Riding Herd “The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.” – JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
April 15, 2019 • www.aaalivestock.com
Volume 61 • No. 4
With Friends Like That BY LEE PITTS
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ou can tell a lot about a person by who their friends are. Like-minded people congregate together wether it be Democrats and Republicans, or Catholics and Methodists. The same can be said about organizations. Who they align themselves with says a lot about who they are. The raging war between the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and R-CALF has seen many skirmishes and battles over the years, none bigger than who the groups have chosen as friends.
NCBA’s Disinformation Campaign
NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
t’s no secret that NCBA and R-CALF abhor each other. They’ve been at each other’s throat ever since R-CALF was formed, primarily as a result of the NCBA’s heist of the checkoff. Their war was escalated to nuclear-like levels when Kendal Frazier, NCBA’s CEO, in 2017 dropped a bombshell on R-CALF titled “Unholy Alliances”. In his editorial Frazier accused R-CALF of aligning themselves with the Humane Society of the United States, certainly no friend of cattlemen. Kendall wrote, “Groups like Humane Society of the United States and Public Justice are attempting to change the way we do business and they’ve banded together with groups like R-CALF and other like-minded organizations to target state beef councils and their work to promote beef. We might disagree on policy matters within the industry, but it’s another thing entirely to target the volunteer-led state beef councils through unholy alliances with animal rights activists and others intent on driving beef pro-
Some cowboys have too much tumbleweed in their blood to settle down ducers out of business.” Frazier continued, “It’s unfortunate that R-CALF has chosen to become a puppet in the war being waged by animal rights activists and the vegetarians seeking to drive beef producers out of business. These shams must be exposed for what they really are. It’s time to stand together to stop the attacks, misinformation and propaganda.” We at the Digest couldn’t agree more. And one of the biggest shams perpetrated by the NCBA and the livestock publications that print their press releases without question is that R-CALF has somehow aligned themselves with, or taken money from, the Humane Society of the US. Frazier must have gotten R-CALF mistaken for a different organization, The Organization for Competitive Markets, which did ask the Humane Society for legal help. But R-CALF never did.
But that didn’t stop Greg Henderson writing for the Drover’s Journal from implying that R-CALF is involved with the Humane Society. In one editorial he associated R-CALF with the Humane Society at least four times thus proving how effective NCBA’s disinformation campaign has been.
A Higher Class of Critics Bill Bullard, R-CALF’s CEO is not one to let such lies multiply without defending his group’s honor. Says Bullard, “This implication, of course, is purposefully designed to discredit R-CALF by implying it is somehow associated with HSUS. That is false. R-CALF USA is not affiliated or aligned with HSUS in any way. The HSUS had no role whatsoever in the ongoing checkoff litigation. R-CALF is the sole organization involved with this litigation and it approves every word of every motion, brief, memo-
randum and pleading associated with this checkoff lawsuit.” Regarding the NCBA Bullard wrote, “We hope to soon attract a higher-class of critics – critics who will publicly debate us on the merits of our initiatives, not on the rumors from their propaganda machines. Meanwhile, if you paid dues to our critics’ groups, you may want to ask for your money back.” Then it was Bullard’s turn to lob this bombshell: “While R-CALF USA is not working with HSUS or any other animal rights group, there is a real irony here. The NCBA is partnered with the global animal rights group, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which is an organization that aggressively encourages high income countries, like the United States, to eat less beef. The NCBA and the WWF are partners in the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) and the beef checkoff logo is used to facilitate that partnership.” What Bullard is referring to, the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, was begun in 2010 to address the environmental, economic and social impacts of beef production. The World Wildlife Fund was a founding member of the GRSB, which formally launched in February 2012 calling itself the continued on page two
Anti-Loggers Offer Highest Bid in Bozeman Timber Sale BY MICHAEL WRIGHT BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
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group of logging opponents offered the highest bid in the auction of a timber sale southeast of Bozeman, meaning the group will likely get their wish of halting any logging activity there for at least the next 25 years. Save Our Gallatin Front offered a total bid of roughly $400,000 for a 25-year deferral of the 443-acre Limestone West Timber Sale, according to John Grassy, a spokesman for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The group’s bid topped RY Timber, the only other bidder in the sale. Grassy said the company offered the minimum bid, which totals about $376,000. The results are not yet official. Grassy said DNRC attorneys were still verifying that the group’s bid was correct and complete. He said agency officials would sign a final decision and formally award the bid on Wednesday. If the state finds no problems with the group’s bid, it will be the first time a group blocked an entire logging project by purchasing a timber conservation license, the rarely used legal option that set up the bidding war between nearby residents and the timber industry. Tim Tousignant, director of Save Our Gallatin Front, said the group’s leaders are sitting
tight until the results are final, but that they are talking about it among themselves. “We’re excited that we have the opportunity to protect this last slice of wildlife habitat that connects the Gallatin Valley to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” Tousignant said. Ed Regan, of RY Timber, declined to comment until seeing the final results. DNRC first proposed the Limestone West Timber Sale in 2016, arguing that the trees in the area west of Mount Ellis needed to be turned into cash for the state’s school trust accounts. But residents of nearby subdivisions raised concerns that logging would disturb pristine wildlife habitat in one of the few roadless areas at the north end of the Gallatin Range. The group became Save Our Gallatin Front, which requested the chance to bid for a conservation license in 2016. The conservation license option has only been used once before to block a small portion of a sale in northwestern Montana. The license offered for the Limestone project is by far the largest DNRC had ever considered. In January, the Montana Land Board approved auctioning off the timber sale and the conservation license. Immediately after the land board approved the project, Save Our Gallatin Front sued, argucontinued on page five
by LEE PITTS
Work Is A Four Letter Word
I
recently read about a 23 year old woman in Spain who sued her parents because they refused to continue to support her. She was living at her parent’s home, had no money, never finished high school and testified that her parents were putting undue pressure on her to get a job. She had held a couple jobs very briefly but she quit because, and I quote, “It was too much work.” Which is kinda the whole point. The lazy young lady may win her case because the average age at which Spaniards leave home is 29 years old, so she should have six more years of mooching left. Spain is not alone in this outbreak of laziness. Over 20 million Americans between the ages 18 and 31 are still living with their parents. And I recently read that in the future a good chunk of American males may NEVER have a job during their entire lives! I personally know a 30 year old man who has sired two children, lives with his mother and apparently feels in no rush to get a job. I’ve had another millennial young man tell me at age 25 that he feels burned out and hopes to retire at age 30. I can’t relate to any of this. In high school I worked every summer. For two summers I picked citrus alongside Hispanic crews who could work rings around me. These Hispanics must NOT have been related to the Spaniards because where I might pick 30 boxes of lemons per day they’d pick 50. Between my junior and senior years I got the worst job ever. I had to crawl under lemon trees, dig a basin around each tree and paint around its circumference 18 inches high to prevent insects from crawling up the trees. The toxic “paint”, which I’m quite sure contributed to my health problems later in life, was a nasty substance I can still smell now 50 years later. For this work I got paid the princely sum of $1.25 per hour. As a youngster I also worked at a gas station, mowed lawns, delivered
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