Farmers Union Wants Hearing on Checkoffs

July 22, 2002

National Farmers Union has asked Senate and House agriculture committee leaders to conduct hearings on agricultural checkoffs. NFU wants "a comprehensive examination of the function, operation and oversight of the national commodity research and promotion checkoff programs."

NFU President Dave Frederickson said, "NFU has long been an advocate for checkoff program reforms. Significant diversity exists among checkoff programs, but the basic principles of accountability, effectiveness and producer control must be common among all programs. Currently, there is not an adequate process for producers to voice their concerns."

He noted that checkoff programs have come under "increased scrutiny" by courts over the last year. Early in 2001, USDA and the National Pork Producers Council reached a settlement agreement to restructure the pork checkoff program. This followed a long dispute regarding USDA's decision to terminate the pork checkoff program after it was defeated in a producer referendum.

A few months later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the mushroom checkoff program was unconstitutional because it violated First Amendment rights. Most recently a U.S. district court judge in South Dakota ruled that the beef checkoff program was unconstitutional.

Constitutionality of checkoff programs is among a myriad of concerns that stretch across all commodity checkoff programs, Frederickson said. "A top concern among producers is that checkoff programs have not been successful in boosting more income for producers. Another general concern is that checkoff programs do not represent independent producers' interests."

So NFU is encouraging the Senate and House Agriculture committees to examine checkoff programs and consider comprehensive checkoff reforms, including complete separation of commodity boards and industry membership association activities; competitive bidding procedures for promotion and research contracts; mandatory referenda; voluntary, rather mandatory programs; and mandatory performance reviews.