1999 News Archive
BEEF PROMOTION OPERATING COMMITTEE FOCUSES ON DEMAND
DENVER, CO (December 14, 1999) - The Beef Promotion Operating Committee continued to focus on building demand for beef by funding several checkoff programs at its Dec. 10 meeting in Albuquerque, N.M.
The Operating Committee approved $50,000 for additional beef promotion activities in Mexico that will be conducted by the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Mexico is the one of the fastest growing markets for U.S. beef. The committee also allocated $125,000 for in-store beef demonstrations in retail supermarkets that will be conducted by the American National CattleWomen (ANCW).
The committee approved a $120,000 request from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) for a crisis management reserve to defend the industry from attacks from activists. It also approved $128,400 for the Beef Ambassador program conducted by the ANCW. The program involves using youth spokespersons to deliver positive messages about beef to youth and consumer audiences.
The Committee turned down a request for $310,000 from NCBA to establish a national animal identification database. It did, however, approve $30,000 for NCBA to work with private groups and USDA to develop a plan to coordinate a national program and report back to the Committee at its March meeting.
In other action the Committee decided to recommend an amendment of $4.75 million to the 2000 Beef Board budget. These funds result from three sources: 1) the amount by which fiscal year revenue exceeded projections; 2) savings in administrative costs; and 3) projects that were completed below budget.
The proposed amendment includes $3.2 million for Promotion, $400,000 for Research, $500,000 for Foreign Marketing, $125,000 for Industry Information, $150,000 for Producer Communications and $375,000 for USDA oversight. The USDA oversight budget is the projected cost for USDA to verify the referendum petitions submitted by the Livestock Marketing Association.
The Committee also heard an update from the Joint Evaluation Committee on 1999 checkoff funded projects.