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Cattle Producers Pleased with Obama’s Picks for Agriculture, Interior Secretaries December 17, 2008 Billings, Mont. – R-CALF USA is pleased with President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack to be the nominee for Secretary of Agriculture and equally pleased with the appointment of Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., as the nominee to head the U.S. Department of Interior. “We look forward to working with Mr. Vilsack and continuing our relationship with Senator Salazar and expect that they both will represent the interests of independent U.S. cattle producers, as well as U.S. beef consumers, and that they will also recognize those interests are quite separate from the interests of the multinational packers, processors and retailers that are also within the beef supply chain,” said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who also chairs the group’s animal health committee. “We were especially pleased during today’s news conference to announce this pair of nominees that President-elect Obama stated in very clear terms, ‘…it means ensuring that the policies being shaped…are designed to serve not big agribusiness or Washington influence peddlers, but family farmers and the American people…,’” Thornsberry added. The U.S. cattle industry – which exists in all 50 states and is the largest segment of American agriculture – generates about $50 billion annually into the U.S. economy. It also is the cornerstone of Rural America, and the success of the U.S. cattle industry is important both to those rural communities and to the overall economic strength of the United States. “Over the last decade, R-CALF USA members have successfully elevated a number of key cattle industry issues to the highest levels of Congress, and more and more members of Congress from all parties are stepping up to support our positions,” Thornsberry said. “The changes we seek are straightforward and need to be made immediately to ensure that the U.S. cattle industry, which helped build our country’s economy in the first place, is positioned to help rebuild our national economy now.” R-CALF USA seeks to: 1) restore the competition lost to our industry caused by years of neglect of our antitrust laws and laws to prevent anti-competitive practices; 2) reverse the failure to update laws to reflect the changed structure of our industry; 3) reverse the failure to incorporate the unique sensitivities of our industry in trade negotiations; 4) halt the failure to differentiate domestic products from imported products; 5) stop the failure to adequately protect our industry from the introduction of foreign animal diseases; 6) reverse the general failure of the government to protect the rights and property of independent U.S. cattle producers. “R-CALF USA members look forward to working with both Vilsack and Salazar to swiftly implement the reforms needed to restore competition and opportunities for U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers in the United States, knowing that this will help to generate renewed economic activity on main streets all across America,” Thornsberry concluded. # # # R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 47 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners. R-CALF USA directors and committee chairs are extremely active unpaid volunteers. R-CALF USA has dozens of affiliate organizations and various main-street businesses are associate members. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516. |
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