This was in today's Register, and is by Chris Petersen, President of Iowa
Farmer's Union and a Sierran.


Ag checkoffs should be voluntary
Attorney General Tom Miller has it all wrong on mandatory commodity
checkoffs. Commodity checkoff programs need to be held accountable to, and
by, independent family farmers. They have not.

Checkoff funds should be used toward research and marketing that benefits
independent family farm producers. They have not.

Industry, agri-business, and non-farm entities involved in production
agriculture have benefited handsomely from the current mandatory checkoff.
This has happened at the expense of those whom the checkoffs were initially
intended to help: independent family farmers. In light of these facts,
should family farmers be forced to pay?

A few years ago, then-Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman conducted a pork
checkoff referendum. Family farmers won; checkoffs lost. However, the
democratic system was denied when Ann Veneman came in as secretary of
agriculture with the Bush administration; she refused to honor the vote
results and discontinue the pork checkoff program.

Now the mandatory beef checkoff program will come under the consideration of
the U.S. Supreme Court, and what the court decides will affect all commodity
checkoff programs.

Iowa Farmers Union policy clearly states, "All checkoffs need to be
voluntary at the point of sale." This would keep the system working for the
farmers it is supposed to represent.
-Chris C. Petersen,
president, Iowa Farmers Union, Clear Lake.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040907/OPINION04/4
09070302/1038


Tarah Heinzen
Sierra Club Conservation Organizer
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
(515) 251-3995
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