helped make the hamburger America’s favorite fast meal.  He actually referred to food channel hosts who prepare beef and other meat dishes as “food pornographers”.
    His repeated calls for government intervention and legislation to curb hamburger consumption were so ridiculous, I could only speculate as to the motivation for such comments.  At first I was unsure whether he was trying to be satyrical or whether he might have a partially clogged carotid artery limiting blood flow to the brain, therefore resulting in  a lack of sound judgement.  Maybe he had recently recovered from a hamburger fetish. Maybe he had been fired from a burger joint for sub-standard performance.  I just couldn’t come up with a valid reason for his advocating a ban on hamburgers unless he was totally against consuming meat products, but that was never directly stated.  Whatever his “beef” was with hamburgers, it necessitated my response.
    In over 25 years of writing weekly agricultural columns, I have never used the column space allotted to me to rebut the point of view of a fellow columnist.  Why start now?  Instead, I choose to highlight a few facts about the hamburger.  After all, freedom of speech is extended to the written word and everyone is entitled to his own opinion.  The readers ultimately decide what is credible and what is a fringe point of view.     
    Fortunately, I believe that those who subscribe to this publication are folks that take responsibility for their own actions.  They use common sense and sound judgement related to life-style choices.  I also believe they have a philosophy that additional government regulations do little to curb bad behavior and only succeed in reducing individual freedom for law-abiding citizens.   With that said, let’s celebrate the more positive aspects of living in a country where we have the freedom to choose what we would like to have for our next meal.
    Hamburgers are truly a favorite American meal choice.   It is estimated that over 14 billion, ( yes, “B” as in billion ) are eaten each year in the U.S.A.   That figures out to be around 45 burgers consumed each year by every man, women and child in the country, based on the previous census.    (I was unable to determine if those 45 burgers were all genuine beef hamburgers and if imitation veggie burgers were excluded from the 14 billion count.)    Let’s assume they were all the genuine article.   That breaks down to less than one hamburger a week, or more exactly, a burger on the average of once every 8.11 days.
    Beef burgers are a nutrient-dense food.   A standard 3 ounce beef burger can provide 42% of the daily recommendation for protein, 40 % of the B-12, 35 % of zinc, 26 % of the selenium and 13% of iron needed daily for these essential nutrients and minerals.
A burger of this size roughly provides 10 % of the daily calorie recommendations for adults.
    Of course, if one chooses to stack on a slice of cheese, a couple of strips of bacon or even  an extra beef patty along with some special sauce or just a generous layer of mayonnaise  the calorie count will escalate sharply.  Common sense should tell us that succumbing to the temptation to super-size an order of French-fried potatoes and a  jumbo high sugar content soft drink along with an  ice-cold chocolate malt or milk shake for dessert will sky rocket the calorie content of what started out as a modest meal.  Granted, for the average American that is not engaged in a high degree of physical activity following the consumption of a super-sized meal choice, it is likely not in the best interest of his health if this is done each time he consumes one of their 45 burgers during the year.   But if the consumer is a construction or farm worker or even a teenage athlete who is involved with two-a-day  athletic practices, getting these extras with your burger meal deal once every eight days is  not likely to result in any health problems.
    Personally, I probably consume between 30 and 40 hamburgers per year.   Most likely 70%  are purchased from a couple of my favorites burger chain restaurants.  Typically, I choose to eat a hamburger for lunch during a road trip.  I consider it to be a wise alternative to stopping at a full service restaurant and buying a full lunch meal with all the trimmings.   Selecting an “all-the-way” standard burger and a small ice tea or water is faster, lower in total calories and more economical than the buffet at a local road-side diner.
    I fully support the continued observance of National Hamburger Month in May.  In fact,  the best hamburgers are the home-made ones prepared when the first vine-ripened tomatoes of the season are harvested.  For gardeners in South Texas that takes place in mid to late May.  This is also the time of year when the new crop of super-sweet 1015 onions grown in the Rio Grande Valley hit the market.  Personally, a home-made hamburger with a juicy 1/3 pound fresh ground  beef patty and a couple of slices of vine ripe tomato topped some grilled 1015 sweet onion between a fresh toasted bun is a meal worthy of national celebration.
    As for as an opposing point of view to the statements of that earlier mentioned columnist,  instead of banning hamburgers he might consider promoting legislation only allowing higher calorie content super-sized burger meals to be served to those working out doors and involved in no less than four hours of vigorous physical activity before their next meal. Everyone else could only buy the portion controlled low-calorie version of a hamburger.   He sounds like a guy who might promote legislation to eliminate the choice of mustard over mayonnaise or being able to request both.  He might even advocate requiring  restaurant patrons to use a “magnetic swipe card system” to keep citizens who are over-weight from purchasing meals that contain to many calories. Surely everyone realizes that this approach would be in the best interests of both the “couch-potatoes”, as well as,  the hay haulers, fence builders and construction workers that will be burning those calories in order to get their day’s work completed.
    Unfortunately, I fear the lure a  jumbo burger with all the super-sized extras may not be enough to get the vast majority of the younger generation out of their air conditioned room with the video games on the wide screen TV and the refrigerator loaded with junk food and high calorie soft drinks.  That might actually require a parental mandate for those youngsters to do some meaningful work or exercise. But is the land of the free, that decision is a personal one, NOT one to be regulated by an increasingly intrusive big government.