Anita Poole-Endsley Executive Director The 13th Annual OCM Conference entitled “Voices Rising from the Land” was held on August 12-13, 2011 in Kansas City, MO at the Westin Crown Center. The meeting carried three themes which illustrate the strategy used by the organization to fight for fair, open and competitive markets: legislation, litigation, and alternative solutions. According to Fred Stokes, former OCM Executive Director and current OCM President, litigation has not been completely successful, and efforts at passing Read More …
Day: September 1, 2011
Is the Independent U.S. Family Farm About to Be History?
Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes President Back in July of 1999, journalist Bill Bishop wrote a piece in the Lexington Herald Leader, entitled; “Corporate Interests plow deep”. In the article he said; “In the new agriculture, all farmers will work for “the man”. They’ll raise his chickens, turkeys, cattle, corn, tobacco, wheat and hogs. Farmers won’t farm; they’ll fulfill contracts. They will be hog-house janitors for Smithfield and plow jockeys for Cargill and ConAgra. ………. These companies don’t own the farm; Read More …
About Our New Executive Director
Anita Poole-Endsley was recently named the Executive Director for the Organization for Competitive Markets. Anita is an agricultural attorney who received both her J.D., and her LL.M. in Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas. Following the completion of her education, Anita entered into private practice representing farmers and ranchers to ensure they were treated fairly by the companies with whom they contracted. Anita served for eight years as the Legal Counsel and Assistant to the President of Read More …
Letter from Langdon: Voices Rising
Published in The Yonder, 8/17/11 by Richard Oswald For the past 13 years, members of the Organization for Competitive Markets have gathered to talk about unfair markets and antitrust violations in the agriculture business. The voices were rising again last week in Kansas City. Agriculture and the people who build lives around it have never really been known to cry wolf. We seek understanding and occasionally we argue for fair treatment, but creating problems where none exist is Read More …
Robbers and Theives (c)
By Richard Oswald Robbers and thieves won’t let me be, they want all of it just the same My land, my animals, my seeds– they even want my name Land is getting awfully high, an acre is like treasure But take away this poor dirt farm and my life will have no measure Robbers and thieves won’t let me be, they want all of it just the same My land, my animals, my seeds– they even want my Read More …