Pork Checkoff, Under Fire, Will Undergo Referendum ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Farming Staff EPHRATA (Lancaster Co.) Monday last week, USDA Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman announced that a re ferendum would be conducted on the pork checkoff. USDA is reacting to a coali tion calling itself the Campaign for Family Farms, comprised of rural groups in several states, and other entities, who were tasked to come up the required amount of signatures 15 per cent of bona fide pork producers to allow the referendum, ac cording to the Pork Act and Order passed by Congress in 1985. A full-page ad appeared in the New York Times on Feb. 28, “America’s last family farms?”, which listed almost two dozen organizations that support the referendum. The ad was put to gether by the Turning Point Project, based in Washington, D.C., and includes Farm Aid, Center for Food Safety, the Humane Society, the Land Insti tute, Rodale Institute, Grassroots International, Earth- Save International, Pesticide Action Network, and others, which identified commodity checkoff programs and who come out strongly against what they call “factory farms.” These groups support the petition drive, according to In Motion Magazine. David Reinecker, president of the Penn sylvania Pork Produc ers Council (PPPC), noted that member producers of the PPPC are concerned that the rules be followed. Fif teen percent of bona fide pork producers have to sign the peti tion for a referendum in order to have a vote on the checkoff. Though the list may have been incomplete, and filled with what critics are saying has duplicate names and those who don’t even produce pork, Glick man proceeded with his OK of the vote. Ac cording to Reinecker, the issue may be if these rules are not fol lowed, and the refer endum is called for anyway, “what other rules are they going to suspend?” he said. “Who gives the sec retary of agriculture the power to override rules?” said Reinecker. PPPC and National Pork Producers Coun cil (NPPC) members are concerned that the voting is equitable and fair and follows the rules outlined in the Pork Act. But so far, the voting on the refer endum itself has been “really, really, really flawed,” Reinecker said. The date itself for the vote on the refer endum is undeter mined. But if the checkoff is voted out, the councils will have to revert to the all-volunteer checkoff that existed the first 20 years. Then, about 60 percent of the producers contributed to the voluntary checkoff. Losing almost half the money to oper ate “is certainly going to have an impact on the program for pro ducers,” Reinecker said. The checkoff, he said, benefits the smaller producers in many ways. The larger producers, the Murphys and Smithfields, are big enough that their own pro motional and educational pro grams can continue. According to Herb Schick, secretary-treasurer of the PPPC, the 80 nonprofit organizations that support the New York Times ad came up with 18,000 signatures. But according to the Pork Act, the signatures must be from bona fide producers and many signatures were not valid. “Are they pork producers?” said Schick. “Are they farm ers?” Schick noted that he has not personally spoke to any pro ducer who doesn’t want the checkoff, a mandatory program that allows all producers to be part of a “fair and equitable system that provides them with programs in the areas of re search, education, and promo tion,” according to the umbrella organization of PPPC, the The Rewards Pasture Mat is tightly stuffed with • Better Cow Health rubber and sewn every 4" to prevent . Reduced Leg i njury shifting . Reduced Swollen Hocks Proven most durable top cover . 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The volun tary organization helps produc ers throughout the state in education, research, and other areas to promote pork. But the referendum may force more communication. “We need to get our act together and show the producers we’ve done a good job,” Schick said. In the February 2000 Pigs Pen, a newsletter from PPPC, the Pork The Other White Meat campaign is driving positive at titudes. “More U.S. consumers have favorable opinions of pork in recent years thanks, in part, to the producer-funded” adver tising and promotion campaign, according to the article. The survey found 87 percent of the Americans who have seen or heard about pork through the promotional campaign are “much more likely to think fa vorably about pork in all areas, from taste to nutritional value. Eighty percent of consumers aware of the campaign also re ported they would most likely be eating pork within the next month, compared to 60 percent of consumers unaware of the pork campaign.” The article noted that 56 per cent of consumers surveyed this year have a favorable opinion about pork, up from 47 percent of 1993. The campaign is funded form the checkoff. In 1999, $20.9 million, or 57 percent of the national pork checkoff dollars, were invested in domestic demand enhance ment programs. USDA is fore casting U.S. pork consumption for 1999 at 53.9 pounds per person, 1.3 pounds higher than last year and the highest per capita consumption since 1981. At the recent National Pork Industry Forum conducted early this month in Kansas City, Mo., pork producer delegates overwhelmingly approved a res olution calling for USDA to de velop and implement an open, fair, transparent, and cost effective voting procedure for the pork checkoff referendum. 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Brat 25, Vogwnes.VT 05491 J W&r , Li*, attending the Pork Forum wanted to send a strong, unified voice to USD A. “Producer-delegates want USD A to enact rules allowing all bona fide producers and im porters to have the right to vote based upon documented proof they have sold hogs and paid the checkoff during the representa tive time period, not to exceed 12 months prior to the date of the vote,” she said. NPPC intends to work with USD A and Congress to ensure a fair voting process be in place for the referendum. NPPC represents 85,000 U.S. pork producers in 44 affiliated state associations, including PPPC. The checkoff amounts to $5OO million annually. According to the National Farmers Organization, U.S. pro ducers paid nearly all of the $6OO million used to fund com modity research and promotion programs last year. The pork checkoff requires hog producers to pay 45 cents for every $lOO of hog sales. According to an article in The Telegraph Herald, Dubuque, lowa, in January 1999, 14,000 hog farmers had signed the peti tion, and about 21,000 signa tures were needed. (Turn to Page A3B) DR • TRIMMER/MOWER™! LF I “I