There’s new leadership at the beef industry’s biggest trade association.
On Wednesday, Sept. 18, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) announced new leadership. Colin Woodall, previously NCBA’s senior vice president of government affairs, is now the chief executive officer. Ethan Lane, previously senior executive director for federal lands of NCBA and executive director of the Public Lands Council, will assume the role of vice president of government affairs on Oct. 1.
“Colin has served NCBA members for 15 years, and in that time, he has done a great deal for beef producers everywhere. Much of his work and many of the victories registered by NCBA in Washington, DC, is the result of his ability to build coalitions and bring people together across political divides,” said NCBA President Jennifer Houston in the group’s announcement of the changes.
Woodall will replace outgoing CEO Kendal Frazier, who announced his retirement back on April 23, 2019.
WLJ got to talk with Woodall the “whirlwind” day his new role was announced about his plans for the future. He described NCBA’s priorities both now and in the past as the results of partnership with the industry.
“It’s one of the strengths that we have; our priorities, our vision, our path forward is really dictated in a partnership between the CEO and the producer leaders,” adding he is proud and glad to help implement those goals.
However, he highlighted some challenged on the horizon. Most immediate is the fallout following the Tyson plant fire from early August.
“We still have this media challenge of trying to deal with this investigation by USDA of the market impact in the aftermath of the Tyson fire and what does that truly mean for the future of our industry.”
Woodall called Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s decision to investigate the market impact of the fire a wise one. He added that NCBA is trying to provide as much support to the USDA as possible in an effort to get a thorough report out quickly because there are a lot of questions out there and people want answers.
“This is an emotional issue and I understand that, I get that, and I am hearing that firsthand from my producers who are calling me,” Woodall told WLJ.
“So, we need to make sure we are respectful of that and get those facts because emotion doesn’t always lead to the best regulatory decisions. That’s why getting everybody to focus on the facts is key.”
The challenge of getting people to focus on facts crops up in other areas as well, like sustainability and the fake meat discussions.
“Really, when you look at Beyond Meat and the Impossible Burger, the only marketing strategy they have is to disparage us, so talking more about the great work we do will help push back on them,” he said, adding that preventing fake meat’s market toe-hold from growing is a goal.
On the sustainability front, he returned to the problem of people not using facts.
“We continue to get beat up globally and even here domestically on the perceived impact of our industry on the environment. The problem is, people aren’t using facts. They’re using what they think are facts, but it’s not the true and accurate picture,” he said specifically of sustainability concerns.
“We are being painted as polluters and, unfortunately, those who are painting that picture are using old information or information from other parts of the world that is not representative of what we’re doing here in the United States.”
When asked about NCBA’s strategy to get the sustainability discussion back to facts on beef, Woodall said, “We have got to be more vocal in fighting back,” and try to get good information out to consumers.
“Even EPA’s own data says that we are only 2 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. That is strong stuff that we need to make sure that we package in a way that the consumer understands. And, if we can’t necessarily convince them, at least get them scratching their head to realize that there are two sides to this story and hopefully that will help us balance this discussion and show that, look, when it comes to carbon sequestration, when it comes to range management, when it comes to fire control there’s nothing better to have on our grasslands than cattle.”
Ethan Lane
As mentioned, Lane will be assuming the role of vice president of government affairs, NCBA’s chief lobbyist position.
“I will be, just as Colin was, the head of all operations in the DC office and will continue to be a registered lobbyist on behalf of industry,” he told WLJ. He added that “job No. 1” will be to maintain the trajectory of the work Woodall has done over the years in the role.
“First and foremost, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We have a really good, strong team here that is deeply involved in every issue facing the cattle industry. That’s not going to change under my watch.”
When asked what challenges and priorities he has going forward, Lane noted that the industry has a lot of irons in the fire. However, climate change seems to be a hotter issue than some.
“We have a Democratic majority in the House that is insistent on continuing a dialogue about climate, continuing a dialogue about emissions, and that is something that is going to directly impact our producers one way or another. We’re finding more and more that that bleeds into almost every issue we deal with here in Washington.”
Lane said he does not expect that to change anytime soon, but there are strategies in place to deal with it.
“In a more macro sense what we’re really talking about here is making sure that the cattle industry is treated fairly and characterized accurately in that debate,” he summarized.
“There’s been a real onslaught of bad information, both from people who are misinformed and people who are intentionally misleading the public about our role in that, and using that to push an agenda of “meat is bad,” an anti-beef agenda.”
He, like Woodall, stressed the need to get facts out to the public, the press, and lawmakers.
“What they need to understand is we are a part of the solution,” he said. “We’re an irreplaceable part of that management landscape and the benefits we provide, both nutritionally as well as from an environmental perspective, far outweigh our pretty small footprint. So we’re going to be spending a lot of time ensuring that we get that accurate information out because, as I said, it really does have the potential to characterize and color a lot of our other issues.” — Kerry Halladay, WLJ editor
