A Monthly Report by R-CALF USA

R-CALF USA may be defined as a non-profit producer organization, but our work benefits anyone who eats meat and lives in an economy that includes agriculture. We’re more than a producer organization, we’re your organization!

Groups Pleased With Appeal Court’s Affirmation of COOL

Recently, eleven judges at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Appeals Court) denied the request by the American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and other meatpacker lobby groups for an injunction that would have halted enforcement of the U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law.

The appeals court flatly rejected the meatpacker lobby’s assertion that the only purpose for COOL was to satisfy consumers’ ‘idle curiosity.” To the contrary, it found that COOL information “has an historical pedigree” and listed many other statutes that require COOL information on various products including the Tariff Acts of 1890 and 1930, the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939, the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act, and the American Automobile Labeling Act.

Groups Urge Ag Secretary to Enforce Beef Checkoff Program’s Prohibition Against Conflicts of Interest; Urge Other Reforms

Thirty-six organizations recently sent a joint letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to immediately implement their recommendations for eliminating the conflicts of interest from the Beef Checkoff Program.

For over four years, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) ignored the Secretary’s direct warning about the need for checkoff integrity, which would include, for example, the independence of the Federation of State Beef Councils (Federation). During that entire time the Secretary waited while industry groups self-selected participants to work harmoniously with the NCBA to develop a plan for reforming the Beef Checkoff Program so it would operate as the law intended and so the interests of all producers and importers are supported, not just the interests of NCBA members.

In early August, the self-selected participants of the working group proposed changes that would double the beef checkoff assessment and make certain procedural modifications to the program. The 36 groups found the working group’s proposal unacceptable and offered an entirely new proposal.Their joint letter states that the two most offensive and glaring conflicts of interest in the Beef Checkoff Program are that the decision-making Federation is “housed, administered, owned and controlled” by the NCBA and that checkoff funds strengthen the NCBA’s advocacy efforts because they offset, “if not directly subsidize,” the NCBA’s administrative costs. The letter refers to this offset as cross-subsidization.

The joint letter urges Vilsack to:

Enforce the prohibition against conflicts of interest in contracting and all other decision-making operations of the Beef Checkoff Program

Enforce a prohibition against contracting with organizations that engage in policy-oriented activities.

Require a legally independent Federation, without affiliation to NCBA or any other private entity.

“The Beef Checkoff Program was never intended as a vehicle to strengthen the political voice of NCBA or any other policy organization above the voices of any other organization or above the collective voice of the producers funding the program,” the joint letter states.

R-CALF USA is solely funded by donations and member dues. Please consider becoming a member. For more info or to join, go to http://www.r-calfusa.com, 406-252-2516.