IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 7
The Campaign for Family Farms organized a drive to obtain signatures on
petitions for a referendum on the pork checkoff. For every $100 of hog
revenue a producer makes, a mandatory "contribution" of $0.45 is
deducted for the National Pork Board. The stated purpose of the checkoff
fund is to support research, promotion, and consumer education efforts
that benefit hog farmers (pork producers). Most of the checkoff funds go
to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), which conducts its own
research grant program. Smaller, non-industrialized farmers feel that the
research funded by the Board/Council is geared disproportionately toward
providing research benefits to hog factory operators. Making the checkoff
voluntary, which is the aim of hog farmers signing the petition, would
enable smaller producers to use the additional dollars as they see fit and
put a stop to smaller producers' dollars being used to benefit primarily a
few large entities.
The signatures of nineteen thousand independent hog farmers were sent to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, for
verification on May 24, 1999. Subsequently, the National Pork Producers
Council made a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain all 19,000
signatures. The Campaign for Family Farms, with legal help from
Farmers Legal Action Group, filed suit to block the release of the names
to protect the privacy of signers and out of concern that individuals might
be subject to retaliation by meatpackers, which also benefit from checkoff
dollars. In September, 1999, a U.S. District Court granted a preliminary
injunction preventing the Agriculture Department from releasing the
names and addresses of hog farmers who signed the check off petition. On
appeal, the injunction was made final. In February 2000, citing
bureaucratic mismanagement in the handling of the checkoff petitions and
noting the importance of democratic process, U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Dan Glickman announced he would let the checkoff
referendum go forward. The National Pork Producers Council, primary
beneficiary of the pork checkoff dollars, planned to continue efforts to
stop the referendum.
Fighting for Antitrust Regulation
Recent mergers in the meatpacking and hog producing sectors of the
livestock industry have given cause for concern about purchasing
agreements and trade practices that discriminate against independent
producers. Farmers Legal Action Group provides legal analysis and
recommendations to citizen groups regarding how to achieve enforcement
of the Packers and Stockyards Act's unfair and deceptive trade practices
and anti-trust provisions. Western Organization of Resource Councils and
Dakota Rural Action work to get anti-trust laws enforced and to propose
rules that would stop monopsonistic practices by meatpackers in the beef
industry. They plan to extend their efforts to the hog industry. The Land
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