Marty Smith: NCBA Will Not Engage With Activists
The following statement was issued by NCBA president Marty Smith, Wacahoota, Florida.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) was invited to participate in two Florida producer meetings this week to discuss industry issues. Let me be clear, NCBA will not participate in events with organizations litigating against NCBA or the Beef Checkoff. Nor will we engage in events that lend a voice to anti-agriculture activists like Marty Irby, a former lobbyist for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), who now serves as executive director of Animal Wellness Action, a group founded by disgraced former HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle. Irby also serves as a member of the board of directors at Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM).
Marty Smith
OCM is not a producer group, it is solely a front for animal rights activists who are attempting to dismantle agriculture from the inside. It is disappointing that there are still those among us willing to give them a platform to further that work. Right now, OCM, represented by attorneys from the HSUS, is engaged in legal action aimed at destroying the Beef Checkoff because it promotes beef and benefits cattle producers. NCBA will not engage or lend a voice to these activists despite the fact that there are others willing to sacrifice the reputation of themselves and the cattlemen and women they represent, to do so.
For more information on Marty Irby’s work against the Checkoff and on behalf of animal rights groups, please visit here, here, and here.
Marty Smith is a rancher and an attorney from Wacahoota, Fla. He operates Smith Brothers-Wacahoota, LLC, a cow-calf operation that has been in continuous operation since 1852.
