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The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry announced the refundable Oklahoma Beef Checkoff referendum failed with 2,506 no votes and 1,998 yes votes.  

 

Rancher and President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, Weston Givens says he faces challenges every day as a rancher.  He goes on to say unfortunately, those daily challenges are nothing compared to the growing challenges that the beef industry faces such as: aggressive anti-meat activist groups trying to remove beef from the menu and misleading claims about food safety and animal care.  

 

Givens calls it disheartening that the Oklahoma Beef Checkoff was defeated, but he is still proud of the strong collaborative effort of the Vote Yes Coalition and our grassroots campaign.

 

Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association Executive Vice President, Michael Kelsey says the association ran a good campaign that worked hard to reach out and educate beef producers, but ultimately it was defeated by the same out-of-state activists that defeated State Question 777 last fall.