The National Farmers Union (NFU) wants the Beef Checkoff to end its use of checkoff funds for political purposes. The call came as NFU President Roger Johnson submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture urging major and immediate changes to the current beef checkoff program, including a clear separation between any organization receiving checkoff funds and those that lobby.

“NFU believes a very clear separation must exist between all taxpayer-supported, checkoff-funded organizations and related commodity organizations which advocate and lobby for policy positions. In the case of the beef checkoff, such a line of separation does not exist,” said Johnson.

Johnson suggests that there should be a new beef checkoff program that, like every other checkoff program, is devoted to research and market development, but divorced from all political, policy advocating organizations. “Every other commodity checkoff program has separated the policy organization from the non-political, promotional entity. Under this popular model, checkoff dollars are used exclusively for research, market promotion and product improvement.”

Johnson says NFU supports voluntary checkoff programs that safeguard the interests of family farmers.