000312 Pork Producers Challenge Checkoff

Kansas city, MO - U.S. pork industry leaders unveiled a blueprint for a full-scale attack against the USDA's plan to call a national referendum on whether or not to end a controversial $500 million industry "checkoff" promotional program.

But the move sparked fresh attacks on the industry's main private group, the National Pork Producers Council, which members of the family farmers' group that sparked the referendum have said favors large "mega" farms and corporations.

The board of directors of the NPPC, which represents 85,000 U.S. pork producers, introduced a resolution at its annual meeting in Kansas City, saying it would demand investigations by the U.S. General Accounting Office, the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and congressional hearings to determine the "legality and propriety" of the USDA's move to hold a referendum that threatens the checkoff program.

The NPPC is evaluating whether or not to file a lawsuit over the matter and said its resolution includes plans to demand copies of all USDA phone logs, memos, and e-mails related to the referendum.

Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman on Monday directed the USDA to fund a nationwide referendum of hog farmers to determine whether or not to continue the mandatory checkoff program, which requires hog producers to pay 45 cents for every $100 of hog sales into the checkoff fund.

The money is used for marketing, research and educational purposes. But many small producers have complained that the checkoff is an unfair tax that they can't afford to pay.

Polling results presented at the NPPC annual meeting showed that, in 1999, less than half of about 500 pork producers surveyed said they benefited from the checkoff program.

But the NPPC contends Glickman "has overstepped his authority" and will be acting illegally in holding a referendum without the necessary 15% approval by hog farmers. The pork industry leaders also question the validity of the industry proponents of the referendum.

When the NPPC debated the resolution late Friday afternoon, some delegates objected to the harsh nature of the resolution and proposed softening the language.

Debate was expected to resume on Saturday.

The Campaign for Family Farms, the Des Moines, Iowa, coalition of seven Midwest farmer groups that submitted the petition to USDA, later on Friday blasted NPPC's intention to file the lawsuit. Iowa is the largest hog-producing state in the nation with 15.4 million hogs on farms last year.

"We've got a lot of support out here among hog farmers for ending the mandatory checkoff, and NPPC knows it," said Mark McDowell, an Iowa hog farmer and a Campaign leader.

The Campaign said it collected signatures from more than 19,000 U.S. hog farmers asking USDA to end the multimillion dollar checkoff program, when only 15,000 signatures were needed to require the vote.

"This vote is going to happen -- there's no doubt about it and NPPC better get used to that idea," said Rhonda Perry, a Campaign member and Missouri hog farmer. "Hog farmers earned the vote, we deserve the vote, and now Glickman has said we're going to get the vote. We're focusing all of our efforts now on winning the vote and ending the mandatory checkoff program."

The Campaign refers to the checkoff as a "pork tax," saying it hits small farmers too hard and has been used to promote factory "mega-farms" of hogs and corporate takeovers in the hog industry.

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