Argentine President Urges eating Less Beef - Washington Post

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*In Argentina, They've Got a Beef*

Many Incredulous at Call to Eat Less Meat in Bid to Curb Inflation

 

By Monte Reel

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, March 20, 2006; A08

 

BUENOS AIRES -- Guillermo Ugartemendia has nothing against making

sacrifices for his country, but like millions of Argentines, he drew the

line when the president asked everyone to stop eating so much beef.

 

"Unthinkable," said Ugartemendia, 35, after polishing off a rack of ribs

at a steakhouse Thursday night. "It's not a viable option."

 

Asking Argentines to slow their beef consumption -- as President Nestor

Kirchner did last week in an attempt to curb inflation -- is like asking

Italians to say no to pasta, Parisians to skip wine, or the Chinese to

eat less rice.

 

People here eat more beef than do people in any other country -- about

140 pounds a year per person, or about 50 percent more than the average

American. A juicy slab of marbled steak is more than a meal for many of

Argentina's 39 million citizens; it's part of their national identity.

 

Patricia Campos, mother of three teenagers, briefly considered heeding

Kirchner's call and cooking something other than steak -- fish fillets,

maybe -- for her family. What's the worst that could have happened?

 

"They would starve to death," she said, just before she paid her local

butcher for three sackfuls of red meat, some cuts of which jumped in

price by more than 5 percent during the first 15 days of this month.

"They simply wouldn't eat. I understand that we need to do something

about inflation, but this isn't the solution."

 

Argentines remember the hyperinflation of the 1980s, when it was

possible for a carton of milk to double in price in one day. Now

inflation is much lower -- just over 12 percent last year -- but

Kirchner is trying to stop the rate from creeping up again before it

spirals out of control.

 

This month he also banned all beef exports for six months, an attempt to

make the laws of supply and demand work in his favor and reduce prices

at local supermarkets.

 

"Let's make them feel the power of the consumer so they don't sell at

whatever prices they want," Kirchner said in a televised speech Tuesday.

 

The moves have provided fuel for Kirchner's critics, who say he meddles

with the marketplace to try to protect his domestic political standing.

Argentina is the world's third-largest exporter of beef, and cattle

industry representatives have called the ban shortsighted. Experts in

some of the country's main export markets, including Russia and Israel,

are predicting beef shortages.

 

But Kirchner's approval rating at home remains at about 60 percent, and

his supporters say the export ban is part of a valiant effort to help

them regain spending power and stabilize the economy. It was in the same

spirit last year that he called for a boycott of Shell gasoline in the

wake of price increases. Hundreds took up his call and picketed outside

the company's service stations.

 

As for last week's suggestion to eat something other than beef, even

some supporters said it might not work.

 

"It's not a bad idea, but there are obvious problems with it," said Rosa

Paez, 66, of Buenos Aires. "A lot of people here have never really

understood the importance of eating greens, vegetables or seafood.

Personally, I don't like seafood. So what can I do?"

 

She can buy more beef, which is exactly what she did, paying the

equivalent of about $3 per pound for filet mignon.

 

Adelina Ordoñez, of the Argentine Association of Dietitians, said such

faithful allegiance to the country's most famous staple is the principal

problem she and her colleagues regularly encounter in trying to improve

Argentines' diet.

 

"In a way, the president is cooperating with dietitians by encouraging

people to pick a variety of other foods," said Ordoñez, who said she

advises clients to vary their meat consumption with fish, poultry, lamb,

eggs and other sources of protein. "It's difficult to make people change

their habits, but it can be done."

 

An informal survey of butchers in the capital revealed that business

hadn't changed significantly last week. In a market where several

butcher shops compete side by side in the San Telmo neighborhood, Jorge

Alejandro Santiago sharpened his knives and prepared to cut a chunk of

tenderloin into steaks.

 

"What are people going to do, buy chicken?" said the skeptical

65-year-old butcher, whose shop sits across the aisle from a poultry

vendor. "Chicken's no good -- it's full of water. If you eat a piece of

chicken for dinner, you'll be hungry a half-hour later."

 

But don't pity the poultry man. Daniel Fernandez seemed to float on

waves of national pride as he sliced chicken breasts and placed them

under his glass display cabinet. Business, he said, seemed slightly more

brisk than normal last week. He wasn't sure it had anything to do with

the president's request, but he figured it couldn't have hurt.

 

"I think the president's idea was a very good one," he said, safely out

of earshot of his red-meat competitors. "Look at the price of beef right

now -- it's like robbery."