At least they're serving beef

The word has come out that they served imported Wagyu beef from Japan at a big, fancy White House dinner last week. It reportedly cost $100 per slice.

Certainly it's an encouraging sign that the environmental activists, and the animal rights activists, who were big election supporters of the new administration, have not dissuaded them from serving beef, openly and publicly. There was probably good reason to fear that and its comforting to hear that it's not the case.

As radical as many of these supporters are, it is probably a triumph that they served meat at all. Chicken, fish, pork, veal--anything that's not veggie burgers--is a victory, compared to what we might have expected.

One little quibble might be that the White House is a place where we showcase the very finest products of American agriculture, showing the world that we produce the best there is. Particularly in these difficult economic times, the money is much more stimulative spent with American farmers and ranchers, than exporting dollars overseas.

Prime beef from Allen Brothers, located in the President's native Chicago no less, is as good as it gets--most likely even better than imported Wagyu. Midwestern corn fed beef such as Allen Brother purveys, is top flight.

Perhaps even better, would be western beef from Nebraska, Colorado, Montana or Texas, for instance.

The President needs to use his bully pulpit (bad pun) for the best possible outcomes in even the most subtle of circumstances. The White House menu is certainly one of those places, in a quiet, understated way, to showcase the bounty of American agriculture.

A rookie president needs to pick up the finer points of getting things right. Hopefully he's learned from the Japanese beef episode, the correct way to do that.