Hog farmer members of the Campaign for Family Farms (CFF) are calling on Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman to overturn a flawed Agricultural Marketing Service decision that attempts to change the pork checkoff vote rules in midstream.
In the late afternoon of Friday, Aug. 4, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of U.S. Department of Agriculture caved into pressure from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), deciding to allow the NPPC to request ballots on behalf of their supporters, rather than follow the referendum rules, which require each individual hog farmer to request their own ballot, says the CFF.
"In her statement, AMS Administrator Kathleen Merrigan says that the rules explicitly state that no one but the producers can request an absentee ballot from the FSA. That is what she told us several times. But then she tells the NPPC they can get ballots for their supporters. AMS has one set of rules for NPPC and another for us independent producers. We demand that Secretary Glickman reverse this blatantly biased and incorrect decision," said Minnesota hog farmer Paul Sobocinski, a spokesperson for the Campaign for Family Farms and a member of the Land Stewardship Project.
On July 24, July 28 and July 31, AMS officials told CFF members that third parties--even the spouse or parent of another producer--could not request a ballot for another producer. During the same time period, NPPC was phoning supporters, and telling them they would get ballots for them.
"It is crystal clear what is going on. The NPPC knows we have enough hog farmer votes to win the referendum, and they are running scared. They are calling in every favor they have in Washington, DC, to keep the checkoff money rolling in. They know the only hope they have to win this vote is to lie, cheat and steal--but we independent producers are not going to let them win," said hog farmer Roger Allison, spokesperson for the Campaign for Family Farms and member of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center.
Fifteen other groups have joined the Campaign for Family Farms to demand that Glickman reverse AMS's slanted decision.
"From day one of the petition drive calling for a vote to end the mandatory pork checkoff, hog farmers have been fighting the NPPC and AMS. It has been two and one-half years now, and they are not going to stop us. We are going to win this vote, because hog farmers know that the checkoff hasn't helped them. It is a tax we have to pay that helps corporate factory farms and meat packers," said Campaign for Family Farms spokesperson Dale Leslein, a hog farmer and member of Iowa CCI.
The pork checkoff is a tax paid on every hog sold, which generates nearly a million dollars a week for the NPPC and is the source for nearly all of their revenue. Later this month, hog farmers will vote whether or not to end the mandatory pork checkoff. The Campaign for Family Farms is encouraging all producers who have sold one or more hogs and paid the pork checkoff tax between Aug. 18, 1999, and August 17, 2000, to call their local Farm Service Agency office and request a ballot to vote in the referendum. Producers can request absentee ballots from now until Sept. 18. Producers also can vote in person at their FSA office, from Sept. 19 to 21.
"Pork producers are going to vote to end the pork checkoff because the NPPC has proven they can't be trusted. For years, bona fide independent producers have been demanding that NPPC clean up its act and start listening to us. Instead of reforming their ways, they have become more and more corrupt. Hog producers are going to vote down the pork checkoff tax," said Campaign spokesperson Phil Wright, a hog farmer and member of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance.
Since the mandatory pork checkoff began, it has taxed hog farmers out of $500 million, hog prices have hit their lowest levels since the Great Depression and two out of three hog farmers (250,000) have gone out of business, says CFF.
For more information on the mandatory pork checkoff referendum, call the Campaign for Family Farms, at 573-449-1336.
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