Tradition may be the greatest liability of the beef industry, and yet tradition is considered by many as the primary reason to be in the industry.

Tradition locks us into doing many things which are unprofitable and sometimes dangerous, so it can be a real problem.

It's a paradox that's curable only by the opening of one's mind to this fundamental idea: Things are the way they are, and the look the way they look, primarily because of decisions we have made and those we continue to make.

You may have heard these viewpoints called "paradigms." A paradigm is a way of thinking or a viewpoint you adopt, much like a habit, because it worked in the situation you lived at that time. It may not have solved a problem or even done a very good job accomplishing a task, but instead was easier than bearing the weight of ridicule from a father or mother or someone else in authority over you. Still you got feedback it was right so you kept doing it and came to believe it was the "right" way.

I also like to call these traditions our "orthodoxies." An orthodoxy is defined as a belief or a way of thinking that is accepted as true or correct, in some cases by large groups of people, but in others by single individuals or small groups, such as a family.

Orthodoxies are fiercely, sometimes violently, defended by those who hold them because it helps protect them from change.

American novelist and thinker Wendell Berry once wrote this fierce allegiance to old ideas and aversion to change is "the very nature of orthodoxy: One who presumes to know the truth does not look for it."

On the other hand, a new way of looking at something isn't right just because it's new. The secret is learning how to consider new ideas, how to analyze them, and how to try them or commit to them if they are beneficial.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle is credited with saying of this first step: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

He was talking about really considering an idea and weighing it. This means you must let down your paradigms about that topic for a time while you mull and measure it.

In fact, if we are to overcome a tradition, we must also ask why it was tradition in the first place. This is nicely explained by an idea often called "Chesterton's fence," penned by Christian theologian G.K. Chesterton many years ago.

He suggests we imagine, "for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, 'I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away.'

"To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: 'If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.'

"This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable."

Such historical examination is also part of analyzing new ideas. Sometimes we find reasons worth keeping, and at various degrees, and sometimes we find the original reason no longer exists.

Here are some examples of beef industry traditions/paradigms/orthodoxies.

This list is endless if we only consider the individual traditions on each operation.

Nonetheless, as we begin a new year, I wish and pray for our industry and all those in it we would seek the most beneficial methods of doing and thinking, and that tradition could be more an honoring of the past than a map for the future.

Happy new year!