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Hog farmers won a nationwide referendum to end a mandatory tax that benefited the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) in early January after a three and half year fight.

The Campaign for Family Farms, (CFF) a coalition of state based farms and independent hog farmers, stopped the mandatory pork check off. The NPPC garnered $54 million a year from hog producers to fund research and their advertising for pork as "the other white meat."

Fifty-three percent of the total 30,347 votes voted in favor of ending the check off, despite the millions spent by the NPPC on winning the election.

Family farmers fought NPPC because of the Council's support for corporations running factory farms. Hog factories typically raise tens of thousands of pigs at a time, putting smaller, family-owned operations out of business, polluting the environment and harming the economy.

"This is a hard fought victory won by American hog farmers. Throughout this campaign, it was hog farmers who did the heavy lifting to make sure the referendum was held, and it was hog farmers who voted to end the National Pork Producer Council's million dollar a week gravy train," said Rhodes, Iowa hog farmer Larry Ginter, a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) and a spokesperson for CCF.

Former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman said he would follow the results of the referendum and end the mandatory payments.

"A program that imposes mandatory assessments on pork producers and importers must have demonstrable support of its participants in order to achieve the objectives of the law. The pork check off does not have that support," Glickman said.