January/February
2004
Vegetarian
Advocate: Getting Beefy with the American Cancer Society
By Jack Rosenberger
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Before we discuss the beefy American Cancer Society,
it’s time for a short quiz.
1.) True or false: Eating beef increases your risk of cancer.
2.) What is the purpose of the American Cancer Society?
A) To prevent cancer.
B) To eat, drink and be merry.
C) To make loads of money.
D) All of the above.
E) Answers A) and C).
3.) True or false: The American Cancer Society promotes the consumption
of beef, thereby earning millions of dollars each year.
The first answer is, of course, true. For decades, scientists have
demonstrated how the consumption of beef increases a person’s
risk of many different types of cancer. Even the American Cancer Society
(ACS) recognizes
this fact. Visit its website
www.cancer.org, for instance, and you find papers such as “Meats
and Trans Unsaturated Fats Linked to Lymphoma in Women.” The Harvard
School of Public Health study is an analysis of the diet of some 88,000
women enrolled in the decades-long Nurses’ Health Study. The Harvard
researchers found that women who eat a main dish of beef, pork or lamb
on a daily basis were twice as likely to develop non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma than the women who ate such meats less than once a week.
As for the answer to the second question, although some people might
disagree, I think the correct answer is E). The avowed goal of the
ACS
is to prevent cancer, but it also devotes an enormous amount of time
and energy to raising bundles of money. The ACS’s home page is
loaded with different fundraising requests and suggestions. Nearly one-fifth
of its yearly expenditures, for instance, is devoted to fundraising.
And sometimes the Society’s lust for cold cash puts the Atlanta-based
organization in a compromising position.
As for question three, the answer is true. The ACS’s largest fundraising
event is its Cattle Baron’s Ball, dozens of which were held around
the country last year, often raising tens or hundreds of thousands
of
dollars at each event.
Beef Tenderloin?
The American Cancer Society has hosted Cattle Baron’s Balls since
at least the mid-1980s. The Amarillo, Texas, unit of the American Cancer
Society, for instance, held its first in 1983, and has consistently
put on Cattle Baron’s Balls over the years, raising more than
three-quarters of a million dollars for the society to date. Approximately
40 Cattle Baron’s Balls were held in Texas in 2002, and the ACS
sponsors the gala fundraising event across the country.
In October of last year, the American Cancer Society held its first
Cattle Baron’s Ball in Atlanta, the home of its national headquarters.
The ACS worked with the Buckhead Beef Company on the event, which featured
pig races, silent and live auctions, musical entertainment and a casino,
and, courtesy of Outback Steakhouse, 220 pounds of beef tenderloin.
One of the society’s main handouts is its “Protecting You
and Your Family From Cancer” brochure, which lists ten actions
a person can do to reduce her or his risk of cancer. Item number three
on the list is “Limit high-fat food” (i.e., beef). Item
number four is “Limit meat consumption,” with the chief
explanatory point being “Limit consumption of red meats, especially
processed meats and those high in fat.”
It wasn’t until last fall, however, that the Cattle Baron’s
Balls generated much controversy among vegetarians and animal advocates,
and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has since
challenged the American Cancer Society for raising money by promoting
beef and has requested that it cancel or re-theme its Cattle Baron’s
Balls and “stay true to its mission of preventing cancer.”
(For more on PCRM’s campaign, visit www.AmericanCancerSocietyPromotesDisease.org.)
The American Cancer Society has kept a low profile about the criticism
of its Cattle Baron’s Balls. You can pump up the volume by contacting
your local media when a Cattle Baron’s Ball occurs in your state
and by voicing your dismay with the American Cancer Society.
Contact: John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer,
American Cancer Society, 1599 Clifton Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA 30329-4251;
Phone: (404) 320-3333; Fax: (404) 327-6589. The American Cancer Society
also has a toll-free number: (800) ACS-2345.
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