|
SW Minnesota | I think before anyone takes the short-sighted approach of asking to get a refund of their checkoff dollars (or loudly complain that they can't), they need to be on their local county corn and/or soybean association board. I know these don't exist in some areas, but I'll bet that they are around in most counties, whether you know about them or not.
I was asked about 10-12 years ago to be a member of our local corn & soybean association board. I decided to do it and after a few years ended up as president of it for a year. It was a very positive, eye-opening experience for me. There is A LOT going on behind the scenes with these organizations that most farmers either don't know about or choose to ignore.
First of all, checkoff dollars CANNOT be used for political lobbying or contributing to any candidate running for, or in office. These dollars come from either you and I deciding to VOLUNTARILY donate to a commodity PAC (political action committee) or from your VOLUNTARY membership in your state's corn, soybean or whatever crop or livestock association. If you don't like being involved in politics this way, you don't have to contribute or be a member. No one is holding a gun to your head and making you do this.
The checkoff dollars are used for research and promotion of each respective commodity. This includes funding research on new seeds resistant to whatever pest or disease is a current problem, as well as funding promotional activities which are intended to help "tell our story" in a positive light in schools and in the general public. Sometimes this includes this type of promotion being seen by us in some of our publications, but if you don't see it there, where will you see it? As someone else said earlier, we complain about them "preaching to the choir", but how many of us read any publications that aren't farm-related? And if you are a member of any of these associations, they all have information that they regularly send out to their membership where they inform you of all of these activities they are involved in, including links to non-farm websites & publications that they are putting out story into (and using these checkoff funds to pay for).
Many of us do not even know how much our land-grant universities have cut out funding for ag-related research in the past 10-20 years. If we don't pick up some of this slack ourselves (for research that we ALL need and use in our operations), where are the funds going to come from? Either this research won't get done, or in many cases it ends up getting funded by large ag corporations like DuPont, Monsanto, etc. And how unbiased is that research going to be when the university's meal ticket comes from these sources?
You can do what you want, but I think asking for a refund of your checkoff dollars is very short-sighted. I know times are tough right now, and some may look at those dollars as a way to get some spare cash right now, but what are the long-term consequences? I would say most (if not all) of us are reaping the benefits of research and promotion done in the past 20-30 years that our predecessors paid for. How much lower would our prices be if we didn't have the markets and many uses of our crops that we have today? Much of this is due to the investment our fathers made back in the 80's and 90's. Things were even less rosy then, but they realized that in order for us to have better times tomorrow, we need to constantly work at it today. We don't want to work for free, and we shouldn't expect others to either. Research and testing is a slow, expensive and time-consuming process. Many can sit and complain about how these funds are used (some think they are wasted) but I would bet that most people involved with administering checkoff dollars are people like you and I that want to make sure these funds are used in the best way possible.
If you can't or won't be involved in these activities personally, this is a way for you to be involved. If you don't think the funds are being used wisely, either get involved personally in these organizations or keep your mouth shut. It's easy to sit on the sidelines in an easy chair yelling "FOUL!" when you have no idea what is going on outside of the spotlight.
You can either be a part of the problem or part of the solution... | |
|
Cash Out of Check Off Tax?
