Nebraska Farmers Union Right on Target
Howdy,
Here are three items of interest to OCM passed at the recent NeFU state Convention.
All the best,
John K. Hansen, President
Nebraska Farmers Union
1305 Plum Street, Lincoln, NE 68502
(402)476-8815 Office (402)476-8859 Fax
(402)476-8608 Home (402)580-8815 Cell
2) Beef Checkoff Reform
WHEREAS, Nebraska is the nation’s top rated red meat producing and processing state; and
WHEREAS, the 1985 Beef Research & Promotion Act established a mandatory, involuntary and non-refundable excise tax of $1 dollar per head for cattle; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Beef Checkoff is government speech, which implies that the monies that fund it should be considered and treated as tax dollars; and
WHEREAS, the 1985 Beef Research & Promotion Act should be held to the same standards of any government entity, including the process by which the tax dollars are collected, and by which they are spent, including complete transparency and routine public audits, scrutiny, and administrative oversight; and
WHEREAS, the 1985 Beef Research & Promotion Act has not been revisited since 1985; and
WHEREAS, cattle producers have been raising serious conflict of interest, misuse of monies, and lack of appropriate regulatory oversight issues of the Beef Checkoff for years; and
WHEREAS, the current 1985 Beef Research & Promotion Act language prevents the Secretary of Agriculture, in his opinion, from applying the same standards for oversight and conflict of interest as he does for the oversight and administration of all other federal checkoffs; and
WHEREAS the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has receive a minimum of 90% of all Beef Board contracts in the last 10 years; and
WHEREAS, the beef checkoff should allow and encourage more contractors to participate; and
WHEREAS, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association receives the vast majority of its annual budget from the Beef Checkoff; and
WHEREAS, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association uses the tax dollars it receives from all cattle producers to increase the political power and visibility of its brand as well as it operation; and
WHEREAS, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has sided with the meat packing industry and our foreign competitors to bring WTO actions against U.S. Country of Origin Labeling; and
WHEREAS, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has sided with the meat packing industry and our foreign competitors to bring a lawsuit against USDA’s authority to respond to the WTO action against U.S. Country of Origin Labeling; and
WHEREAS, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has sided with the meat packing industry and our foreign competitors to lobby Congress to undermine the implementation and funding for U.S. Country of Origin Labeling; and
WHEREAS, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has sided with the meat packing industry to lobby against the last Farm Bill despite the fact it contained critical provisions that helped hard hit cattle producers recover from the dramatic and career ending losses they suffered when severe weather killed their livestock and destroyed their normal feed supply; and
WHEREAS the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association leadership and officers have come to consider the beef Checkoff as their own personal financial feed bunk; and
WHEREAS the U.S. Beef Check off should solely promote U.S. beef; and
WHEREAS, no beef importers should be on the Executive Committee or the delegate body of a new checkoff; and
WHEREAS, no meatpackers or processors should be on the Executive Committee or the delegate body of a new checkoff; and
WHEREAS, a majority of the delegate body of a new checkoff should be cow/calf producers; and
WHEREAS, the Executive Committee of a new checkoff should maintain the same geographic ratio as does the delegate body; and
WHEREAS no policy groups should be allowed to be directly involved as vendors for a new checkoff; and
WHEREAS Nebraska Farmers Union supports the establishment of a new Beef Checkoff under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act of 1996 (1996 Act); and
WHEREAS Nebraska Farmers Union does not support the operation of two Beef Checkoffs operating simultaneously; and
WHEREAS, Nebraska Farmers Union believes that there will not be widespread support for an increase in the Beef Checkoff rate until the long time conflict of interest, use of Beef Checkoff monies to be controlled by NCBA, misuse of monies, and lack of appropriate administrative oversight issues be remedied; and
THEREFOR BE IT RESOLVED the Nebraska Farmers Union encourages the Secretary of Agriculture to re-consider his previous decision, and suspend the operation of the Beef Checkoff based on conflict of interest issues until the new beef checkoff organized under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act of 1996 (1996 Act) is established.
3) Citizens United Amendment
WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United has allowed large special financial interests to funnel enormous amounts of money into influencing elections; and
WHEREAS, the need for public accountability for election spending is severely undercut by Citizens United; and
WHEREAS, the integrity of the electoral process requires appropriate limits on the amount of money being spent on elections; and
WHEREAS, in recent election cycles we have already observed the powerful influence of moneyed special interests in overwhelming public consensus on major issues and specific election races; and
WHEREAS, the loss of financial accountability and limits in our elections is convincing many potential candidates to give up and curtail their involvement in our political life, thereby further exacerbating the corrosive influence of wealthy special interests; and
WHEREAS, the future of American democracy itself is threatened by the results of the Citizens United decision; and
BE IT RESOLVED that Nebraska Farmers Union calls on the U.S. Congress to lead the way in creating and passing legislation and/or a Constitutional Amendment that will reign in the power of unlimited spending on elections; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Nebraska Farmers Union calls on Nebraska’s U.S. Senators and Congressmen, our Governor and our other elected officials, in the strongest possible terms, they rise in support of the aforementioned legislation and/or Amendment.
4) COOL
WHEREAS, 30 years ago in 1984 Nebraska Farmers Union first passed Country of Origin Labeling (COOL); and
WHEREAS, the need for consumers to have the information they need in order to make informed food buying decisions has not changed; and
WHEREAS, consumers continue to overwhelmingly support COOL; and
WHEREAS, our U.S. food producers are rightly proud of the high quality food products they produce and should have the ability to identify and differentiate their own products in their own U.S. markets just as our competition does in their own markets; and
WHEREAS, since most of the nation’s in the world that U.S. food producers sell into also have COOL in their nations; and
WHEREAS, U.S. food producers are at a competitive disadvantage if their own domestic market does not afford them the same opportunities that their foreign competitors have in their domestic markets to identify their own products; and
WHEREAS, COOL provides the transparency in our domestic marketplace that it desperately needs in order to function as a healthy and competitive market should; and
WHEREAS, domestic food markets have become far less competitive, accessible, fair, and transparent in the last 30 years;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED Nebraska Farmers Union enthusiastically, without reservation supports maintaining effective mandatory Country of Origin Labeling and asks Congress and the Administration to protect this basic market place right to the benefit of U.S. food consumers and producers.