ORGANIZATION FOR COMPETITIVE MARKETS

P.O. Box 6486

Lincoln, NE 68506 

Web site: www.competitivemarkets.com

Date:  January 15, 2001                        For Immediate Release

 Contact:            Fred Stokes: 662-476-5568

                        Michael Stumo: 860-379-6199

                                                    

CHECKOFF VOTE SERVES AS WAKE UP CALL TO FARM/COMMODITY GROUPS ON CONCENTRATION 

The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) stated today that mainstream farm and commodity groups must be more aggressive in working for specific measures to stem concentration in the food industry and increase competition at the farm gate.  OCM was responding to the news that the majority of hog producers voted to end the mandatory pork checkoff program.  

Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman announced last Thursday that hog farmers voted to end the pork checkoff program by a margin of 53% to 47%.  The program assessed 45 cents per $100 in hog sales.  The National Pork Producer’s Council (NPPC) has stated that it will attempt to overturn the vote in court.  NPPC was the major recipient of the checkoff funds, which were distributed by the National Pork Board. 

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Land Stewardship Project (Minnesota), Missouri Rural Crisis Center and other grass roots groups organized a petition for recall of the mandatory checkoff three years ago.  The effort began after investigative journalist Al Guebert disclosed that NPPC used checkoff funds to investigate groups working for family farm agriculture and against factory-style hog production.  

“This vote serves as a wake-up call to other organizations who claim to represent the interests of farmers,” said Fred Stokes, president of OCM.  “It demonstrates to policy makers in Washington and elsewhere that the positions put forward by some well funded farm organizations often are not a reflection of the will of the producers; that things are said in the name of farmers that farmers sometimes don't agree with.”

 “The meat commodity groups have sold their organizations to the packing industry,” said Clay Daulton, California rancher and past president of OCM.  “The checkoff funds themselves were used to promote the final product sold to the consumers.  But when the packers continued consolidating and failed to pass the benefits to the farmer and rancher, the commodity groups decided against addressing the most critical issue facing producers – the fact that agribusiness retained the profit from increased demand without passing any on to the producers.”

 “The question that farm and commodity groups must ask is whether they represent the commodity or people.” said Michael Stumo, general counsel of OCM.  “It is clear that they have decided that they do not represent the people who make up their organizations.  In so choosing, the NPPC failed to oppose packer ownership of hogs, failed to support an agribusiness merger moratorium, and failed to aggressively oppose the Smithfield purchase of Farmland’s Dubuque plant as well as the Tyson acquisition of IBP.” 

The recent controversy over the pork checkoff is only one example of farmers’ recent dissatisfaction with the mandatory commodity programs.  For instance, cattle ranchers and feeders have petitioned the USDA to hold a similar vote on the beef checkoff.  Some ranchers have gone as far as refusing to pay the checkoff, at the risk of court-imposed sanctions.

 “Instead of helping farmers, a significant portion of these funds have been used to sell producers on various programs leading to a more industrialized, factory style, and corporate controlled agriculture in which the producers interests, those who fund the checkoff, are not paramount,” said Stokes.  “Even with these efforts there is at least the perception of featherbedding, incompetence and abuse.  If the pork checkoff vote does nothing else, it should warn these organizations that these perceptions exist, and that steps must be taken to get back in line with the grassroots.”

 The Organization for Competitive Markets is a multidisciplinary, nonprofit group of farmers, ranchers, academics, attorneys, and policy makers dedicated to reclaiming the agricultural marketplace for independent farmers, ranchers and rural communities.