Category: Antitrust

NCBA Files Suit to Abolish COOL

Mike Callicrate

PRESS RELEASE Organization for Competitive Markets P.O. Box 6486 Lincoln, NE 68506 www.competitivemarkets.com Contact: Mike Callicrate, OCM President 785-332-8128 callicrate@competitivemarkets.com August 5, 2013 Beef Checkoff dollars undermining producer interests! The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) today called for the immediate dismissal of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) as a contractor for the Beef Checkoff Program. On July 8th, NCBA and seven other plaintiffs, including the American Meat Institute, American Association of Meat Processors, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Canadian Read More …

OCM to plot long overdue market revival at convention

Mike Callicrate

PRESS RELEASE Organization for Competitive Markets P.O. Box 6486 Lincoln, NE 68506 www.competitivemarkets.com Contact: Mike Callicrate, OCM President 785-332-8128 callicrate@competitivemarkets.com July 18, 2013 Expect a somber tribute to lost markets, followed by invigorating plans for a rebirth, at the Organization for Competitive Markets’ annual convention coming up August 9th and 10th in Kansas City. “The free market we all like to talk about is a mirage. We pretend it’s there, but in reality our competitive markets have been Read More …

Obituary: The Market Is Dead 1921-2013

Mike Callicrate

Funeral services will be held August 9th, 2013, in Kansas City, MO. It is with deepest regrets we announce that the market, age 92, passed away after a long illness. This was a terrible loss to livelihoods, rural communities and consumer choice. Survivors include a few farmers and ranchers, once symbols of free enterprise and economic freedom, who are now sharecroppers and serfs under the heel of concentrated and abusive economic power. The market was reborn in 1921 Read More …

Mike Callicrate featured on The Tim Danahey Show discussing the recent Smithfield Foods sale to China

Mike Callicrate

The Tim Danahey Show recorded on April 13th 2013 When China’s Shuanghui Group purchased America’s Smithfield Foods (the largest pork producer in America) for $7 billion, it only created a minor ripple in the media. It was perceived as a simple and welcome Chinese investment in American free enterprise. However, there is more to the story. Mike Callicrate, a nationally-recognized leader in the local food movement and an ethical rancher, tells of the environmental, economic, and food supply Read More …

Monsanto’s growing monopoly

Mike Callicrate

What the Supreme Court got wrong: Patents on self-replicating seed are unethical, dangerous and anti-competitive By Kristina Hubbard A still from a Monsanto ad When the Supreme Court unanimously sided with Monsanto recently, it upheld the company’s right to prohibit the replanting of patented seed – handing the biotech giant a major victory. The court ruled that the doctrine of “patent exhaustion,” which an Indiana farmer argued should apply after the first sale of patented seed, “does not Read More …

MILK AND HONEY

Richard Oswald

Industrial agriculture erases the identity of our food, filtering its origins as cleanly as removing bee pollen from honey. Just mix, blend, inject it with a brand – and it’s ready for a shelf near you. Who made your food? In these changing times that’s becoming an important question. Maybe it’s something we should all ask more often as industrial food becomes rule over exception. But what makes food industrial? With so many working families and no one Read More …

Defend COOL from Sen. Johanns

Mike Callicrate

May 13, 2013 Action Alert from Nebraska Farmers Union! Many of you have at one time or another supported our efforts to get and keep clear and effective Country of Origin Labeling for U.S. food products.  Thanks to all our efforts, COOL is now the law.  That law was challenged by lawsuits from Mexico and Canada in the WTO.  USDA has responded in a fashion that we support that makes more consistent and clear where the product was Read More …

From Berkeley to Boston: Coming Together Around Freedom, Fairness and Food

Mike Callicrate

By Mike Callicrate & Fred Stokes Eating is one thing we all have in common. And, to millions of us, what we eat, how it’s produced, and where it comes from is important. OCM has worked for the last fourteen years to restore competition in the agricultural marketplace. We believe family farmers and ranchers make the best stewards of our land and livestock, and are the most reliable and trustworthy sources of high quality, healthy and safe food. Read More …