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By Kenneth Dierschke
President, Texas Farm Bureau
When the American Farm Bureau Federation filed a "friend of the court" brief in the beef check-off case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, many agricultural producers probably didn't take much notice. They should—all of us should.
In fact, Texas Farm Bureau has been a key player in this case for some time. TFB had filed an earlier brief, worked with AFBF on developing and filing their brief, and encouraged other commodity groups to participate in the case.
Yes, this case, seeking to overturn a lower court ruling, is that important. For beef producers, the crisis is today. For other farmers and ranchers, the case is like the fire in the house next door, and it threatens to take out the entire neighborhood.
The legal points of the case aside, it is astonishing to me that beef producers would actually sue to stop the check-off, which funds research and promotion for beef. There are no successful products or services that ignore either. Failing to fund research or promotion is eating the seed corn. All of agriculture would suffer if we don't attend to product research or if we fail to advertise and otherwise promote our products.
A Supreme Court decision for the plaintiffs would threaten every check-off program. We would be left with establishing some kind of state program or go back to the under-funded and inconsistent voluntary programs of the past. It would be a giant step backward. We would do that, if we had to, but it would be a crippling blow for the successful marketing of agricultural products.
I do not raise beef cattle, but I grow cotton. Cotton producers have been the beneficiary of a very successful check-off program. If you read or heard "Cotton—the fabric of our lives," then you've seen some of the results.
In the 1960s, cotton was in deep trouble, under marketing assault from a new kind of cloth made from synthetic fibers. It's hard to imagine these days, when clothing manufacturers praise natural fibers, but synthetics threatened to drive cotton from the marketplace with the much cheaper and wrinkle-free synthetics. The reason cotton survived was that cotton producers funded their own research and promotion program. Cotton Incorporated was born. Research found new ways to use cotton and we learned how to make it wrinkle-free too. Of course, there are still downward pressures in the cotton marketplace. No amount of research or advertising can eliminate that. The same is true for beef. This activity can, however, enlarge the market for cotton, and it has. Where would cotton farmers be without the check-off? Many of us would be out of the cotton business. There's no doubt about that.
The beef check-off is a similar story. Two decades ago the beef industry was reeling. New health claims against beef were reducing market share. Competing meats were claiming big chunks of the consumers' meat buying dollar.
Again, check-off funded research found new products, responding to consumer demand. Check- off funded advertising told the world about it. Remember, "Beef, it's what's for dinner."?
Farm Bureau has to be wherever decisions are made that affect the lives of our members, Texas' farm and ranch families. Often those decisions are made in our Texas Legislature or the halls of Congress. More and more these days, we find ourselves in the courthouse. This is such a time, and the stakes are high.
