Ag publication Drovers censors readers critical of beef checkoff
Dear Mike,
On Tuesday, Drovers issued a poll asking the question, “Do you believe the Beef Checkoff is helping stimulate beef demand and support your cattle business?” By Thursday afternoon, the polling showed that 70 percent of Drovers’ audience who responded flatly rejected the notion that the checkoff was helpful to their farms and ranches.
Even more telling was the more than 50 comments on the poll from producers concerned about the lack of transparency and accountability around how their federally mandated checkoff dollars are being spent. However, Drovers deleted those comments from its website on Thursday afternoon at the same time that the poll quickly skewed toward the “yes” vote. The backlash to Drovers’ journalistic bias was swift on social media as producers learned their voices had been censored. This comment sums up the sentiments being shared:
We call on Drovers to do the right thing and restore its readers’ comments that it solicited and then deleted. Until then, we have preserved screenshots of the comments and have made them available on our website in a new blog post. Click through to see the producers’ opinions that Drovers, which claims to be the oldest livestock publication in the United States, wants hidden.
Please read and share our blog post to help elevate the voices of family farmers and ranchers. One thing is for sure: the beef checkoff should benefit U.S. cattle producers, not multinational meat packers and their trade and lobbying organizations. We deserve transparency and accountability and we won’t stop fighting until we get it.
Thank you for holding abusive corporate interests accountable.
–Organization for Competitive Markets
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Organization For Competitive Markets
P.O. Box 6486
Lincoln, NE 68506
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