{"id":7864,"date":"2011-11-10T10:10:53","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T17:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=7864"},"modified":"2011-11-10T10:10:53","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T17:10:53","slug":"christmas-trees-the-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/10\/christmas-trees-the-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas trees — the response"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received a response this morning from Betty Malone, one of the tree farmers behind the petition for the new federal Christmas tree board. I promised you guys I’d post anything substantive<\/a> I received from the NCTA and I promised Betty that I would post her email without edits or editorial comment.<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that most folks here will agree to disagree with the NCTA and Betty, but she gives a great presentation for her point of view and I expect disagreements will be expressed in the usual thoughtful style.<\/p>\n

Everything that follows is from Betty Malone:<\/p>\n

Dear Clair,<\/p>\n

Rick Dungey from the National Christmas Tree Association asked me to respond to your questions. We are a small Christmas tree farm in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. We are primarily wholesalers, but have been retailers and now also have a small choose and cut operation. Our soils are suited to growing Christmas trees and not much else. My husband and I have been in Christmas tress since 1972. <\/p>\n

A check-off is a program where commodity groups can help themselves to better their industry. A couple of the longest running ones are cotton and beef. They formed because there were incredible challenges in their industries that no one state or company could answer. When I was in high school, Sunday nights were spent ironing clothes for the next week at school. The cotton check-off paid for the research that made permanent press cotton fabric possible. Do you remember how cotton clothes used to fade? The Cotton Check-off paid for the research that paid for that, too. The cotton check-off was formed because their industry was being overwhelmed by polyester fabric that didn’t fade and didn’t wrinkle. <\/p>\n

But by working together, the industries such as cotton, could pool their resources and speak with one voice. The assessment that is made is self-imposed funding by the industry itself to help itself. The monies are collected, the program designed and run by an industry board. Taxes are monies collected by the government for use by the government. Monies collected by check-offs go directly to the check-off to be used for research and promotion for that industry alone. <\/p>\n

We petitioned the USDA as is our right under the First Amendment to the Constitution. We asked them to allow us to create a program that they would then provide the oversight, that the industry pays for. It is revenue neutral to the government. The government doesn’t get any of the money, but the industry has to pay for the oversight.<\/p>\n

We did not do this lightly. It is a serious thing we were asking. The oversight is a good thing. A check-off is audited annually. The check-off boards must set goals to be met by the program. Every 5 or so years an econometric study must be done that tells whether or not those goals are met. If those goals are not met, the program folds. The USDA makes sure that money is used for what it is supposed to be used for.<\/p>\n

A group of us growers and importers started 3.5 years ago in April of 2008 to study other commodities that have tried these programs. We focused on commodities that were similar in size: blueberries, mangoes, watermelons, sorghum and several others. We conducted facilitated sessions in the four top growing areas of the country. By now there have been at least 100 meetings across the country at state and national Christmas tree meetings discussing the check-off. <\/p>\n

You asked how we can guarantee that the assessment would not be passed on to the consumer. We can’t guarantee that. Each grower will make that decision. We are primarily wholesalers. In 2008 I contacted all our buyers, mostly retailers, and asked them how would they feel about this kind of promotion program and the assessment. They were all supportive and excited to get the kind of help in the market place that the check-off could supply. Some offered to pay the whole thing, some offered to split the cost, should it come into being. <\/p>\n

Farmers know dirt. We know how to grow things. But in this changing world is it not enough to grow a great product. We have to let people know about our product. That takes time, coordination and money.<\/p>\n

Nothing prevents farmers from pooling their resources without the USDA. In the last 20 years there have two very strong voluntary programs initiated by the industry that raised nearly a million dollars each. We have found, as every industry we studied found, that voluntary programs have a life of about 3 years. The volunteers running the program and paying into the program burn out. Everyone in the industry benefits, but only a few carry the burden. These two programs had great impact on our industry’s ability to promote our product. We know promotion and research work. We have to do it as an industry to survive. A check-off is fair, equitable and can supply sustainable monies. <\/p>\n

Clair, thanks for your questions. Please let me know if you have others.<\/p>\n

Betty Malone
\nSunrise Tree Farm\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ADDED: Silver gives a point-by-point response to Ms. Malone on his blog at the Ludwig von Mises Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received a response this morning from Betty Malone, one of the tree farmers behind the petition for the new federal Christmas tree board. I promised you guys I’d post anything substantive I received from the NCTA and I promised Betty that I would post her email without edits or editorial comment. It goes without saying that most folks here will agree to disagree with the NCTA and Betty, but she gives a great presentation for her point of view and I expect disagreements will be expressed in the usual thoughtful style. Everything that follows is from Betty Malone: Dear…<\/p>\n

Continue readingChristmas trees — the response<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}