As reported in Hight Plains Journal prior to the end of 2021, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association staff members hosted a call to discuss some of the wins for the year and look toward 2022. Ethan Lane, vice president of government affairs for NCBA, said slower times ahead of Christmas and the New Year’s holidays allowed him to reflect back on the year and on what the group has accomplished for 2021.
“We really had to focus this year on increasing opportunities for producer profitability throughout the supply chain,” Lane said. “And what we did was really link all of those policy priorities back into that central focus in looking through opportunities and challenges facing the industry in this new administration.”
During the first year of the Biden administration, Lane and others at NCBA were pleased with some of the progress that had been made. First with the Build Back Better initiative and some of the aggressive spending plans that were advanced in January 2021. NCBA worked to educate members and consumers around the country about the “very real threat of including ‘pay fors’ in the multi trillion-dollar spending package that could negatively affect cattle producers around the country.”
NCBA worked to focus on items in those initiatives like the stepped up basis in transitioning ag operations from one generation to the next, accelerating the death tax limit or dramatically increasing tools like capital gains taxes into the 40% range.
“All could have had a disastrous impact for cattle producers,” Lane said. “Just at a time when as an industry we’re transitioning or expecting to transition about 40% of our operations to the next generation within the next 15 years.”
This effort culminated in one of the largest grassroots campaigns the beef industry has ever launched.
“I’m really proud of the work that NCBA did leading that charge in Washington D.C., not just for the cattle industry, not just for agriculture, but truly for small business owners throughout the economy,” Lane said.
That’s a message NCBA believes has resonated back and Lane believes those on Capitol Hill have heard the concerns.
“They’ve heard our producers and they’ve managed to craft bills, whether they survive or not on their own, that don’t include onerous ‘pay fors’ in rural America and the cattle industry in particular,” he said. “We’re proud of the effort that was undertaken, the hundreds of groups that stood with the cattle industry that stood with NCBA and pushing back on those on those proposals and we’re going to have to continue that focus moving into 2022.”
Another area of focus for 2021 was on sustainability and climate, Lane said. NCBA released its sustainability goals and showed how beef production can be climate neutral as an industry by 2040.
And looking at the whole conversation on climate and sustainability in Washington, Lane is extremely pleased at the dramatic the difference in how grazing and cattle production is being viewed in the capital compared to 10 years ago.
“Whereas in the past, we’ve always been thought of as a threat or an impact,” Lane said. “We’re now being embraced as a climate solution, which is rightful and really the right place for this industry, given the good work that we put on the ground—the conservation benefit that we provide.”
The retail sector was another focus for NCBA in 2021, especially after the pandemic-related events of 2020 and the Holcomb, Kansas, plant fire in 2019. There was finally some slack being taken out of the supply chain during the fall of 2021. They’ve continued a robust dialogue with the Biden administration on matters like packing capacity.
