Philosophical Vegan Forum

http://www.pcrm.org/nbBlog/index.php/us ... ing-funds/

Pro: Beef demand in US dropped significantly
Con: USDA is going to put 160 million tax dollars into beef promotion

Thoughts?

I'm not a US citizen, but if this were the Dutch ministery of agriculture I'd be furious.

Somebody really needs to find standing to sue the government over this kind of thing.


To any self-employed vegans or vegetarians in the U.S. who pay taxes and don't have payroll tax (and don't mind risking a trial for a good cause):

1. Retain a lawyer.
2. Withdraw any and all money from your accounts where the IRS can get to it.
3. Send the IRS a letter explaining why you won't be paying taxes this year, explaining that the U.S. government is spending 160 million in tax dollars, both against public health (as evidenced) and your deeply held moral/religious/spiritual beliefs in promoting the cruelty of beef, engaging in political lobbying against the law.
4. Wait for the government to take you to court.
Argue the USDA is in the pocket of industry, and has little accountability to the general public, and violates its mandate in favoring animal agriculture unnecessarily and without reason beyond lobbying, and that you have no standing to protect your religious freedom (no way to press a suit in court), and no ability to not subsidize the market yourself beyond withholding taxes.
Explain that subsidizing a market people are already participating in by reducing prices may be a gray area, but engaging in direct propaganda to promote a market that is waning due to changes in public interest is the government doing the lobbying itself, and crosses the line. The USDA has a prerogative to promote healthful foods like vegetables where there is sound reasoning in the public interest, but it is violating its mandate due to industry lobbying, and now even more so, participating in the lobbying itself which it shouldn't be doing.

You'll probably be ordered to pay the tax. But there's also a chance the judge will recognize that the USDA is overstepping its mandate and rule the actions unconstitutional (in addition to your having to pay the tax). There's a small chance the government will just ignore you or settle and just let you not pay tax to avoid the issue.

(As long as you pay the tax when and if ordered by a judge, in theory you shouldn't be risking any jail time - you wrote a letter, you weren't being sneaky about it - but in reality there's always a small chance, so you'd have to talk to a lawyer).

Disgraceful. Any congressman who supports such a ridiculous bill should be held politically accountable. The issue needs to be attacked from a public health point of view.

Jebus wrote:Disgraceful. Any congressman who supports such a ridiculous bill should be held politically accountable. The issue needs to be attacked from a public health point of view.

You're assuming the U.S.A. is democratic or something, and that things like these have to be voted on.

Organizations like the USDA are pretty much autonomous and they can do more or less whatever their appointed administration wants (appointments are made and confirmed by elected representatives, but they're pretty much always just rubber stamping internal politics).

Now in the case of the EPA, that can be a good thing because it avoids a lot of really troubling red tape, and allows them to act against the interests of big industry to protect the public and environment. But the USDA is about the closest thing to evil you'll find in a government organization; they're pretty squarely in the pocket of the animal agriculture lobby. I don't know how it happened, and how the EPA stayed so independent of special interests; it probably has to do with the kinds of people who join those organizations. People join the EPA because they want to save the world and protect the environment... [most] people apparently join the USDA because they're industry people looking for a government job. I'm sure there are some few decent human beings who joined the USDA with a mind to fix things, but it seems they're desperately outnumbered.

Because these organizations have largely independent authority, it's really hard to change them or fix them when they mess up this badly.

The issue is a lack of standing for the public to sue or change these administrations' bad policies (unlike what we can do against laws -- which is, break the law and then pursue it in court).

Apparently they're "accepting public comments":

The USDA is accepting public comments on the proposed checkoff program until Dec. 10. Click here to take action by submitting your comments to the USDA.

Which they really have no obligation to abide by or consider. I suppose it's worth lodging a protest if you can before the deadline. It's appealing to a dictator, though.

brimstoneSalad wrote:
Organizations like the USDA are pretty much autonomous and they can do more or less whatever their appointed administration wants

OK, I thought congress had to sign off on all appropriations.

Jebus wrote: OK, I thought congress had to sign off on all appropriations.

I think they have a discretionary budget, and congress just has to sign off on budget increases, rather than on use. I could be wrong, but I think this advertising campaign is money being shifted from somewhere else in the USDA's budget.

Good luck getting congress to do anything these days.

Oh, those aren't tax dollars:

The beef checkoff program is a marketing program to promote beef consumption with oversight by the United States Department of Agriculture and funded by beef companies.

http://support.pcrm.org/site/MessageVie ... id=99423.0

The campaign is just run by the USDA, but the money apparently comes from the beef lobby itself.

Granted, the USDA shouldn't even be running the campaign, and they probably ARE wasting tax dollars on this "oversight", but not 160 million.

That makes a little more sense and is slightly less insane, though.

brimstoneSalad wrote:Oh, those aren't tax dollars

Oh, I assumed it was because it's a government organization. It's still ridiculous though.

I commented, it's interesting that you don't actually need to be a US citizen to comment on this.

I wish there was an organization like PCRM in the Netherlands, by the way, they are doing really good work it seems.