Many people support the concept of letting farmers voluntarily invest their own dollars in research and promotion. A smaller, but more vocal subset of people, is passionately opposed to checkoffs.
Critics of commodity checkoffs are making a fresh run at imposing new restrictions on the programs, including a prohibition on contracting research and promotion work out to organizations that lobby Congress or federal agencies.
Margaret Oxandaburu (pronounced ox and a burro) Lewis was raised on a ranch on the eastern end of Las Animas County in Colorado. Her parents, Raymond Oxandaburu and Mary Gaillour, were raised in the Pyranees.
Colorado Independent CattleGrowers Association
Along with a terrible cattle market, a Colorado governor whom thinks nothing of thumbing his nose at the cattle industry, producers are now facing a potential ballot initiative that could be disastrous to cattle producers
For many cattle producers there are other levels of frustration. The now 35-year-old Beef Checkoff Act and Order that generates around $80 million annually is prohibited from making expenditures that might be used to influence government action or policy. And, certainly, a governor’s proclamation urging Colorado citizens to forego eating meat or a ballot initiative attacking cattle production could be construed as such an action or policy. Additionally the Checkoff Act and Order is prohibited from pointing out the problems and short comings of “fake meat” products. Together with its prohibition against the promotion of American beef raised by hard working American family ranchers, the Beef Checkoff has become a