A proposal to use checkoff funds to help fill a small gap of the big hole in the Nebraska state budget continues to draw the attention. Media continue to report on the subject, and many farmers, it seems, have been contacting their state legislators and representatives to voice their opinion on the matter.
An article in today's Omaha World Herald, Heineman told to keep hands off, covers a lot of ground. It discusses the whole checkoff/budget debate from several points of view, but it also wanders into an area that seems to question some of the activities of the checkoff boards, including reaching out to folks who live in cities.
Such outreach efforts, though, are becoming more important. Critical even. People don't always know where their food comes from and why farmers do what they do. If farmers don't work hard to explain this, groups who are anti-agriculture or who have assorted agendas will run amok.
The article (and video) from NTV, Governor's Budget Plan Under Fire From Farmers, features Tim Scheer, a farmer from St. Paul. Scheer, who is a member of the Nebraska Corn Board, which oversees the state's corn checkoff, said farmers object to moving their checkoff dollars. Scheer said it's a self-imposed fee designed to benefit the state's top industry.
"I think it's an ugly precedent to set," he said.
There's also a good article by Don McCabe in the Nebraska Farmer, Farmers Upset Over Plan to Take Checkoff Funds. In the article, Nebraska Corn Board chairman Alan Tiemann, a farmer from Seward, said the budget plan would cause the board to start next year with deficit and the year following with an even larger deficit.
Finally, KRVN interviewed the governor on Friday about the budget and other matters. You can listen to that here. KRVN also aired a special report on the budget issue form state Senator Tom Carlson here.
Those who are interested in the corn checkoff are set to appear before the appropriations committee in Lincoln tomorrow. I'll report some of what they had to say in this blog.
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