The National Farmers Union board of directors will vote September 6 on its legislative committee’s recommendation that the organization withdraw from the working group trying to reach consensus on changes to the beef checkoff, an NFU spokesman said late Tuesday.

The NFU Legislative committee sent the following resolution it adopted to the NFU board of directors and to the working group, which is composed of a wide range of farm and beef groups:

“NFU has been working for the past three years to reform the beef checkoff system with other beef industry stakeholders. In accordance with NFU’s 2014 national convention special order of business on the beef checkoff, NFU is hereby withdrawing from this working group, as the process is unlikely to result in necessary reform. It is time for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to react to beef producers’ demand to reform this system.”

“The following reforms are necessary:

• The CBB [Cattlemen’s Beef Board] must have the authority to carry out checkoff projects on its own, similar to other checkoff oversight boards.
• The CBB must be allowed to enter into checkoff contracts with non-policy organizations and private companies, such as ad agencies and public relations firms, in order to prevent policy-driven organizations from using checkoff dollars to fund overhead for political activity.
• The beef checkoff must be completely refundable.
• A referendum on the continuation of the beef checkoff must occur every five years.

“It is our recommendation that USDA consider rewriting the beef check off program under the 1996 generic research and promotion act.”

The legislative committee’s recommendation was sent to the checkoff group Tuesday as a “courtesy,” the spokesman said.