It probably should be expected, but that doesn't make it sensible, that those who fought against the Beef CheckOff from the beginning of time would STILL be trying to find 'reasons' for ending it......or taking it away from the CATTLE PRODUCERS who have managed it from the beginning.
They STILL have not found legitimate, proven reasons for ending it!
Same old complaints, generated from hot air and vivid imaginations, imo.
Because contracts to do work for the Beef CheckOff are on a cost only basis, they are not widely sought out. The work has to be done before the CheckOff pays the bill, and there is no PROFIT allowed!
There is no way for NCBA to use CheckOff money to donate to political campaigns! FACT: NCBA members and friends create and self-fund those donations from our own pockets!
Similarly, and for the same reason, NCBA does not, and in fact cannot, pay those hated "high" salaries with CheckOff money. The ONLY way CheckOff $$$ can be paid to NCBA employees is for time they specifically spend working on CheckOff projects on contracts duly awarded to NCBA by the Cattlemens' Beef Board.
NCBA employees are required to account for their time working on specific projects in 15 minute increments (a time frame which may have changed since I asked a few years ago to assure that the proper entity is billed for their time.
Regarding not finding ads paid by CheckOff dollars, there has been considerable time and effort spent talking to consumers, from soliciting individual consumers in various cities, to other types of studies, which have shown exactly how consumers want to get their information about beef.........and many methods have been targeted to fit their requests. While I don't take time to look them up, some of my 'city' women and college age girls do. The younger generation, and even the 'middle' aged ones are as likely to look for a recipe, or cooking advice on the computer than to pick up a cook book to do it.
Re. COOL, I, a consumer too, saw those government labels in stores......and was totally NOT impressed. Also, the fact that the poorest quality USA produced beef got labelled exactly the same as the highest quality surely didn't do a lot for our beef sales, since one of the worst problems consumers complain of is lack of consistent product when buying beef.
Did anyone see a recent photo comparing that government "USA Beef" label with the label from just one of well over 100 private labelled beef products available in the USA? My guess is that the private label doesn't cost as much as the government COOL label......and carries much more information. Beside the fact that those promoting the COOL label want all of us to pay for their label, while TRULY independent cattle producers have long been doing the work and paying the costs required to label their own beef!
We really need to get over whining about 'the big outfits', which was done in that 'news' story linked in the first post. It's a waste of time and contributes nothing to solve problems. Farmers Union was noticeable as a 'source' for quotes: I'm very certain that while that group may have some small producers, it also has some of the biggest.......so what? People are people and we have varying talents and opportunities......and too many people who would rather tear down 'the big ones' than work to build upon their own skills and opportunities.
mrj