Group Alleges NCBA and Its Affiliates Are Engaged in Improper Checkoff Lobbying and Deceit Billings, Mont. – In swift response to an Oct. 14, 2014 lobbying letter urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to abandon his plans to create a new beef checkoff program, R-CALF USA called foul. The lobbying letter was signed by the National…

October 16, 2014 The Honorable Tom Vilsack United States Secretary of Agriculture U.S. Department of Agriculture 1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250 Via E-mail and U.S. Mail Re: Complaint Regarding Improper Lobbying Activity and Deception Perpetrated by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and 45 of Its State Affiliates in Their Joint Letter Dated…

Cattlemen tell Vilsack to back off on checkoff By Tom Johnston on 10/15/2014 State cattlemen’s associations and the National Beef Cattlemen’s Association on Tuesday wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him not to create a separate beef checkoff program that they say would introduce excessive government control and lack coordination. Vilsack told…

Kroger removes ‘humanely raised’ claim on chicken labels to settle case By Tom Johnston on 10/14/2014 Kroger Co. has agreed to remove its “raised in a humane environment” claim on store-brand chicken to settle a federal lawsuit claiming the label deceived consumers because the animals were raised under conventional industry production practices. Lawyers for the…

Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014 Want reform? First audit Alan Guebert Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stunned the cowboy crowd Tues., Sept. 30, when, in a one-sided meeting in his office, he told seven members of the nearly three-years-old beef checkoff reform effort that if they didn’t find…

Humane Society drops lawsuits, Perdue drops labels By Michael Doyle – McClatchy Washington Bureau October 13, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Humane Society of the United States has dropped two federal lawsuits, in exchange for Perdue Farms dropping use of the phrase “humanely raised” on the company’s Harvestland chicken labels. The agreement announced Monday ends the…

Domina is a ‘strong, rural’ voice http://www.nptelegraph.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/domina-is-a-strong-rural-voice/article_5ea6e791-a046-5331-bcfc-cd8ef45b6aa2.html David Domina is campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat to represent Nebraska. Over 10 years ago, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity of a front-row seat beside Dave in a U.S. District courtroom in Montgomery, Ala., representing the U.S. cattlemen in a class action lawsuit referred…

Major supermarket chains changed how they label meat, surprising customers and USDA By Roberto A. Ferdman October 13 (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Retired doctor Louis Offen and his wife have been shopping at the same Giant supermarket in Bethesda, Md., for nearly 40 years. Offen is in charge of buying the steak, which normally…

October 2014 Customer Newsletter "We shouldn’t ask: what does a person need to know or be able to do in order to fit into the existing social order? Instead we should ask: what lives in each person and what can be developed in him or her?" – Philosopher Rudolph Steiner, founder of biodynamics and the…