General Advocacy – Organization for Competitive Markets

Video and PowerPoint Presentations from OCM’s 20th Annual Food & Agriculture Conference

OCM Staff — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 17:20:04 +0000

The State of Antitrust Law and Future Actions By George Farah, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll Intro to Consumer Class Actions By Bill Anderson, Handley & Anderson PLLC Impact of Retail Concentration on Workers and Farmers (panel discussion) By Dennis Olson, United Food and Commercial Workers When the Packers Come to Town By Don Stull, PhD, MPH, University of Kansas Food System Organization and Community Impacts By Mary Hendrickson, PhD, University of Missouri

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OCM Staff — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 00:06:34 +0000

Position Announcement: Outreach Coordinator

OCM Staff — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 00:15:04 +0000

Update, 9/11/18: This position has been filled. Location: Remote (residing in Midwestern, Southern or Western states is preferred) Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) is a national, membership-based public policy research and advocacy organization headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. Founded in 1998, OCM is the only national think tank focusing strictly on antitrust and trade policy in agriculture. OCM represents America’s family farmers and ranchers fighting consolidation and corporate control of the food system. A major part of OCM’s effort Read More ...

JBS Hires Former USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety as Global Head of Food Safety and Quality Assurance

OCM Staff — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 00:28:03 +0000

The revolving door that allows the deck to be stacked against family farm agriculture at every step of the game continues. JBS announced they have hired former U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, Alfred Almanza, as their new Global Head of Food Safety and Quality Assurance. Almanza brings 40 years’ knowledge of privileged government information to JBS, giving them a huge competitive advantage to allow them to further consolidate the global industry. According to JBS, “Prior to joining Read More ...

Sample Letter to the Editor for Federal Checkoff Program Reform

OCM Staff — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 17:53:40 +0000

Legislation has been reintroduced in both the U.S. House and Senate that would reform the federal checkoff programs. The Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act, S. 741 & H.R. 1753, would prohibit lobbying, rein in conflicts of interest, and stop anti-competitive activities that harm other commodities and consumers. It would also force checkoff programs to publish their budgets and undergo periodic audits so that farmers and ranchers know where their hard-earned money is going. The Voluntary Checkoff Act, S. 740 & Read More ...

Letter to Pope Concerning Brother David Andrews

OCM Staff — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 00:19:09 +0000

As we remember former OCM board member Brother David Andrews two years after his passing, we’d like to share with family and friends a letter we sent to Pope Francis in Brother David’s memory. September 1, 2015 His Holiness, Pope Francis Apostolic Palace 00120 Vatican City Dear Pope Francis: The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) was founded in 1998 as a non-profit public policy and research organization. Our purpose is to advocate for US public policies that reclaim fair Read More ...

Over 100 Mississippi Farmers and Ranchers Gather to Reclaim a Fair Food System

OCM Staff — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 14:39:05 +0000

Cattle Producers Mad as Hell and Not Gonna Take It Anymore BAY SPRINGS, MS – Yesterday evening, over 100 farmers and ranchers gathered in Bay Springs, Mississippi to say “enough is enough.” With this year’s calf prices dropping to about half of what they were a year ago and putting Mississippi cattle producers’ viability in question, cattle producers learned of actions they can take to win back a free and just market to regain their fair share of Read More ...

The Facts About Higher and Lower Food Prices in Industrial Animal Agriculture

Mike Callicrate — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 21:05:30 +0000

Dear Friends, Please find attached our new research related to egg prices and industrial agriculture as it relates to claims made in the robust debate surrounding State Question 777. As ever, our goal is discern fact from fiction in a nonpartisan manner. We believe the two attached sheets with infographics reveal a compelling (there’s that word!) snapshot of what’s really happening with regard to food prices. A hat tip to our director of education, Brian Ted Jones, for Read More ...

Senator Warren’s Speech on Monopoly

Mike Callicrate — Sun, 03 Jul 2016 21:38:56 +0000

Yesterday, straight off her high-profile campaign appearance Monday with Hillary Clinton, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave a keynote address about industry consolidation in the American economy at a conference at the Capitol put on by New America’s Open Markets program. Though the speech has so far gotten only a modicum of attention—the press being more interested in litigating Donald Trump’s Pocahontas taunts—it has the potential to change the course of the presidential contest. Her speech begins at minute 56:45 Read More ...

Populism With a Brain : Ten old/new ideas to give power back to the people.

Mike Callicrate — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 12:37:28 +0000

by Barry C. Lynn and Phillip Longman published in the Washington Monthly The National Review recently described Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump as “two populist peas in a pod.” This was not a compliment. Across the political spectrum, people stick the “populist” label on politicians they see as exploiting the worst resentments and envies of some tribe or another. The segregationist George Wallace, by this reckoning, was a populist. So, too, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Yet there is a Read More ...