Over the past 20 years since its inception as part of the 1985 farm bill, monies generated from the Beef Checkoff have been invested to achieve a variety of accomplishments that have helped to ensure that beef is portrayed as an essential component in the American diet.
I take great personal pride hearing the actor Sam Elliott extol the virtues of beef on radio and TV as well as seeing advertisements on beefprovided by the Beef Checkoffin my monthly subscription to Men’s Health magazine. However, there are several other areas that are not as readily apparent to the casual observer where Checkoff monies are invested to increase demand for beef and beef products. Some of these areas include work with the retail segment, foodservice, research, public relations, education, food safety, producer communications and last but not least, nutrition. In short, work in these areas benefit consumers by providing them with product information to help make informed choices and research to create new and improved products that meet consumer quality, safety and nutritional expectations.
Bottomline, I strongly believe the $1 investment per head is a very small investment for ensuring that our livelihood is sustained through these coordinated efforts that help to maintain a strong positive perception of our product with the consuming public.
Nevil, in his comments, has already addressed the confusion and mistrust which exists in the industry regarding the checkoff as a whole and I would concur that efforts on increasing awareness of the value of the checkoff to ALL producers of beef should continue. Towards that end, ALL producers of beef (whether you are selling one head at a time as butcher beef or otherwise) should appreciate that a positive public perception is tantamount towards the continuing sustainability of our industry.