The Beef Checkoff Debate is a Distraction
By Jennifer Hill
The fight over the Beef Checkoff is a distraction at a time when we have plenty of truly frightening threats taking aim at the beef industry and markets. Real market manipulation and dangerous consolidation from the “Big 4”, growing biosecurity concerns that seem to accompany the rising tide of imported meat, lab meat, and political activism that threatens productive uses of land and livestock, are all pounding at our door and what are we, the ranching community, doing? Well, we’re busy fighting about Beef Checkoff and I’m convinced it’s a total distraction.
Beef Checkoff began in 1985 following a vote of approval by producers and authorization by Congress. The program levies a $1 per head fee to the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, a group made up of producers from the various sectors of the industry, to be used for the purposes of general beef promotion and stabilization of demand. There are a few important rules associated with the funds. The money cannot be used to lobby in any way, nor can it promote one type of beef over another (for example, they cannot claim Certified Angus is the best). Third party contractors submit plans to the Beef Board who then vote to fund the projects, currently the majority of submitted projects come from National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and American National CattleWomen. The entire program is overseen by the USDA who check for compliance and receives an independent audit annually. Pork, dairy and numerous other agricultural products have similar programs.
A small but vocal group of producers, namely R-CALF, have adamantly opposed the Beef Checkoff from its conception. They claim it’s corrupt and lines the pockets of their competitor, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. In mid 2020 they successfully pushed for allowance of a petition to recall the program. The recall movement came with a massive amount of infighting from within the beef industry. As the new COVID world wreaked havoc all around us, beef producers began taking shots at each other. While the packing companies were raking in record high profits with dwindling production lines, obliterating the price for live cattle, while environmental groups were successfully pushing industry ending programs like 30 by 30 and Senator Cory Booker introduced legislation effectively banning feedlots, beef producers were busy calling each other shills on Facebook and arguing over the effectiveness of ‘Beef- it’s what’s for Dinner’. The petition’s original deadline of July 2 passed with R-CALF unable to achieve the required 88,269 signatures, instead pulling in a mere 18,790. The USDA allowed them an additional three months, a deadline which has also passed without success for the group. While R-CALF may not be good at collecting signatures to back their cause they have been successful at yelling loud enough to draw the attention of those outside of the industry, including a few libertarians. The establishment libertarian leaning magazine Reason recently ran a hit piece on the program, declaring it antiquated and collectivist while making a thinly veiled argument that Checkoff is partially to blame for the drastic rise in consumer beef prices, which is absolutely absurd. Federally created inflation, protectionist policies serving massive and sometimes foreign owned packing plants, and ridiculous levels of government intervention in agriculture have far more to do with consumer beef prices than Beef Checkoff.
Do I love Beef Checkoff? No. It feels like a tax. I’m not thrilled with all of the directions they take. Frankly I believe they spend far too much energy on educational materials when we’d connect more with our consumers through stories (see my article on the power of cowboy stories for more on that). But do I believe that the $1 per head fee is a huge threat to the industry and warrants the hullabaloo it’s received lately? Definitely not. As beef producers we have allowed ourselves to be successfully distracted from the issues that present a real danger to us. Saving our livelihoods and lifestyles will require a fight, but it’s not with each other. As an industry we should absolutely be open to an honest discussion about Beef Checkoff, but not at the expense of greater threats.