Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 2/18/10

Attendees of last week's National Meat Association conference in Indian Wells, Calif., may have seen but not known who Elizabeth Weise was. But it was the USA Today reporter's work that helped prompt USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service to commence an overhaul to its ground beef purchasing program, which AMS officials further explained during a briefing at the event.

In an interview with Meatingplace, Weise discusses the origins of USA Today's coverage, how the industry responded and what it can do to improve its public image.

We're not accustomed to seeing such lengthy news features on the front page of USA Today, which is known for its concise packaging of news. What prompted the paper to devote the time and space to such an in-depth look at the National School Lunch Program?

I collaborated with our enterprise team, which includes Pete Eisler and Blake Morrison and editor Linda Matthews. They've won multiple awards for, are very good at and have years of experience doing big, in-depth studies where they go through tons of data. They're really given the time at the paper to do that kind of investigation. And, you're right, these days we (reporters) don't often have that time. I worked on the series because one of my beats is food safety.

What initially triggered the investigation?

It was interest in the food safety system in the United States as a whole, and then in part the vulnerability of kids to food-borne illnesses, the notion that the government was making the decision on what to buy, and the upcoming plans of Congress to revisit the law. We also had some questions generated by the Westland/Hallmark recall. Also, several of us have little kids who eat school lunches every day.

What was the behind-the-scenes process of the story?

We worked on it for eight months overall. Anthony DeBarros, our senior database editor, was instrumental in this. We got several federal and state data sets for analysis. First we had to create a database of which vendors had supplied food for the National School Lunch Program, which turned out to take a lot of work. That alone was a file containing more than 360,000 delivery orders from April 2001 to July 2009.

We built our project on an extensive review of public documents. Altogether there were seven data sets obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Our requests yielded hundreds of thousands of food orders, bacterial tests and reports of noncompliance with federal regulations, but that information didn't come without a fight.

In all we found at least 470 outbreaks in schools from 1998 through 2007, which was the most recent year for which [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] data was available. We also looked at the safety standards for beef and other commodities purchased by USDA for the National School Lunch Program and found that many of the more selective commercial beef buyers, including most fast-food chains, had adopted tougher safety standards than those used by USDA for the beef it buys for school lunches.

What types of reactions did you and your colleagues get from meat industry professionals both while reporting and after the story ran?

I don't think there are many people in the meat industry who think that higher standards aren't a good thing, or if there are they didn't say that to us. And it was clear to people that these (higher) standards aren't impossible to attain. Most of the big concerns, the McDonald's and so forth, have the high standards that are now going to be put in place for school lunches. It's clear they weren't impossible. I heard this a lot at the [National Meat Association's annual conference], that it benefits the whole industry if everybody's brought up to the same standards. It kind of levels the playing field.

Looking back, were there any points or facts that you think you missed or that weren't clear? If so, what were they?

I haven't heard anything specific that made me think, 'Gosh, I wish we'd know that before we ran the stories.' And had we, we would have corrected it. That's something I always tell people. What drives me crazy is when I'm at a conference and someone tells me, 'Months ago you ran story and got it wrong.' And I'll say, 'Well, why didn't you call me?' We'll not only run a correction in the newspaper the next day but also update the story immediately on our Web site. If there are factual errors, we fix them. We want to fix them. We don't want to get these things wrong. If you call USA Today, you'll be on the phone with me in three minutes. It's a very strict process. When requests for corrections come in, they go all the way up to managing editors.

What was your reaction to USDA's recent announcement to overhaul its ground beef purchasing program?

I was astounded they moved that quickly. I was impressed. But I think it goes to show that making those improvements was not an impossible reach.

Do you think the changes adequately address the issues raised in your articles?

It's a tremendously positive move. We're still awaiting most of the details, of course.

You've covered food safety for years, including time covering the meat processing industry. Why do you think that the meat industry increasingly has become an industry of interest to mainstream media outlets?

I think there's been a huge increase in the number of Americans who are interested in where their food comes from: Is it organic? Is it sustainable? Is it healthy? Is it nutritious? Is it safe? So, I don't think it's that reporters are singling out the meat industry. If readers didn't care about this stuff, we wouldn't run these stories or we'd at least run them much shorter. Readers are hungry to know where their food comes from, which is why it behooves industry to show them where it comes from.

What do you think the industry needs to do to improve its food-safety record/public image? How should the industry improve its relationship with media?

I think the industry needs to be more open. There's an adage that says laws are like sausages; it's better not to see them being made. And it may be true of laws, but it shouldn't be true of beef products. I feed beef to my kids frequently because I've seen the process, I've seen the feedlots and I've seen the slaughterhouses. I don't think the good actors in the industry have anything to be afraid of and a lot to gain by letting the public see what they're doing. If you're not willing to do that, you might want to think about what you're doing. You can't be ambushed if you're honest. And frankly, the media is the best way to tell your story.

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