Bovine Connection organizers have invited Steve Dittmer, Agribusiness Freedom Foundation, to speak at the Thursday, Dec. 1 session of the Bovine Connection, scheduled at the Extension office building meeting room, North Central Avenue, Sidney, and also to present the address at the Thursday night banquet scheduled for the Sidney Country Club. Dittmer will discuss free marketing and the preservation of free market options.
“We promote free market principles throughout the food chain,” Dittmer comments. “We aren’t just promoting cow calf production or packers, but rather the entire chain all the way through to the plate. The more free market options and the less government involvement we have, the better it will be for everyone.”
He continues, “We want to preserve as many options as possible for cattlemen, whether they sell calves every Tuesday at the auction barn or whether they want to participate in an alliance. Cattlemen should be able to choose from many options.”
Dittmer points out that many proposals that will affect cattlemen sit on the table in Congress, many of which would remove innovations and options for the cattle industry. “People claim to be victims of free enterprise, but they aren’t,” Dittmer says. “We need to be armed with the correct facts. A lot of folks who are basic free market people know what others say isn’t true, but they need more information to refute the false information already out there.”
He continues, “A USDA proposal would change a lot of the branded beef programs and make it more difficult for cattlemen and prohibit them from selling contracts. These are options that cattlemen need to retain.”
Dittmer urges people to become more involved, to learn the facts, spread the word, and be part of the solution. “Politics and economics are not always of interest to many folks, but economics is the study of human behavior, so people need facts,” Dittmer comments.
He continues, “Many people are not happy with the direction government is going. We can’t sit back and say ‘Let George do it’ because that is the reason we have problems today. People are busy, they have a business and a family and they feel they don’t have time to mess with politics, but that’s how we ended up with what we have today, a government that oversees and manages. The Tea Party people may not be perfect, but they did prove that individuals can have an impact and it proves that the power of the vote has not gone away.”
Dittmer believes that rural folks need to educate their neighbors about what they do on the farm and ranch, and why they do it. This will help preserve the free market principles with many viable options. “The free market has been good to agriculture over the long run, but when government gets involved it alters pricing and messes up the system,” Dittmer comments.
Dittmer, who has been with the Agribusiness Freedom Foundation since 2004, serves as the executive vice president of the foundation. He delivers facts, analyses and opinions on beef industry economics and politics. Dittmer provides this information through the e-mail newsletter AFF Sentinel. “AFF’s mission is to be blunt about ignored facts, distortions, emotion-driven illogic and the real agendas of demagogues attempting to ‘reform’ the beef industry,” Dittmer notes. “AFF favors free market solutions, preserving all possible options, innovations and coordination among industry sectors.”
He adds, “I serve as the public face for cattlemen and other segments of the beef industry.”
Dittmer grew up on a cattle operation in Ohio, so he has involved himself with the beef industry his entire life. He has worked with voluntary and mandatory check-offs, coordinated a successful Nebraska national beef referendum campaign, and has served on national committees that developed the Beef Industry Council’s first national television advertising campaign.
Dittmer has visited hundreds of ranches and feed yards around the country.
Dittmer will present an interesting informative talk at the Bovine Connection.
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