Hey Skip - Shane here from Snake River Farms. I know people feel strongly about this, but I thought I would give you our side of the story.
Our Snake River Farms beef is labeled as "American Kobe". From a genetic standpoint it's 50% full-blood Kobe and 50% American cattle. Back in the 90's we brought over a small herd of animals from Kobe and have kept their genetics 100% pure in order to breed them with American cattle. A few thoughts:
1. There is a challenge in terms of what to call this beef. It's not pure Kobe. It's also not pure Wagyu (which just means Japanese cattle). It's also not pure american cattle. American Kobe actually works well for that, indicating it's a mix of the two.
2. As you mentioned, marketing is one of the challenges. The American beef grading scale only goes up to prime, which leaves a ton of room for "better", "more marbled" beef above that, but we have no way to designate that. People associate "Kobe" with highly marbled (which is true) and that's one of the reasons it makes sense to use. If the American grading scale went higher, we could use those designations for this beef.
3. SRF was actually created intentionally to bring the marbling of Kobe to American cattle. The interesting thing is that 100% Kobe doesn't really work for the American palette (mostly) - because we want to have a big, thick steak, and you wouldn't eat Kobe that way. American Kobe brings a good portion of the marbling of Kobe to beef that is still "beefy" flavored and not too rich to eat in a big fat steak (or brisket).
Anyway...I completely understand your perspective and I'm not trying to change your mind at all, but since you mentioned it I thought I would take the opportunity to present some of our side of the story. Happy smoking :-D
