“Eat Beef—The West Wasn’t Won on Salad”

“Eat Beef—The West Wasn’t Won on Salad” is a bumper sticker that has appeared throughout the West. The saying originated in a 1990 promotional campaign by the North Dakota Beef Commission: “Beef…because the West wasn’t won on salad.”
   
   
26 September 1990, Grand Forks (ND) Herald, “N.D. Money Beefs Up Meat Production” by Colleen Munro, pg. 3B:
North Dakota ranchers contribute $1 million to $2 million annually through the $1-per-head checkoff to promote beef, says Nancy Jo Bateman, executive director of the North Dakota Beef Commission. Bateman was one of the speakers featured at the Cass-Clay county livestock seminar held at the West Fargo Stockyards Monday. Since it was ratified in 1988, the national beef checkoff has generated $60 million to $70 million of the revenue for the National Livestock and Meat Board and the…
     
January 1991, Life magazine:
Because the West wasn’t won on salad.
—A billboard message sponsored by the North Dakota Beef Commission
   
Google Groups: rec.autos.misc 
Newsgroups: rec.autos.misc
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Steve Sheldon)
Date: 20 Sep 94 19:39:38 GMT
Local: Tues, Sep 20 1994 2:39 pm
Subject: Re: Honda del Sol
 
BEEF!—Cause the west wasn’t won on salad.
   
Google Groups: alt.old-west
Newsgroups: alt.old-west
From: David Laro

Date: 1997/07/16
Subject: Re: What is the purpose of this NG? 
 
The West wasn’t won on salad.
—North Dakota Beef Council
   
February 2002, Sports Afield,“Venison Chili” by Henry Sinkus,  pg. 28:
IMAGE PHOTOGRAPH
“The West wasn’t won on salad.”
-North Dakota Beef Council
 
9 April 2002, Agweek Magazine, Cowboy Logic Column by Ryan M. Taylor:
TOWNER, N.D.—The West wasn’t won on salad. At least that’s what my buddies in the beef business like to say.
 
We like to think the West was won on meat and potatoes. Since it was won, though, we’ve acquired a little taste for some salad greens beforehand, the refinements of civilization.
 
But even the finer things can get so finely priced that we go back to our former ways. Right now, the hamburger is costing a third of what the lettuce does per pound. Looks like we’ll have to go back to baked beans to keep our burgers company.
 
BNET
‘Ultimate’ burgers in documentary are certainly, uh, quirky
Deseret News (Salt Lake City),  Jun 8, 2005 by Valerie Phillips Deseret Morning News
I’d also like to someday try the Meersburger, made from ultra- lean Texas longhorn beef in Meers, Okla.
(...)
“Have it your way” is not an operating slogan at many of these places. It’s more like “My way or the highway.” At Louis’ Lunch, ketchup isn’t allowed. Customers at Dyer’s can’t have lettuce or tomato. Ask for mayo to go with a Meers longhorn burger, and the staff calls it a “sissyburger.” Ask for ketchup, and it’s called a “Yankee burger.”
 
A fitting sign at Meers sums it up: “Eat beef. The West wasn’t won on salad.” 
 
McHenry County (IL) Blog
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Message of the Day – A Bumper Sticker
At the United Methodist Men’s Spiritual Congress at Conference Point on Lake Geneva last Saturday, I saw this bumper sticker on a pick-up truck:
EAT BEEF
THE WEST WASN’T WON ON SALAD
It made me smile. 
 
6 January 2008, Washington (DC) Post, “History and Tradition Are in Store in Somerville,” pg. T3: 
Parked by the store is the family’s green SUV. Its bumper sticker says:
“Eat beef. The West wasn’t won on salad.”