Agricultural News
Terry Detrick of AFR Says Beef Checkoff Issue Not Likely to Readdressed at NFU Meeting in Wichita
Mon, 16 Mar 2015 05:12:40 CDT
Terry Detrick, President of the American Farmers & Ranchers/Oklahoma Farmers Union, is leading the Oklahoma delegation in Wichita at the 113th Annual Convention of the National Farmers Union. He told Farm Director Ron Hays that about thirty delegates are representing Oklahoma this year at the NFU meeting, similar to the numbers seen last year in Santa Fe at the 2014 NFU meeting. The proximity of the national convention the last two years have allowed for convenient travel for delegates from the state that has the largest number of NFU members in the US.
Detrick indicated that there are few if any contentious issues expected to be brought up during the resolution process on Monday or Tuesday. Specifically, he does not expect any further action to be taken by delegates this year on the NFU stance regarding the Beef Checkoff. Detrick says that Oklahoma knows where the NFU stands on the Beef Checkoff and that the NFU membership clearly knows where Oklahoma stands- and that "we know that our paths are not going to cross on this issue."
The National Farmers Union decided to withdraw from the Beef Checkoff Enhancement Working Group in 2014, calling the efforts a waste of time.
As the organization gathered in Wichita this past Friday, the issue came to the forefront with word that that seven groups within the working group had signed a MOU committing themselves to pushing forward with an effort to increase the current checkoff from one dollar to two dollars.
National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson said that ongoing conversations about how to improve the beef checkoff have again failed to lead to greater producer comfort with how the checkoff is handled and strongly opposed the Beef Checkoff Enhancement Working Group (BCEWG) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the checkoff that was agreed upon today.
"Since the very beginning of this process several years ago, NFU has hoped that these ongoing discussions would lead to a beef checkoff program that was not controlled by a single policy organization and focused its resources primarily on research and promotion instead of lobbying," said Johnson. "When it became clear that these changes would never happen, NFU withdrew from the process altogether."
The full conversation that Hays had with Terry Detrick in Wichita can be heard by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
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