In an interview with the Oklahoma Farm Report, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s new CEO Colin Woodall has dove into the job of being advocate for the organization and the beef business.
“You know we just aren’t going to tolerate the ridiculousness of the detractors out there, whether those detractors are cattle producers, whether those detractors are uninformed consumers, or whether those detractors are activist groups,” Woodall, who was hired in September, said. “So we have taken a more pointed approach. We’re going to call that out, we’re going to call it out publicly, and we’re going to set the record straight.”
Woodall knows all about being a beef advocate. He is a Texas native and Texas A&M graduate who spent 15 years with the organization prior to taking over as CEO. He was most recently the organization’s senior vice president for government affairs.
“Much of his work and many of the victories registered by NCBA in Washington, DC, are the result of his ability to build coalitions and bring people together across political divides,” NCBA president Jennifer Houston said at the time of his hire.
Woodall said he is proud of the work they do and will put their track record up against any claims, he particularly mentioned those of populist groups who claim they use checkoff funds for policy works.
“Just because they don’t know how it works. The firewall is a robust system that is in place to make sure that checkoff dollars are never ever used for NCBA’s policy activities,” he said. “We audit that internally. We have external auditors that look at that, and USDA audits that, and every time it comes back that they say we are always using the dollars appropriately.”