Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline posted to his socials on Sunday about a listening session with the Virginia Farm Bureau that gave him the opportunity to “hear directly from the farmers who feed and fuel our Commonwealth.”
“Virginia’s farmers are the backbone of our rural communities, and I’ll continue working to ensure they have the support, resources, and certainty they need to succeed,” Cline posted.
Commenters on the post pointed out the obvious.
“Ask them about the beef deal Trump has made. And listen,” wrote Heather Simmons, a retired teacher from Botetourt County.
“Curious if these are cattle farmers as trump just undersold them by 25 percent,” wrote Dina Imbriani, a Roanoke resident.
Another comment from Roanoke, from Betty Shideler: “I’d like to know what they think of Trump’s new beef deal.”
One more for posterity.
“You have some balls (except we know you don’t) doing a photo op with farm bureau. You and Trump just literally screwed our farmers AGAIN!” wrote Jeffrey Clevenger of Blacksburg.
The anger is over Donald Trump’s scheme, made public on Friday, to flood the U.S. market with 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef, with a “commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices,” to protest how this move will hamstring our local farmers.
ICYMI
While Cline was standing in a pasture with three farmers for a photo-op arranged by the Virginia Farm Bureau, he could have been checking in with the Virginia Beef Council or the Virginia Cattlemen’s Association, both of which are headquartered in Daleville, 10 minutes from Cline’s home in Fincastle.
Cline posted about his Farm Bureau listening session at 1:51 p.m. on Sunday; at 3:21 p.m. on Sunday, the Virginia Cattlemen’s Association posted an item about the Trump beef policy on its Facebook page.
“Virginia Cattlemen’s Association shares the widespread industry concern related to the announced beef imports. It is bad policy that will do more to hurt cattle producers than help consumers,” was what the VCA said, before quoting its president, Bill McDonald.
“This undermines the market from encouraging cattle producers to retain more females to grow the USA herd, which in the long run will make for an affordable and secure national food supply,” McDonald was quoted in the post, which went on to encourage “producers and stakeholders to reach out to your elected officials and convey that message.”
If only the producers and stakeholders had been invited to the photo-op with the Farm Bureau.
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Chris Graham
