What should an independent cattle producer believe about the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA)?
I recently received a letter from the NCBA requesting my membership in the organization. In this letter, the NCBA claims to be lobbying in Washington, D.C., on issues important to cattle producers. This is true - the NCBA is very actively lobbying on issues important to cattlemen. They specifically claim to have improved language to fix country-of-origin labeling (COOL) in the upcoming farm bill.
You would think by the inference of the letter the NCBA was front and center in fighting for COOL. Well, it is true the NCBA was front and center in the debate and fight over COOL, the only problem is the NCBA was trying desperately to kill COOL. The NCBA was working with the American Meat Institute (AMI) to kill the COOL law or gut the effectiveness of the law. The AMI aggressively lobbies for the packers' best interests.
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In another segment of the NCBA's letter, it mentions success with the farm bill debate in the House of Representatives in regards to competition issues.
The NCBA was successful in blocking the inclusion of any language in the farm bill improving competition in cattle markets. They go on to say, “The inclusion of competition language is still possible in the Senate, and the NCBA will continue to lobby against this.”
Does this sound like an organization that is lobbying for cattlemen or meatpackers?
As you see, I am not the only one that thinks the NCBA is nothing but an arm of the big meat packers. The NCBA needs to understand, just because something is good for the meat packers, doesn't mean it is good for cattlemen. For anybody out there interested in this kind of thing, check out the United States Cattlemen's Association (USCA). They are interested in working for cattle producers in Washington. In fact they are run completely by working cattlemen and want to grow the organization that way and maintain it only as working Cattlemen.
Moo may represent an idea, but only the cow knows. Mason Cooley
