Documents Reveal Lack of Oversight and Misuse of Funds in USDA Checkoff Programs
Internal documents reveal that the USDA failed to meet legal oversight requirements for checkoff programs and enabled the misuse of funds.
Farmers and ranchers are gathering to protest government policies that favor the largest food industry giants as the national “Enough Is Enough Tour” surges across the U.S. this spring.
With Congress preparing to debate the farm bill during prime planting and calving season, restricting farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to bring their voices to Washington D.C., farm groups will gather at events in six states to call on Congress to deliver a bill that levels the playing field.
The Enough Is Enough Tour is a unified platform for farmers and ranchers to voice the disastrous impacts of the current system on their lives and livelihoods, and to demand reforms that bring prosperity and fair competition to agriculture. The tour is endorsed by 16 farm organizations and sponsored and organized by Farm Action and Farm Action Fund.
A major focus of the tour is to highlight corruption in government checkoff programs, which collect one billion dollars from producers annually. Checkoff programs have funded famous promotional campaigns like “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner” and “Pork. The Other White Meat.”
Started as a way for farmers to voluntarily pool their money to boost the overall sales of their products, checkoff programs have evolved into a behind-the-scenes government machine extracting money from farmers against their will — and then funneling it to corporate lobbyists.
America’s farmers and ranchers are being forced to pay into checkoff programs, only to see their dollars used against them by lobbying organizations representing the world’s largest meatpackers and grain traders. Learn more about checkoff program corruption.
Tour events will take place across the country, hosted by grassroots and national organizations representing the interests of our nation’s food producers:
Everyone can support the tour’s mission by purchasing a USA-made Enough Is Enough t-shirt! Proceeds will go toward our efforts to keep farmers feeding America.
Scroll down to see the tour in action!
Internal documents reveal that the USDA failed to meet legal oversight requirements for checkoff programs and enabled the misuse of funds.
Farm groups announced the launch of the Enough Is Enough Tour to call for an end to government policies that favor the largest food industry giants.
His misleading return-on-investment studies prop up the legitimacy of the beef checkoff program and protect NCBA’s largest source of funding.