Agricultural News
Today's Beef Buzz is Being Brought to You by the Word Separation
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 6:45:07 CDT
The push by at least six groups that represent cattle producers to get "separation" between the NCBA policy making efforts and the checkoff side of things now under the NCBA umbrella- the Federation of State Beef Councils.
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association has been working for over a year on a Governance plan, which would streamline the organization and would embrace the Federation of State Beef Councils even more closely than the the current structure.
After the NCBA voted to proceed with their plans at their annual meeting in San Antonio this past February- six groups, including the American Farm Bureau, National Farmers Union and the Livestock Marketing Association, wrote a letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack saying they had a beef with the cozy nature of the Federation within the NCBA proposal. NCBA replied to that letter and gave USDA feedbackat that point in March- click here for our Beef Buzz at that point in time which includes links to both letters to Vilsack.
Since that time- there have been several meetings between USDA and the NCBA, between USDA and these groups, between NCBA and the other groups and at least one meeting just last week with everybody either in the room or on via teleconference. Coming out of that meeting is that USDA has still not offered a final word to NCBA on the legality of their efforts- and word from the disenfranchised groups that they expect true separation to occur. If and when that happens, they will be on board with NCBA to work with Congress to change the Beef Checkoff Act and Order to raise the assessment on producers from the current dollar to as much as two dollars per head.
NCBA dismissed those ideas- said they would be finishing up their by law changes to get them to their membership and will also get a copy to USDA- and would hope that USDA would find the firewalls that NCBA proposes adequate. NCBA says the changes they have made in recent days more than adequately address the concerns raised by USDA and the outside groups.
There is a serious difference between NCBA and these other groups over what separation is- and we explore that today on our Beef Buzz. We have a special long form cyber Beef Buzz today, which fetures comments from Scott George, Chairman of the NCBA Checkoff Division- which is the Federation; David Macedo, New President of the Livestock Marketing Association and Mary Kay Thatcher with the American Farm Bureau in Washington.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the listen bar below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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