Legislation reintroduced in the House and Senate to reform commodity checkoff programs has received mixed support from cattle groups.
The Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act was reintroduced by a handful of legislators who say “checkoff programs have repeatedly been shown to use funds to influence policy directly or by partnering with organizations that lobby; the unlawful use of checkoff programs funds benefits some agricultural producers while harming many others.”
While the bill has the support of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) opposes the bill.
“The decades-old Beef Checkoff program is ill-suited to meet the needs of today’s cattle farmers and ranchers, in fact, the program promotes corporate control and globalization over the interests of America’s cattle producers,” said R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard.
NCBA disagreed, with NCBA President Todd Wilkinson countering, “Congress has plenty of work to do that could be far more beneficial to Americans. They should focus in areas of urgent need, rather than wasting time on these unwelcome ‘reform efforts’ that would only benefit anti-agriculture activists.”
