Fred Stokes – Organization for Competitive Markets

Breaking the Market Power Bottleneck in U.S. Beef: A Roadmap for Building an Independent Ranching and Processing Sector: A Joint OCM-AAI Initiative

Fred Stokes — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 15:09:11 +0000

https://www.antitrustinstitute.org/breaking-the-market-power-bottleneck-in-u-s-beef-a-roadmap-for-building-an-independent-ranching-and-processing-sector-a-joint-ocm-aai-initiative/

Organization for Competitive Markets Addresses disparaging comments from NCBA leadership

Fred Stokes — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 00:07:42 +0000

LINCOLN, NE – Today the Organization for Competitive Markets issued the following statement from Fred Stokes, VP and founder of OCM, after a series of cattlemen’s meetings held in Florida in an attempt to bring industry stakeholders together for the betterment of the industry. This statement follows a campaign of misinformation by NCBA president Marty Smith and CEO Colin Woodall who attacked OCM and it’s board members. “Colin Woodall, speaking on behalf of NCBA has resorted to absurd Read More ...

NCBA Attempts to Distract from Checkoff Abuse

Fred Stokes — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:35:11 +0000

By Fred Stokes Founding member, Organization for Competitive Markets In its recent propaganda piece being circulated in agriculture news outlets, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) tries to draw attention away from the growing outcry for checkoff program reform by making The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) a boogeyman. The truth is, farmers and ranchers want the corrupt, broken program reformed; more than 250,000 of them made their case to Congress earlier this week. Bipartisan legislation is Read More ...

OCM Still Focused on Competitive Markets

Fred Stokes — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:55:59 +0000

On August 11th, OCM will return to the Airport Embassy Suites in Kansas City for our annual convention. There, in October of 1998, OCM was founded and declared its mission to be reestablishing fair and competitive markets for agriculture. Fair and competitive markets are what OCM still strives for; not as an end in themselves but as a critical contributor to the survival of independent family agriculture, a tenable rural America and our national food security. In my Read More ...

The Family Farm

Fred Stokes — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 19:41:33 +0000

I am Fred Stokes from Porterville, Mississippi. I am happy and honored to be a participant in this conference. Ralph Nader is one of my heroes and the epitome of unselfish commitment to worthy causes. I was born on a small diversified family farm in Kemper County Mississippi, the home of the late Senator John C. Stennis. After spending some 20 years in the Army, I retired and returned to my home country to get rich in the Read More ...

Reform the Beef Checkoff Program: Terminate the NCBA gravy train!

Fred Stokes — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 15:42:47 +0000

Secretary Vilsack has proposed a new Beef Checkoff Program, which is in addition to the current one which will remain as is. As I understand it, three years after the new program goes into effect there would be a referendum to see if Checkoff payers liked it. In the meantime, the present program would continue and NCBA would presumably continue its lock on the contracting process for the current (mandatory) program and thereby receive more than 80% of Read More ...

Guideline for AMS Oversight of Commodity Research and Promotion Programs

Fred Stokes — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 05:01:25 +0000

Conflicts of Interest in Research and Promotion Programs As a general matter of policy, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) guidelines for oversight of all checkoff programs expressly require contracting procedures that “avoid any conflict of interest or a situation that could reasonably be perceived by a third party as a conflict of interest.”1 The Beef Order includes provisions that reflect these principles, as well. Before service on the board or as a Federation representative on the Beef Promotion Read More ...

Briefing for USDA AMS Administrator Anne Alonzo

Fred Stokes — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 04:48:44 +0000

Ms. Alonzo, I am Fred Stokes representing The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM), a sixteen year old non-profit advocate for a fair marketplace for what farmers and ranchers buy and what they sell.In other words, we want the game to be straight. I thank you for giving us this opportunity to express our concerns regarding the Beef Promotion and Research Program, commonly known as the Beef Checkoff. OCM has associated itself with other like-minded groups, including the Humane Read More ...

The NCBA Beef Checkoff Contract: A Blatant, Fundamental and Egregious Conflict of Interest

Fred Stokes — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 04:40:18 +0000

To my bitter disappointment, the many efforts at reform of the cattle markets over the past 16 years have been frustrated by meatpackers and their minions. Chief minion has been the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). This organization is believed by many to be on the side of beef cattle producers. However, it has opposed every major market reform initiative; most notably the ban on packer ownership of cattle, Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) and putting the teeth Read More ...

The Other Shoe Drops

Fred Stokes — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 22:47:15 +0000

The second “final” report on the USDA OIG Audit of the Beef Checkoff was released the end of January. An earlier seventeen page report was released in March of 2013 but was shortly withdrawn for “additional audit work” under withering charges of whitewash and cover-up. It was generally accepted that the audit was prompted by the disturbing findings in an Audit in 2010, ordered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). You may recall that the CBB ordered audit Read More ...