People hate surprises, especially when they disagree with those surprises or object to them. Among the world’s recent surprises is the complicated issue of lean finely textured beef. We believe that if our “beef” looks like beef, cooks like beef and doesn’t kill us like beef, then it probably is beef.

Another surprise involves our editorial of last Thursday, about the forum Iowa State hosted on LFTB. We wrote and maintain that the forum was an exercise in presentation rather than the forum discussion it was billed as.

It is the rhetoric employed at that forum that bothers us. As Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds so pointedly articulated, the purpose of their visit was to support the beef industry.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Reynolds, while they may have exactly zero lawmaking power in their executive offices, represent the people of the whole state of Iowa the same way any other elected official represents his or her constituents. They were not elected to support a specific sector of the economy.

Industry officials and Branstad and company may have carefully weighed the evidence on the use of LFTB. The rest of us, the laity on this issue, have not. What is needed for the beef industry to rescue its image in the wake of its pink slime disaster is an honest question-and-answer opportunity for people who just want to know the facts, not a media campaign that merely duels with the other side’s propaganda.

There was no need for Branstad to join hands in the beef industry’s Whoville and don a shirt that said “#beefisbeef” (the industry tagline).

Branstad and company can do little about what parts of a cow end up in our food supply anyway. In this country, we are proud to say, we try to leave the economic world to our businesses and social concerns to social organizations.

The criticism of the beef industry for its use of LFTB is an economic or social protest. Until it begins to spill over and poison the way in which we interact with one another, politicians have no legitimate reason to take any interest.

That includes Branstad. In coming to Iowa State and appearing beside beef industry representatives, by condescending to comment as a politician on a nonpolitical issue, Branstad lowered the dignity of his office.

As for the criticism we’ve received because we apparently criticized agriculture, our university and land-grant colleges: We are not a public relations mouthpiece for Iowa State University in the same way that Branstad is not a public relations mouthpiece for the beef industry. Failing to give criticism where it is due is failing to do our job.