Court Rules Pork Checkoff Unconstitutional;
Checkoff's Days are Numbered

"This is a huge victory for independent family farmers," said Rich Smith, a Wilmont, Minn., hog farmer-member of the Land Stewardship Project and CFF spokesperson. "The pork checkoff has forced family farmers to pay into a program that supports corporate concentration, industrialization and the factory farm system of livestock production, which drives family farmers out of business. The end of the checkoff is long overdue."

In ruling the pork checkoff unconstitutional, the Sixth Circuit rejected USDA's novel argument that the pork checkoff is a government program. The court found that the pork checkoff "compels [hog farmers] to express a message with which they do not agree," and struck down the entire Pork Act. The court's entire ruling is available at http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/03a0373p-06.pdf.

Susan Stokes, legal director for Farmers' Legal Action Group (FLAG) and attorney for the Campaign for Family Farms, said, "This decision is vindication of the rights of independent hog farmers, who have been fighting this illegitimate and unconstitutional checkoff for more than five years."

"Hog farmers voted it down, now two federal courts have decided the mandatory pork checkoff is unconstitutional and is entirely invalidated," said Hampton, Iowa, hog farmer Mark McDowell, an Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement member and CFF spokesperson. "This is a big victory for family farmers and for democracy in America."

Although the ruling invalidates the pork checkoff, farmers expressed concern Wednesday that the NPPC and the USDA will use the courts to delay the end of the program and continue collecting millions of dollars in checkoff fees.

"There is absolutely no reason to keep collecting the checkoff fees-USDA and NPPC should not ask for a stay, should not keep delaying, and should quit collecting our money and let justice prevail. It's over," said Minnesota hog farmer Jim Joens, a member of the Land Stewardship Project and CFF spokesperson who raises hogs in southwest Minnesota.

The pork checkoff program was started in 1986 after Congress passed a law mandating that hog farmers pay into the fund. It generates about $45-$50 million annually. Money collected under the program goes to the National Pork Board. Prior to July 2001, most of that money ended up in the coffers of the National Pork Producers Council.

The mandatory pork checkoff has been controversial among hog farmers for many years. In 1998, the Campaign for Family Farms initiated a national petition drive calling for a hog farmer referendum to decide if the program should be ended. That led to a vote conducted by the USDA in August-September 2000 in which over 30,000 U.S. hog producers voted 53 percent to 47 percent to terminate the mandatory pork checkoff. Following the announcement of the vote results in January 2001, then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman ordered the termination of the program.

However, in a move that shocked hog farmers, the industry and various members of Congress, President Bush's newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman cut a back room deal with the National Pork Producers Council in February 2001 to throw out the results of the democratic vote and force hog farmers to keep paying the checkoff. This action led to the CFF lawsuit against USDA, which includes a specific claim that the mandatory pork checkoff violates hog producers' constitutional rights by infringing on the First Amendment.

"It is time for the USDA to wave the white flag on Pork the Other White Meat," said David Moeller, staff attorney for Farmers' Legal Action Group.

The Campaign for Family Farms is a coalition of farm and rural groups that are leading the fight against the corporate takeover of the hog industry and working for policies that support independent family farmers. The Sixth Circuit recognized that CFF is devoted to "ensuring the continued existence of family farms, particularly hog farms." CFF member-groups include Land Stewardship Project (Minnesota), Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Illinois Stewardship Alliance and Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana. Farmers' Legal Action Group represents CFF and the individual hog farmers in the lawsuit.

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