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
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NPPC. The program was voted
into existence by producers in
1988.
The only money for operating
expenses for the PPPC a
group that also promotes pork
comes from the checkoff. The
rest is raised by the group itself
at auctions such as the one con
ducted at the group’s annual
Pork Expo.
The reason for the referen
dum, Schick believes, is because
of the low prices the industry
suffered in 1998-1999.
“I don’t see why they are
placing the blame on the Pork
Council,” he said. 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.
Barb Determan, producer de
legate from Early, lowa, and
president-elect of the NPPC,
said producer representatives
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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)
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