Ohio Beef Council defends its actions and said OCM’s allegations are untrue.

Jacqui Fatka, Policy editor

June 4, 2018

4 Min Read
Groups challenge Ohio Beef Council checkoff funds
Iowa State University

The Ohio Beef Council continues to come under scrutiny from groups who say the checkoff-funded Ohio Beef Council has too close of ties to the membership-based trade and lobbying entity the Ohio Cattlemen’s Assn. However, OBC defended its actions.

The Organization for Competitive Markets, Ohio Farmers Union, and Buckeye Quality Beef Assn. called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Cattlemen’s Beef Board – the federal agencies that qualified the Ohio Beef Council – to disqualify it as the “Qualified State Beef Council” responsible for beef checkoff funds in Ohio.

In a letter sent to officials, the groups outline what they viewed as OBC’s operation in conjunction with or on behalf of OBA. “The organizations share a headquarters, email domain, and phone numbers, and the staff members of both organizations are exactly the same and carry the same job titles,” the groups said in a statement.

The Ohio Cattlemen’s Association’s Political Action Committee brochure on its website provides the Ohio Beef Council is the point of contact for providing information about the PAC and collecting its political donations. In April 2018, the Ohio Beef Council used its email domain, ohiobeef.org, to circulate an invitation to a campaign fundraiser for a gubernatorial candidate on behalf of the Ohio Cattlemen’s Assn.

Related:Montana beef promotion hit by checkoff injunction

The Ohio Beef Council annual report numbers, as shown in its own published report, simply do not add up. For example, the annual reports show a 2015 ending balance of $667,299 but the 2016 beginning balance is only $644,980, with $22,319 unaccounted for.

Elizabeth Harsh, executive director of OBC, said, “This latest OCM letter is just a rehash of the same unfounded allegations and attacks.”

Similar minded groups have been able to force Montana’s Beef Council from being able to collect state funds through court actions. The national checkoff requires $1-per-head be sent to the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. Only by signing a form and tracking sales does the typically-state funneled 50 cents return to the Montana Beef Council board to invest.

Typically in a year $800,000 would stay in Montana, but so far they’ve only received $150,000 in checkoff dollars. In 2017, only 2,800 producers sought to retain their funds to come back to the Montana Beef Council.

OBC defended the “comprehensive and robust firewalls in place to assure that checkoff funds are used lawfully and as intended.”

Ohio is also concerned that if actions are taken in line with these groups, Ohio farmers would be the ones who wouldn’t be able to have a local say in how beef promotion and research dollars are spent.

OBC said in a statement, “We believe Ohio beef checkoff funds should continue be collected in Ohio, and that Ohio beef producers should have a say in where their checkoff dollars go. Suggestions by OCM that these collections should go directly to the national or state government are an insult to the producers who work diligently to put beef producer dollars where they will do the most good. Passing them through government agencies serves no practical purpose and will only increase costs to taxpayers and reduce the funding available for programs that benefit beef and beef producers.”

“The 15 members of the Ohio Beef Council Operating Committee, that are appointed by the Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, take their responsibility for investing producer funds to enhance beef demand very seriously. We are committed to maintaining the integrity of the firewall that exists between our organization and the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association,” said Jamie Graham, OBC chairman and cattleman from Patriot, Ohio.    

Harsh added the allegations are part of a larger agenda for OCM. In a statement, OBC said, “OCM and its friends at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) continue to use the producer’s Beef Checkoff Program as a cudgel against the very producers who benefit from it. Former HSUS employee Joe Maxwell of OCM may not recognize actions of his organization as counterproductive to the interests of Ohio cattle producers, but they are.”

Meanwhile, OCM continues to advocate for checkoff program reform at the federal level in the form of two bipartisan pieces of legislation under consideration for the 2018 farm bill: The Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act, S. 741 & H.R. 1753, would prohibit lobbying, rein in conflicts of interest, and stop anti-competitive activities that harm other commodities and consumers. It would also force checkoff programs to publish their budgets and undergo periodic audits. The groups said the Voluntary Checkoff Act, S. 740 & H.R. 1752, would ensure no farmer or rancher is forced to pay fees into programs that do not promote their market segment. The House did not vote on the amendment to reform the checkoff during its floor debate in May.

 

About the Author(s)

Jacqui Fatka

Policy editor, Farm Futures

Jacqui Fatka grew up on a diversified livestock and grain farm in southwest Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications, with a minor in agriculture education, in 2003. She’s been writing for agricultural audiences ever since. In college, she interned with Wallaces Farmer and cultivated her love of ag policy during an internship with the Iowa Pork Producers Association, working in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Capitol Hill press office. In 2003, she started full time for Farm Progress companies’ state and regional publications as the e-content editor, and became Farm Futures’ policy editor in 2004. A few years later, she began covering grain and biofuels markets for the weekly newspaper Feedstuffs. As the current policy editor for Farm Progress, she covers the ongoing developments in ag policy, trade, regulations and court rulings. Fatka also serves as the interim executive secretary-treasurer for the North American Agricultural Journalists. She lives on a small acreage in central Ohio with her husband and three children.

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