Tell us, are you in the "anti-beef industry as it is" group disciples of Lyndon Larouche?
I ask because my 'other half' picked up a brochure at a rest area on I-90 as we traveled last Sunday. He gave it to me as a joke, so I read the thing to him to endure as penitence. But I couldn't stand much of it, either.
Anyway, it reads like many of you post on economics, evils of corporations, and government, particularly during the GWB administration.
How about it, how many of you espouse those theories?
Giving you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you are swallowing it up without knowing the real source.
More on this later.
Econ, Farm Bureau is a representative organization. The locals send issues and elected rep's to the state meeting and there, those local representatives elect members to represent them and their issues at the national meetings.
Unless you are calling the locals who elect their farmer/rancher neighbors to represent them stupid people making foolish choices, it would be very difficult to justify your assessment of Farm Bureau.
Tommy, are you forgetting that NCBA, as in the Federation Division thereof, is comprised of representatives of virtually ALL beef organizations in the country? Could it be that there is no real mechanism in the law to have a vote of every cattle producer on raising the amount of the checkoff? Fact is, every cattle producer IS represented on the CBB and the Federation because those who do not join organizations are represented by LMA, or so that group claims. Are you disputing that claim?
Econ, why do you want packers to control the beef checkoff? FACT: just about every beef animal ends up at a packing plant. That is a lot of cattle. Therefore, packers would be the extremely dominant group on governing boards.
And, sorry R-CALF/OCM/LMA promoters, beef checkoff dollars absolutely CANNOT, and never has been, used for lobbying and/or building packing plants of our own.
IMO, that is one great part of the law! Keeps checkoff efforts focused on consumer driven, value added marketing improvements.
MRJ