Much has already been said by Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) and others about the food security threat posed by the pending mega-merger of Bayer AG and Monsanto Co. The combined company would have unprecedented control of big data and access to patents, gene traits and intellectual property. It would become the world’s largest agribusiness company, with a virtual lock on the seed for corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, and wheat. It would have the ability to further dominate Read More …
Presentation by Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, for the Organization for Competitive Markets 19th Annual Food and Agriculture Conference:
11-year-old Henry, grandson of John Hansen, recounts the history of the 1979 DC Tractorcade in this award winning video.
This talk was the opening keynote at OCM’s 19th Annual Food and Agriculture Conference. Feeding the World Intelligently –Without Corporate Agriculture[i] John Ikerd[ii] “American Farmers Must Feed the World!” This popular myth is perpetuated by the “agricultural establishment”[iii] in an attempt to maintain public support for their failed system of industrial agriculture. Most agricultural academics and agribusiness professionals seem to have bought into the idea that only a bio-tech, info-tech industrial approach to agricultural production will be capable Read More …
Today, our movement is helping to launch a new organization, Family Farm Action, which will give political muscle to family farmers and rural communities. As a new 501(c)(4) and Political Action Committee (PAC), Family Farm Action will support candidates who stand up for independent family farms and our rural communities, run state ballot initiatives that limit monopoly power over agriculture, and help develop and push for pro-competition legislation. As we know, most existing political organizations, like the National Read More …
At the Organization for Competitive Markets annual conference in 2004, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was dubbed USDA, Inc. because of the revolving door between the meat industry and USDA. In the research that was released at the conference, Phillip Matara outlined the problems created when meat industry leaders are leading the very agency that is supposed to be safeguarding farmers and consumers from the meat industry’s abusive practices. 15 years later the door is still revolving. Read More …
On July 21, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) led 17 senators in urging the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division to conduct a thorough and impartial analysis of Bayer AG’s proposed $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto Company. The Antitrust Division must remain independent of political influence and carefully consider the impact this merger will have on agricultural businesses, farmers, and consumers. The senators warn that even the appearance that the President is open to involving Read More …
By Vaughn Meyer, OCM Director In 2015, U.S. cattlemen were victim to the $20 billion dollar identity theft initiated in large part by that so-called superficial producer/devious packer organization known as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). Many ranchers were just beginning to recover from the game rule changes which eliminated $400 plus cow/calf profits and created whopping $200 per carcass packer margins in less than six months after the death of U.S. County of Origin Labeling (COOL). Read More …