Blanked Out

No, I’m not referring to all the legislative pork Gil’s been rubber stamping in Congress - I’m referring to the Other White Meat.

All hog producers have to pay a fee (or checkoff) every time they sell a hog - the vast majority of the funds go to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). In 2000 family farmers realized that the NPPC had moved away from supporting independent producers and was instead lobbying for the concerns of large factory farms. They decided to call a referendum to end the checkoff (scroll down to “Farmers vote to end pork checkoff”): (emphasis added)

The NPPC tried everything to stop this vote, including getting its allies in Congress to authorize an investigation into how the decision to hold the referendum was made. They were hoping the investigation would cast doubt on how the signatures were collected and whether Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman has the authority to call for a vote. U.S. Representative Gil Gutknecht was the only member of the Minnesota Congressional delegation to sign a letter requesting the investigation.

The result?

The investigation, which was conducted by the General Accounting Office (GAO), backfired on the NPPC and its allies. The GAO found that USDA grossly mishandled the petition process, that Glickman did indeed have the authority to call for a vote, and that checkoff funds (not taxpayer dollars) must be used to pay for the checkoff referendum. In other words, we were right and the NPPC was wrong.

Why did Gutknecht side against family farmers and indepdenent producers?

The PAC of the NPPC has contributed $3,500 to Gutknecht’s campaign in this election cycle alone and $7,500 since 1999. Gutknecht’s connections to other large agri-business lobbies are well documented.

Recently, controversy regarding agricultural checkoffs have resurfaced:

Do you know where your thousands — and on a national scale, hundreds of millions — of federally-mandated, non-refundable checkoff dollars go?

It’s a question Bobby King, policy director of Minnesota’s Land Stewardship Project, asked when he viewed advertisements that attacked “anti-livestock activist groups” in the state on Minneapolis’ powerhouse WCCO TV station earlier this year.

The 30-second ads, says King, had an unmistakably political message. “To build the case that there’s a crisis in livestock production here,” he explains from his Twin Cities office, “because Minnesota law gives counties and townships authority over livestock facility siting.”

Since Gutknecht’s agriculture section on his campaign web site does not provide any substance, only Gutknecht himself can explain why he sided with big business over the family farm and independent producers.

UPDATE: WCCO’s Pat Kessler just released a thorough “Reality Check” on the upcoming checkoff controversy:

“Have you ever wondered what challenges Minnesota farmers face from anti-livestock activist groups?” the TV ad asks. “These groups operate by spreading misinformation and fear. They talk about local control, but it’s really a self serving, selective and arbitrary denial of business growth they’re after.”
This is MISLEADING. The ad, produced by WCCO-TV’s sales department, mixes phony newspaper headlines, a fake petition and protest photo, with one real image of a dead rat on a county commissioner’s door.

It targets unspecified “anti-livestock” and “environmental activist groups” that the ad sponsor refused to identify for Reality Check.

The video is top notch and the article is full of additional references. The groups funding these ads want to frame the debate in their favor by stealing the cloak of rural populism. Don’t let them do it - get the facts for yourself.

Mark Kennedy tried and failed to tie the League of Conservation Voters and Amy Klobuchar to a false radical position.

What Kennedy forgot to mention is that he agrees with the LCV: manure is not toxic waste. The difference is that the LCV actually promotes positive solutions. From the LCV’s website: (emphasis added)

While most hog farms stink, and some contaminate waterways with waste-laden runoff, Legan’s operation is one of Indiana’s model farms, earning praise for consistently exceeding environmental requirements.

Legan’s business, Legan Livestock and Grain, experts say, exemplifies how modern pork producers can balance responsible farming and smart business.

The farm is a showcase of conservation. Manure is channeled into clay-lined lagoons filled with bacteria that help digest it. The waste is later sprayed onto crops as fertilizer at carefully determined rates.

Manure is not all that gets recycled on Legan’s farm. Even dead hogs are put to use, their remains shredded into nutrient-rich compost.

If Kennedy is going to claim he can “reach across the aisle” to get things done for Minnesotans, this would be a great place to start.

Mark, get the B.S. out of your stump speech and into the fields of Minnesota’s farmers.

UPDATE: MN Publius reminds us that Mark Kennedy salted the fields of many farmers by becoming the deciding vote in a $1.8 billion cut in farm aid. It will require a lot of manure to make that soil fertile again for Kennedy.