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Pork producers closely watch beef checkoff case Wednesday, May 26, 2004
DES MOINES (AP) -- Iowa pork producers are closely watching the U.S. Supreme Court after the court agreed to decide if the beef checkoff program is legal.
For 20 years, beef producers have had to pay fees that are used to promote the industry, but a lower court ruling said the program and others like it are unconstitutional.
Opponents of the checkoff say the fees infringe on their First Amendment right to free speech. They claim they are forced to pay the fee but have no say in how the money is spent.
The Supreme Court, which agreed on Monday to consider the beef case, also is considering similar arguments about the pork checkoff after a lower court ruling struck it down.
The Bush administration appealed the lower court ruling and the Supreme Court will settle that case after it decides the beef checkoff case.
Craig Christenson, president of the National Pork Board, said the board believes the pork checkoff is a worthwhile program that gives producers plenty of opportunity for input.
"It's a government-run program that has a tremendous amount of input from producers who can get on a committee, write a letter, express their opinion," Christenson said. "It's producer driven and I believe strongly in it."
Christenson, a pork producer who farms near Ogden, said he believes the Supreme Court's ruling will affect the pork checkoff one way or the other.
"Whichever way the beef checkoff goes, the pork checkoff will be affected by that," he said, adding that he doesn't know what the exact impact will be.
"I don't know what the beef ruling will bode for the pork industry," he said. "It seems that these cases had to go to the Supreme Court to be ruled on because they affect so many producers and two large industries."
Larry Ginter, a Rhodes farmer who has raised hogs for more than 30 years, opposes the checkoff. He said he confident the Supreme Court will uphold the lower court ruling.
"We're upbeat about this," Ginter said. "We're thinking it's going to work out for us."
In 2002, a federal judge in Michigan declared the pork checkoff unconstitutional and ordered a stop to checkoff collections starting in November of that year.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Enslen ruled against the National Pork Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1985, which led to the creation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-supervised checkoff.
Enslen's ruling came two years after then-Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman ordered a referendum in which hog producers voted to eliminate the program.
The referendum was appealed by the Michigan Pork Producers and the National Pork Producers Council. In settling a lawsuit, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the checkoff program would continue.
Her decision led to a challenge of the settlement and the constitutionality of the program by the Campaign for Family Farms, a Missouri-based coalition of groups representing small hog farmers.
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On the Net: National Pork Producers Council: http://www.nppc.org/
U.S. Department of Agriculture: http://www.usda.gov/
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