V 01.44 No. 34 Visionary Design Fotittder Invents New Ways To Use Beef, Other Meats ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Fanning Staff ATGLEN (Chester Co.) “People will fight anything that’s new,” said Eugene “Gene” GagUardi Jr. Gagliardi, who some say is the meat cutter industry’s “mad scien tist,” points out how much he dis agrees with traditional thinking, which goes: any cuts that can’t make steak should be ground into beef. Reading Cancels 1999 Fair VERNON ACHENBACH JR. Lancaster Farming Staff READING/B«teCo.) - The 1999 has been canceled. * Btot a 2000 Reading Fair is to be held. Cksed t".. to cclcbrata P»y,L*jn!^^ For the duly 10 a chanfl*r vlSr > * Public Sale, Auction Report ada Friday, July 2. June is Dairy Month, and goats and sheep are dairy animals too. As the dairy Industry, along with the rest of industry, undergoes growing pains in adjusting to post-Cold War changes, the trend toward mega-mergers and elimination of Jobs is modified by a grass roots emphasis on entrepreneur ialism. As a result, many hobbies are being turned Into family supporting businesses. Margaret Zittel has developed an interest in cheese making whije living in Paris that remains a hobby, but could well turn commercial. See story on page 82. Photo by Lou Ann Good Four Sections Not so, says a simply likes to cook. ' r GagliatdiXthinking is “out of the the future of the beef Industry is in further cut ting, taking the harder-to-movc carcass cuts and “separating the muscles and denuding them,” he said. Gagliardi’s made it big on some of his ideas as president of a com pany he founded. Visionary Design, based in West Fallowficld Better than ever, according to fair organizers. Earlier this year it was reported during a groundbreaking cere mony at a new permanent site, that the Reading Fair would be held Sept 20-26, though modified from previous years. At the time of the ceremony, plans were to have one pole bam completed and numerous tents to house the animals and shows in time for the fair. , p, Tt wa» also to feature a first-time, ■<iW6«p*icc admission/rides/ fee. plans for holding the fair this year were recently scrapped as fair organizers discov ered that site preparations couldn’t be completed in time. (Turn to Pag* A 24) Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 26, 1999 Township in Chester County. Gagliardi has been involved since he was six years old in his family’s meat business, Gagliardi Brothers, once located in West Philadelphia and West Chester. He’s worked for a variety of furth er processing companies. Gagliar di owned Designer Foods from 1983-1993. In 1968, Gagliardi invented a new way to look at steak sandwi ches with his “Stcak-umm," an almost instant bit and a huge moneymaker. In 1980 the beef product became the largest selling frozen, raw, branded meat product in the world, according to the inventor. Shortly before he founded Vis ionary Design, based on a 570-acre farm estate on his Wolf's Hollow Farms near Atglen, Gagliardi, who simply enjoys to cook in his spare time, invested imagination in a big pro Gt-maker for Kentucky Friend Chicken Popcorn Chicken. Gagliardi has more than 30 patents on different further pro cessed foods for the beef, chicken (where he has more patents than anything, he said), pork, lamb, turkey, and veal industries. Not only that, Gagliardi has “cooked up” equipment to help in making further processed foods, including a device called a “Slin der” (short for slicer/grinder”), a plate system that uses parallel slits, ranging from 1 millimeter (mm) to 6 mm wide, rather than holes to Gt standard meat grinders. (Turn to Pag* A 22) Berks County School Superintendents Tour ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Fanning Staff READING (Berks Co.) To accommodate larger dairies, which may be necessary if dairy ing is to survive in metropolitan counties such as Berks, processors arc willing to expand. On an agriculture tour, superintendents of schools in Berks County find out how important agriculture is to employment potential for students and the broad variety of disciplines involved, and how the dairy industry has Changed to require increased herd sizes per farm and what it means. Here they visit Clover Farms Dairy, which employs about 235 people full time, processing milk from 100 dairy farms in the coun ty. Photo by Andy Andrew* $31.00 Per Year Gene Gagliardi, inventor and consultant to the Pennsyl vania Beef Council on new product introductions and mark eting, shows the latest product from his kitchen “Frank Fries.” The product uses French-cut hot dogs covered with a sweet and savory corn dog-style breading, lightly fried to a crisp golden coating. Gagliardi said that big companies and fast food chains are looking at Frank Fries with inter est. Photo by Andy Andrews But to survive at all, dairy farms “have to get bigger,” according to Clyde Myers, Berks County dairy agent, on a tour last week with more than two dozen county school superintendents at Clover Farms Dairy, north of Reading, and milk producers in the area. 600 Per Copy Those who don’t get larger, according to Myers, will have to use other ways to cut costs, in light of an increasingly volatile market. Future dairies in the county could include herd sizes ranging from 200-600 head of cows, (Turn to Pago A2B)
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