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
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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)