How American Cattlemen are Forced to Participate in Fraud
The Beef Checkoff is a program created for the research and promotion of beef. At least $1 per head of cattle is taken out of the sale of every head of beef in the U.S. and sent to the checkoff.
By Jim Mundorf
Checkoff’s funding of fake meat lobbyist
I stumbled back into the corrupt dealings of the Beef Checkoff when I found out that the checkoff contractor, North American Meat Institute, NAMI, has been lobbying on behalf of the fake lab meat company Upside Foods, (formerly Memphis Meats.) According to Upside’s website they have been partnered since 2018, and are working with USDA and FDA on, “labeling regulations.” Since 2018 the Beef Checkoff has handed over more than $2 million dollars to NAMI.
This brought me back to looking into how the Checkoff operates and diving back into the excellent book that breaks down every aspect of the checkoff and its history, A Buck A Head. In that book it is explained how cattle producers are not the only ones that pay into the checkoff, but importers also pay in, based on the amount of beef imported. This immediately brought to mind the most baffling label in the food industry, Product of the U.S.A.
Product of the USA Fraud
The Product of the U.S.A. stamp being placed on imported beef, might be the most blatant fraud in all of U.S. retail. It makes absolutely no sense. There is no argument for it, which makes the reason it exists so blatantly obvious. It exists to defraud the U.S. consumer and to sell more imported beef. The obvious benefactor being the beef packer who makes higher margins on the imported beef, but why would Americans and specifically, American Cattlemen allow it to exist? To answer that you have to know who else benefits financially from increased imports.
Recently Giles Stockton, outgoing president of the Montana Cattlemens Association, wrote a post on Mike Callicrate’s No Bull Blog, (responding to another idiotic Nevil Speer article.) In it Giles reports:
In 2020 we imported 3,339,329,000 pounds of beef and veal. This is the equivalent to 5,640,758 head of cattle. The Checkoff collects $1.00 for each 592 pounds (apparently the amount of beef resulting from one Brazilian cow) so it also amounted to $5,640,758 in Checkoff tax revenue. That same year we also imported 2,114,667 head of live cattle from Canada and Mexico. Presumably this resulted in another $2,114,667 dollars in the Checkoff kitty. This would be a grand total of $7,755,425.
$7.75 million into the Checkoff fund from imports. This would actually be a good thing if the checkoff operated as it was intended, and was not run by a corrupt organization whose main priority is lobbying for beef packers and corporate cattle feeders, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, NCBA. To be fair the NCBA does, “say” that they are against the Product of the USA stamp. They have been saying this for years, but nothing has been done to change it. They have also fought hard against any suggestion of a Mandatory Country of Origin label on beef. Their suggested solution for the Product of the USA stamp is to change it to, “Processed in the USA.” In other words they would like to go from blatant fraud, to a more confusing, not so blatant fraud.
The Product of the USA fraud is the perfect example of why a beef industry lobbyist organization, should have nothing to do with the Beef Checkoff. Stamping beef product of the USA adds value to imported beef which increases profits for beef packers as well as increases the demand for imported beef. When more beef gets imported more money goes into the checkoff fund that NCBA controls. So for there are multiple benefits for NCBA, their clients the beef packers are adding profits and they are adding dollars to the fund they control. The fact that they are lobbyists means they have a close relationship with the government department that oversees both of these issues, the USDA.
The solution to the Product of the USA fraud is the Americans for Beef Labeling Act, which hopefully will soon be reintroduced and you should urge your Senator to sponsor.
Unfortunately for cattlemen the solution for getting their checkoff back is much less clear. It is a fight that has went on for years. I will be continuing to shed light on the corrupt way that the Beef Checkoff is operated, and hopefully working with others to find a way to get it back to what it was originally intended, for the research and promotion of REAL USA beef. Stay tuned.
Click here for A Buck a Head, The Beef Checkoff book.
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Jim Mundorf is the owner of Lonesome Lands and The Drover House. He also works on his family’s farm in Southwest Iowa.
