New NCBA Chief Executive Officer Colin Woodall last week responded to recent allegations made by the activist-funded Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) for discrediting the beef checkoff and the work being done by contracting organizations, like NCBA. Stating, “I’ve had enough and it’s time to set the record straight,” Woodall addressed several misleading and untrue statements made by OCM regarding the beef checkoff funding process as it pertains to authorization requests and how dollars are being used by NCBA.
“Contrary to the headline of the OCM release, NCBA did not ‘grant’ itself any funding. NCBA submitted authorization requests into the same competitive process to which each of the eight contractors were subjected,” he said.
Woodall further explained that, contrary to claims made by OCM, NCBA only uses checkoff dollars for work related to promotion, research and consumer and industry information.
“NCBA is a membership organization. Yes, we lobby every day on the issues our members identify as priorities, to ensure their voices are heard in Washington, D.C., and we’re damn good at it. No, we won’t apologize for doing the job our members pay us to do,” he said. “But on this point, let me be crystal clear: We do not use checkoff funds for any policy or lobbying work.”
He further stated that the division in the industry created by OCM and its, allies the Humane Society of the United States and R-CALF, will drive beef producers to a breaking point.
“If we stand silently and allow the attacks and smears to continue, the only winners will be the activists who pit cattlemen and cattlewomen against each other in the first place,” said Woodall.
Woodall’s full statement can be read here.