06/02/05 Beef check-off stays, Finale

In the months and years of anticipation of how the case challenging the constitutionality of the federally mandated Beef Check-off program might play out before the U.S. Supreme Court, one had to wonder what kind of affect the uncertainty had on state beef councils. After all, their existence, like the Cattleman's Beef Board, would have been in legal jeopardy if the High Court had found the Beef Check-off and the funding it raises for beef industry promotion and research was not protected under the government speech clause of the First Amendment. The answer is what such councils had been doing when the Supreme Court upheld the Beef Check-off. According to Laura Wilder of the Idaho Beef Council, what her agency was doing, was business as usual, preparing beef marketing campaigns for the summer months. WILDER: We have a lot of things coming up with summer grilling promotions. We have outdoor billboards up right now for advertising. We're continuing our classroom programs and developing our summer ag in the classroom program. And we have also reached a lot of health professionals this spring with strong messages at our annual meetings. Now again this would have been a different matter if the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled differently on the Beef Check-off. And while there would have been legal issues with the state beef councils, Tom Beechinor of the Washington State Beef Commissions says the impacts would have also been financial. BEECHINOR: A third of the income to the Washington State Beef Commission comes from the federal program. And by validating its existence, it allows us to move forward in our efforts to help improve beef quality and beef safety for not only the producers of the State of Washington but also the consumers of the State of Washington. And Terry Stokes of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association adds state beef councils are not only a vital conduit for Beef Check-off funded promotions, but for messages of food safety as well. STOKES: We create promotions nationally and then the states help us to extend those programs on the local level. As we say with B.S.E. for example in the three days following, we probably did over 100 interviews nationally, but each state also did about 100 interviews and they were able to carry the same message to the local level, and the consumers heard that message throughout the United States. Stokes says what that building of a solid advertising campaign and trust with consumers has been parlayed into is nearly $200 dollars per head of cattle in the pockets of cattlemen. And now that there is certainty for the Beef Check-off, Stokes says the time is right for the beef industry to begin working in a united way on all levels, national and statewide.