FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Contact: Eric Schippers
Ph: 703-535-5836
February 8,
2002
Dairy
Farmers and Center for Individual Freedom Mount Legal Challenge
to Dairy Checkoff
WESTFIELD,
Pa. A family of dairy farmers, working in conjunction
with the Center for Individual Freedom (CIF), today announced
that it has engaged a prominent agricultural attorney to file
a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the USDAs
mandatory dairy promotion program.
Joe and Brenda
Cochran, along with their eldest son Cyrus and most of their other
13 children, produce nearly 7,000 pounds of milk each day on their
213-acre farm in north-central Pennsylvania. The Cochrans are
"independent" dairy farmers who do not belong to a cooperative
marketing group.
"We have
long felt the mandatory advertising tax on our milk is unconstitutional,"
said Brenda Cochran. "As small, independent dairy farmers,
were strongly against having to pay for someone elses
messages. Wed rather speak for ourselves."
The dairy
checkoff, which last year collected over $250 million, is funded
by dairy producers through a mandatory 15-cent per hundredweight
(roughly 2-cents per gallon) assessment on all milk domestically
produced and marketed commercially. Enacted by Congress in 1983,
the dairy checkoff is the latest in a growing list of challenges
to commodity promotion programs in the wake of the June 25, 2001,
ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that it violates the First Amendment
for the government to compel mushroom producers to pay for industry
advertising (United States v. United Foods).
"Our
argument is simple," said Benjamin F. Yale, attorney for
the Cochrans. "The First Amendment gives the Cochrans the
right to speak or to remain silent. This is a choice enjoyed by
virtually every other vocation in the country. The Supreme Court
has held that mushroom growers have that choice, and were
going to ask that dairy producers be given the choice as well."
Mr. Yale has over twenty five years experience in the dairy industry,
representing dairy interests in state and federal rule making,
agency hearings, and in court.
Eric Schippers,
Executive Director of CIF said, "We see this latest legal
challenge as a further circling of the wagons against unconstitutional
commodity promotion programs. For the Center for Individual Freedom,
its a matter of principle; we will continue to fight to
protect the constitutional rights of our nations independent
ranchers, farmers and dairy producers."
CIF filed
an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the United Foods
mushroom case, as well as in a case in the California Supreme
Court involving mandatory advertising for plum growers (Gerawan
Farming, Inc. v. Veneman). Currently, CIF is assisting in
lawsuits filed by independent beef ranchers against the beef checkoff,
and its general counsel, Renee L. Giachino, will be assisting
in the Cochrans dairy case. Copies of the legal briefs may
be read online at www.cfif.org.
CIF has established
a national checkoff legal fund to support legal and communications
efforts to overturn checkoff programs. Those wishing to contribute
to the fund may call Eric Schippers at 703-535-5836.
Founded
in 1998, the Center for Individual Freedom is a non-partisan,
non-profit organization with the mission to protect and defend
individual freedoms and rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
#
# #