Hog Farmers Want Fair and Democratic Vote to End the Mandatory Pork Checkoff

CONTACT: Nolan Jungclaus, Minnesota, 320-664-4843
Larry Ginter, Iowa, 515-493-2493
Rhonda Perry, Missouri, 573-449-1336
Land Stewardship Project, 612-722-6377

6/22/00

Nearly 1,000 hog farmers and others sent in comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) regarding the proposed rules for the referendum to end the mandatory pork checkoff. An overwhelming majority of the people who commented favored the position of the Campaign for Family Farms - to hold the vote in a way that encourages the highest level of hog farmer participation. In the 30-day comment period that ended on May 18, over 60 percent of the people who commented supported the views of the Campaign for Family Farms. The Land Stewardship Project is a founding member of the Campaign for Family Farms.

To ensure a fair and democratic vote, the Campaign believes:

o The referendum should be held before harvest.

o All hog farmers who were eligible to sign the petition to end the mandatory pork checkoff must be eligible to vote.

o AMS should automatically send ballots to all 58,000 verified hog producers who received the federal assistance payments and all 19,000 hog farmers who signed the petition.

o In addition to mail-out ballots, farmers should have at least two weeks to cast their in-person vote at their local Farm Service Agency office.

o The ballot should read, "Do you vote to end the Mandatory Pork Checkoff Assessment?"

Roughly 35 percent of commenters sent in comments pre-prepared by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), and 5 percent of commenters took other positions. AMS could announce the final rules by the end of this month. Most hog farmers were very unhappy with the proposed rules.

"The AMS and NPPC are pushing rules that don’t make sense for independent producers," said Nolan Jungclaus, a Minnesota hog farmer and member of the Land Stewardship Project. "They are trying to make it as difficult as possible for us in order to limit our voice and discourage our vote."

Comments from the NPPC and their state affiliates (which receive nearly all the mandatory checkoff dollars) support a number of the AMS’ proposed referendum rules, including: not mailing ballots to all eligible hog farmer voters, allowing only two days for in-person voting, and limiting voter eligibility to hog farmers who have sold hogs during the 12 months prior to the vote. The 12-month eligibility requirement would exclude thousands of hog farmers that were temporarily pushed out of business by the historically low prices in 1998 and 1999 from voting.

The NPPC and their state affiliates are also recommending that hog farmers who want to vote be required to present financial documents (i.e. sales receipts) in order to vote. This type of documentation has never been required in any checkoff referendum.

"While NPPC has used our checkoff dollars to promote vertical integration and corporate concentration, hog farmers’ share of the pork dollar has plummeted from 46 cents to less than 30 cents, and more than 250,000 hog farmers have gone out of business," said Rhonda Perry, Missouri hog farmer and member of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. "For years, the independent producer has been taxed without fair representation. This is our chance to represent ourselves—we should all get a vote."

The checkoff is a mandatory tax paid by hog farmers on every hog sold in the U.S. It generates $45-$55 million annually for the NPPC. Since it was established in 1986, the pork tax has generated over $500 million. The money collected from this program was originally intended to benefit hog farmers through promotional efforts, yet it has been used to push the family farmer out of business and promote factory farms and the corporate takeover of the hog industry.

"The checkoff is nothing more than a mandatory tax that has failed to raise the market price of hogs," said Larry Ginter, Iowa hog farmer and member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. "It has done nothing to help us. It’s time to vote the checkoff down."

For more information, contact the Land Stewardship Project’s Policy Program office at 612-722-6377.