The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking comments for its proposed rule regarding “Made in the USA” claims on product labels. The proposed rule comes after a public workshop held by the FTC in September of 2019, which collected public comments and stakeholder input. The FTC produced a staff report released in June of 2020 detailing the workshop, the comments received and the findings of the FTC’s research on the matter. OCM has long been fighting for effective Read More …
On July 27th, 2020, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit against Dairy Farmers of America, the United States’ largest dairy cooperative. The lawsuit, filed in Vermont U.S. District Court, alleges that DFA and other cooperatives agreed not to compete for each other’s farmer-members, conspired to share payment information in order to discourage competition and depress prices, and maintained those low prices market-wide by entering into supply agreements with Dean Foods Read More …
On June 25th, 2020, OCM launched the first video of its summer online event series, a presentation by Dr. James Dillon, Director of the Texas Meat and Poultry Inspection Program. This video is a great overview of the different types of meat inspection, and discusses the effects of currently proposed legislation that would affect the market access of state-inspected meat. You can watch the video presentation here: Here is a breakdown with links to the relevant sections of Read More …
The Covid-19 Pandemic has had many effects on the economy of the United States, and particularly hard-hit has been the agriculture and food sector. Not since the Depression have we seen such a disparity between retail and farmgate prices, empty grocery shelves while people clamor for food, and farmers going out of business. Like something straight out of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, farmers are euthanizing livestock, dumping milk, and allowing produce to rot in the fields, Read More …
Currently there is a movement in the cattle industry calling for a mandatory beef cattle cash market volume of 30%. Corbitt Wall is touting it as the biggest thing to hit the cattle industry since Y-Tex eartags, while patting himself on the back like he just invented a new card game. Meanwhile, NCBA has been spending our checkoff dollars developing an online cookbook. Beef producers need Market Reform, not Martha Stewart. Perhaps NCBA could spend less of its Read More …
For decades, a federal law called the Packers and Stockyards Act protected America’s farmers and ranchers from abusive monopoly power in the livestock industry. The courts began to water down this law in the 1980’s, giving a handful of corporations unprecedented control over meat and poultry production. As a result, farmers and ranchers are the victims of price-fixing, collusion, and predatory contracts. Cattle, poultry and hog farmers and ranchers are going out of business while corporations like JBS, Smithfield, Read More …
On Friday, February 21, the United States reopened its border to fresh beef from Brazil after a more than two-year ban, according to a letter sent by the Food Safety and Inspection Service to the Brazilian agriculture minister, as reported by Bloomberg News. Negotiations between President Trump and President Bolsonaro began one year ago, and the two plan to meet next month in Brazil. The move, which the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) warned against in April 2019, threatens Read More …
By Bobbi Wilson, Wisconsin Farmers Union The looming threat of a milk monopoly is making headlines as the nation’s largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America, negotiates the purchase of Dean Foods following its bankruptcy announcement. If the deal is approved, DFA would achieve near total control over regional fluid milk markets in New England and the Midwest. The news comes on the heels of a Government Accountability Office report showing reduced farmer earnings and power imbalances result from Read More …