big beef . . .

Siddhartha Mahanta over at Washington Monthly has written a piece that my rancher friends and veggie buds will find of interest . . . when a consumer buys beef, part of the cost is a federal tax . . . Beef. It doesn't need to be for dinner.

Independent ranchers and animal rights activists don’t agree about much, except that it’s time to stop using federal tax dollars to support the meat lobby.

. . .

Nearly 99 percent of all the beef tax dollars collected by the government, some $45 million a year, winds up in the hands of just one group, the NCBA, which relies overwhelmingly on this public money to support itself. Fewer and fewer actual “cattlemen” belong to the organization, while more and more complain that the NCBA presses for policies that undermine their own way of life and the public’s interest by favoring large packers and other corporate giants.

There's much more to the article . . .