OCM Report: Major new checkoff program abuses exposed
Pictured: Joe Logan, Ohio Farmers Union and OCM; Joe Maxwell, OCM Photo credit: Laura Hancock, cleveland.com
Dear Mike,
Lack of oversight of our state beef checkoff programs is destroying the livelihoods of family farmers and ranchers. OCM is fighting for checkoff program reform all over the country: at the state and federal levels, through litigation — and right now, we’re turning our focus to Ohio where we’ve discovered the most egregious abuses yet.
Yesterday morning at the Ohio Statehouse, OCM and Ohio Farmers Union released a new report outlining how federal and state beef checkoff funds are propping up a trade and lobbying entity that works against the very interests of the farmers who are forced to pay into the program. Learn more by reading our new report on the Ohio beef checkoff program.
We are calling for beef checkoff dollars to be paid into the proper government treasuries, to be appropriated by the state legislature, and for regular audits to occur. Finally, designated state agencies that are in charge of the oversight of these tax dollars should be completely segregated from lobbying entities.
We need to ensure that checkoff programs are transparent and the dollars paid by our hardworking farmers and ranchers are spent where they’re supposed to be — and that doesn’t mean on big agriculture or their interests. What’s happening now amounts to taxpayer abuse and corruption, and it needs to stop.
With your continued support, we will fight until we end these abusive practices.
Angela Huffman
Director of Communications and Research
Organization for Competitive Markets