Inflation. Drought. High input costs. These are some of the real issues facing America’s cattlemen and cattlewomen yet Congress remains obsessed with perceived issues in commodity checkoff programs, especially the Beef Checkoff.
Despite the fact that the Beef Checkoff was created by cattle producers, is run by cattle producers, and is supported by over 70% of cattle producers, some in Congress believe that the only way to “save” producers from the program they developed is to pass duplicative bills or have big government step in. From my time in Washington, I can tell you Congress getting involved is never a way to make a program run better.
One of the clearest examples of duplicative bills is the deceptively named “Opportunities for Fairness in Farming” or OFF Act introduced by Representatives Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Dina Titus (D-NV) along with Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Mike Lee (R-UT). This bill would ban checkoff dollars from being used for lobbying. Guess what? Federal law already prohibits that. The OFF Act would also require public disclosure of how checkoff dollars are spent yet those reports are already available on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board website. The OFF Act does nothing new for checkoffs except create more rules that undermine producer direction of the program. The cattle producers appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the checkoff on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board should be the ones calling the shots on how checkoff dollars are used, not industry associations, not meatpackers, and especially not government.
The latest piece of foolish legislation is an amendment that Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) is attempting to add to the House agriculture appropriations bill to prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from using appropriated dollars to administer checkoff programs. Guess what? Checkoffs are not taxpayer funded and there are no taxpayer dollars going towards checkoffs. Instead, checkoff assessments and other payments fund the USDA staff necessary to oversee these programs at no cost to taxpayers. These programs are funded by producers to serve producers and they are a good example of how industry ingenuity leads to better outcomes than government mandates.
Agriculture is a difficult business. Success on the farm or ranch depends on a lot of hard work and cooperation from the weather and the market. Individual cattle producers often do not have the time to develop marketing campaigns or educate consumers about agriculture, which is why innovative producers created the Beef Checkoff in the first place.
The Beef Checkoff is an investment of $1 every time cattle are sold in the U.S. and that dollar returns $11.91 to the cattle industry. The checkoff-funded Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. campaign has led to generations of consumers keeping beef at the center of their plates and checkoff-funded research has developed new cuts of beef like the flat iron and petite tender steaks, both options that are popular with consumers and help producers make more money from their high-quality cattle. The checkoff also educates consumers on the realities of the farming and ranching way of life, counteracting animal rights activist propaganda.
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Those who oppose the checkoff are the same coalition of animal rights activists that have been trying to put farmers and ranchers out of business for years—groups like Attorneys for Animals, Animals Are Sentient Beings Inc., Four Paws, Mercy for Animals, and the Organization for Competitive Markets. Those who support checkoffs are the farm and ranch organizations that represent hardworking producers including NCBA, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Pork Producers’ Council, the American Honey Producers Association, the American Mushroom Association, the American Sheep Industry Association, the American Soybean Association, the International Fresh Produce Association, the National Christmas Tree Association, the National Cotton Council, the National Milk Producers Federation, the National Pecan Federation, the National Potato Council, the National Sorghum Producers, the National Watermelon Association, the North American Blueberry Council, United Egg Producers, and the U.S. Peanut Federation.
I was always told that who you run with is a reflection of who you are and Representatives Spartz, Mace, and Titus along with Senators Booker and Lee have decided to run with animal rights activists over agriculture.
Colin Woodall is CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the oldest and largest national organization advocating for America’s beef farmers and ranchers.