Hog farmers voted down the pork tax by a clear margin of 53 percent last September in a referendum in which more than 30,000 hog farmers participated. The checkoff requires all farmers to pay an assessment on each hog they sell. Working farmers voted more heavily against the assessment because they say it benefits only big farmers and meatpacking companies.

In an open letter to President George Bush presented at the news conference, farmers said the pork checkoff "has not helped independent hog farmers stay in business, hog prices to farmers have steadily fallen since the pork tax was started in 1986, and it uses hog farmers' money against them to pay for research and media to promote factory farms and agribusiness corporations."

Several farm and rural groups in the Midwest formed the Campaign for Family Farms in 1998 to fight to end the pork tax. In a national petition drive the following year, more than 19,000 hog farmers signed a petition calling for a national vote.

"We donated our time and paid for our gas to drive around to talk to our farm neighbors and get their signatures," explained Linda Noble, a farmer from Kenyon, Minnesota. "We followed all the steps, all the rules, we got the vote, we voted, and we won. Now the tax should be deleted."

Despite the results showing a clear majority to end the checkoff, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) struck a deal with the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), run primarily by wealthy farmers, to throw out the vote and keep the pork tax in place.  
 
Livelihood of working farmers
The NPPC "spent $4 million to woo the big producers," said Greg Carr, a farmer from Hennepin, Illinois, "and they still lost." Carr, who had to give up raising hogs in September, also produces corn, beans, and feeder cattle.

A member of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, Carr said this was his first protest. "It was a question of our future, our livelihood, and the future of our children," he told the Militant.

"We voted and that's all there is," declared Iowa hog farmer Larry Ginter. "We're not going to stand by and let them get away with stealing our votes." Ginter blasted politicians from the Democratic and Republican parties for not standing with the farmers and pointed to the importance of "taking our message to the cities."

"Other farmers are also watching what's happening here," said Demmer, who is also with the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, which helped organize the referendum. Dairy farmers have been battling to end their mandatory assessments for milk promotions, as have beef producers. Mark Smith, campaign director of Farm Aid, pledged his organization's support to this effort and to the struggle against the growing concentration of corporate farms.

"We'll go as far as it takes," said Missouri hog farmer Rhonda Perry. "For years the NPPC has been using our money to represent the interests of corporate factory farms and meatpacking companies," she told the media. Perry, with the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, also outlined the ongoing legal steps and pointed out that a federal district judge in Michigan still must rule on the termination of the pork check-off program.

Before the USDA cut a deal, the Campaign for Family Farms had been a codefendant along with the USDA against the NPPC's challenge to the termination of the pork checkoff. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, who refused to meet with the Campaign for Family Farmers, claimed she made the deal because she thought the court case would lose. "But this does not end the lawsuit," Perry said. "She had no authority to cut a deal. Her only authority is to terminate the pork checkoff. This was a legally binding vote."

Also at the news conference were two farmers from France and Spain, who were visiting farm groups in the United States to forge links in their common struggles.  
 
Farmers protest NPPC, government
Earlier that day the farmers protested at the offices of Al Tank, head of the National Pork Producers Council. They also rallied the day before outside Veneman's home in Alexandria, Virginia, chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, the pork tax has got to go," and "Food Stamps for children, not corporations." They were joined by more than 100 other representatives of neighborhood and community groups in town for an annual conference of National People's Action.

"Hog farmers voted down a tax that forces family farmers out of business and keeps corporate farms going," Roger Allison, a hog farmer from Howard County Missouri, told the crowd. "Our votes should count."

"We're going to fight as long as it takes and do as many demonstrations as it takes to get our story out about this injustice," Noble told the Militant. "They're taking away our democratic rights. Once they do this to the hog farmers, who will be next?"

Noble also described the conditions of the migrant workers employed by the large corporate farms near her farm: "They put people in servitude, pay them just enough to survive, force them to live in trailer parks with 7–10 families in a trailer, and give them no health benefits. It's nothing short of slavery." She displayed a picture of one of these factory farms, and also described the pollution and the increased illnesses in the surrounding community.

The farmers visited members of Congress during their visit here.

Janice Lynn is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.  
 
 
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