Sheep Ranchers Look to Latinos, American Muslims to Buy More Lamb

Once a regular dining option, a mix of cultural and economic factors pushed lamb off the American dinner table. To put the meat back on the menu, ranchers and retailers are being encouraged to reach out to a more diverse set of consumers, specifically American Muslims and Latinos. Sheep ranchers, feedlot owners, and processors in states like Colorado, Nebraska and Illinois are banking on America becoming a more diverse place. Without more Muslim and Latino communities embracing local lamb, the industry fears this niche meat could slip even further off the dinner plate, or be completely usurped by foreign producers like Australia or New Zealand. Today, the average American eats roughly a half-pound of lamb per year. That number has been dropping for decades. Compare that to the more than 50 pounds of beef and almost 90 pounds of chicken each American eats every year. Megan Wortman, executive director for the American Lamb Board, the industry’s producer-funded promotional arm, says lamb is saddled with perception problems.  A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Research Center puts it bluntly: “The majority of U.S. residents do not consume any lamb.” The agency adds that for the most part the growing ethnic populations in the northeast and on the West Coast have kept the American lamb industry afloat...more

 Got to love that barbacoa.