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Governors to tour BPI plant

Governors of the three states where Beef Products Incorporated (BPI) idled plants Monday will help the company refute misconceptions about its lean boneless beef.

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and Texas Governor Rick Perry are to tour the company’s plant in South Sioux City, Nebraska, Thursday. Nebraska Lieutenant Governor Rick Sheehy will also join them.

The event will allow media to see BPI’s technology, processing and product, which the company hopes will reverse what critics have maligned with the term “pink slime.”

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad told the Sioux City Journal that the Governors’ presence will show their confidence in the wholesomeness of lean finely-textured beef.

The negative publicity has cost the company a substantial amount of its business, forcing it to suspend production at plants in Waterloo, Iowa, Garden City, Kansas and Amarillo, Texas. That amounts to some 900,000 pounds of lean finely-textured beef a day; about 70 percent of the company’s total capacity.