000258 Hog Farmers to Vote on Pork Ads

Washington - The advertising campaign that promotes pork as “the other white meat” could end if hog farmers vote in a government-sponsored referendum to stop paying the fees that finance it.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced his decision Monday to call the first vote on the pork program since it was created 14 years ago. He said he has the authority to call the referendum even though his department did not validate sufficient signatures on petitions submitted by farmers who oppose paying the fees, or “checkoffs.”

“As a matter of basic fairness, I believe that producers deserve the opportunity to vote on this checkoff program,” Glickman said in a speech to the National Farmers Union in Salt Lake City, Utah. “It is, after all, a mandatory assessment, akin to a tax, that all producers must pay even if they disagree with it.”

Opponents of the $48 million program, which pays for research as well as advertising, say it has done little to stimulate pork consumption and mostly benefits meat processors and large, corporate farm operations.

“This is all about the democratic process ... and the right of hog farmers and other producers to vote on whether the checkoff programs are working for them,” said Rhonda Perry, a Missouri hog producer who opposes the pork program.

But Glickman was criticized immediately by the National Pork Producers Council, which receives money from the checkoff fees. It questioned his authority to order the referendum on his own.

The referendum hurts “bona fide pork producers who created a program that truly works to benefit pork producers of all types and sizes,” said John McNutt, president of the council and an Iowa farmer. In calling the referendum, McNutt said, “The law was somehow bent in favor of political interests.”

The fee requires payment of 45 cents for every $100 of a pig's value when it is sold. The money goes to the quasigovernmental National Pork Board, which contracts promotional services through the producers council.

Opponents of the program say pork consumption has been relatively flat despite the advertising, rising from 51.5 pounds per person in 1985 to 53.4 pounds last year.

USDA will pay for running the referendum, which has not been scheduled.

Under government rules, Glickman would have been required to call a referendum if petitions submitted to the Agriculture Department last year contained at least 14,986 signatures, or 15% of all producers. USDA officials used a sampling process to validate the petitions but couldn't verify a sufficient number of names.

USDA also is being petitioned to a hold a referendum on the overall beef promotion program. The disputes over the two promotion programs reflect a growing division in U.S. agriculture between the interests of large and small- scale producers.

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