By Bob McCan
Over my past year as President of the NCBA, I have had a
rare opportunity to look at all sides of the beef industry. And I have come to
realize, that much like our country, the cattle industry has individuals and
organizations that differ on their views of government involvement. By and
large, the members of the NCBA, the members who I have represented this year,
want less government involvement. They don’t want the government to pick
winners and losers. They don’t want the government to tell them how to market
their cattle, they don’t want the government to market their beef, and they sure
don’t want the government to run their research, education and promotion. The
government is distant and ineffective when it comes to doing the work of
private industry.
But there are also those who do want the government to do
all these things and more. They aren’t all of one mind, but they sometimes feel
at a disadvantage, they are a minority and the easiest way to tip the scales
toward the minority, is if the government steps in and throws off the balance. This
is nothing new; the government has been picking winners and losers since the
very beginning. One of the very first cases ever to come before the Supreme Court
was McCulloch v. Maryland, where the fourth Supreme Court Chief Justice,
Justice Marshall wrote that “the power to tax was the power to destroy.”
The government power to tax, regulate and legislate is
unparalleled in our economy. And now there are some that are looking to that
authority to again tip the scales in their favor to fix what they perceive as
an inequity. Their policy positions have fallen out of favor with the majority,
they have been dealt one loss after another, and they cling to a system of
production that no longer exists or is no longer practical. And like a wounded
snake, they lash out at everything that moves, in the hopes they can latch on
to something with their remaining venom. The problem is, that never solves the
issue, it only hurts the industry.
The National Farmers Union and other groups oppose NCBA’s
member passed policy. That is fine; there is always room for dissent in
organized debate and our government system works on adversarial positions,
where in the end the right outcome is found. But to bring your losses from the
adversarial arena of policy and politics to the public arena of education is
foul. Just because you lose, doesn’t mean the system is flawed, sometimes
you’re just wrong.
Cattlemen and women nationwide, benefit from a Beef
Checkoff that is non-partisan and non-political. A Beef Checkoff that is
administered by boards of producers at the national and state levels and
overseen by the USDA. A Beef Checkoff where national organizations that meet
the most basic of requirements have a chance to submit their proposals for
national funding.
So next time you hear someone throw stones, ask them if
they have submitted a contract, if they have had an opportunity to submit a
name for the Beef Board, if they have sat in on these meetings and given input.
The National Farmers Union was an active participant in
meetings of several national organizations working to enhance the Beef Checkoff
Program and when the groups had agreed on a concept to discuss with their respective
boards on enhancing the Beef Checkoff, National Farmers Union pulled out. That
doesn’t sound to me like they ever intended to reach a compromise. Fact is, the
rhetoric from the National Farmers Union has been so inconsistent on this issue
it’s impossible to determine what they want. One thing is clear; they want to
get rid of the current Beef Checkoff that is supported by 78 percent of beef
producers, because they mistakenly think it will humiliate the NCBA. You can
disagree with our positions, you can deny our success, or you can join and
craft policy engage in debate, but do not use a program that benefits everyone
in the cattle industry as a political battering ram for your personal or
professional gain.
Bob McCan is a beef producer from Victoria, Texas, who currently serves as the president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.