Health-conscious meat lovers boost demand for bison

? More than 125 years after settlers eradicated millions of wild buffalo that once roamed the continent, modern-day consumers are developing a taste for the meat that nourished American Indians for centuries.

The nation’s commercial bison slaughter last year reached a record 34,444 animals, a 36 percent increase from 2002, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures.

Among the reasons for bison meat’s resurgence is the popularity of high-protein diets and a growing consumer demand for more healthy foods. Buffalo, a red meat alternative, has less fat and fewer calories than beef. Bison are also raised naturally without growth hormones or antibiotics.

“I happen to be a meat lover. We tried vegetarian diets, but I have to have meat,” said David Patterson, a Georgia resident who has been buying buffalo meat for three years. He buys a quarter of a bison at a time from a Kansas buffalo farm.

Patterson said he and his wife wanted to eat healthier foods. They tried bison meat, and have been hooked ever since, after finding out that bison meat was high in protein, low in fat and high in heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids.

Many consumers are getting their first taste of buffalo thanks to the growth of media pioneer Ted Turner’s restaurant chain, Ted’s Montana Grill.

Turner’s partner in the venture, restaurateur George McKerrow Jr., noted the record slaughter of more than 34,000 bison for all of last year compares with 130,000 cattle slaughtered each day in the United States.

The Atlanta-based chain plans to open 18 more restaurants this year, including two in Wichita and three in the Kansas City area, McKerrow said.

“People out west understand our concept — it has some western roots to it — and Kansas has proved to be a lucrative market for the right restaurants,” McKerrow said.

Bison stand on high ground in a pasture during rainy weather at the Smoky Hill Bison Co. near Lindsborg. Demand for buffalo meat, much of it raised in Kansas, is on the rise as diners and restaurants look for healthier alternatives to beef.

Wherever a Ted’s Montana Grill restaurant has opened, sales of bison meat have skyrocketed, he said — which is exactly what Turner and McKerrow had hoped would happen.

Another boost came last year from the Agriculture Department’s $10 million purchase of buffalo meat for school lunch and government nutrition programs.

Many consumers are buying from Kansas buffalo producers such as Linda and Verne Hubalek, owners of Smoky Hill Bison Co. near Lindsborg. The couple sell grass-fed buffalo meat direct from their farm to homes across the nation and also operate a visitor’s center at the ranch.

“They are expecting buffalo to be roaming in Kansas. They think that is a natural place to be finding bison meat,” Linda Hubalek said. “Kansas is ‘where the buffalo roam.’ The song helps us out.”

Actually, Montana is the nation’s top buffalo producing state with 38,000 head. Estimates put the commercial U.S. buffalo herd at 270,000 animals.

Linda and Verne Hubalek own the Smoky Hill Bison Co. near Lindsborg. The couple sell grass-fed buffalo meat direct from their farm to people across the nation.

About 5,400 buffalo now graze the Kansas prairie in commercial herds, said Pauline Ramsey, executive secretary for the Kansas Buffalo Assn.

Kathy Jeffries, an Illinois environmental activist, bought 70 pounds of bison meat from Smoky Hill Bison in Kansas after searching the Internet for buffalo raised naturally by family farmers. Jeffries said she wanted a cleaner, grass-fed meat alternative.

“You are what you eat,” she said.