Anita Poole-Endsley Executive Director In centuries past, Spanish Conquistadors searched for the famed city of El Dorado. El Dorado was rumored to be made of gold where riches abounded. El Dorado was never found, and may have never existed except in the minds of those hoping to satisfy their urges for financial security. Such is the quest for a farm bill in 2012. Agricultural producers are searching for an answer to secure their financial status through policy and Read More …
Category: GIPSA Rule
The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s agency that facilitates the marketing of livestock, poultry, meat, cereals, oilseeds, and related agricultural products, and promotes fair and competitive trading practices for the overall benefit of consumers and American agriculture.
GIPSA is part of USDA’s Marketing and Regulatory Programs, which are working to ensure a productive and competitive global marketplace for U.S. agricultural products.
The Agency’s Packers and Stockyards Program (P&SP) promotes fair business practices and competitive environments to market livestock, meat, and poultry. Through its oversight activities, including monitoring programs, reviews, and investigations, P&SP fosters fair competition, provides payment protection, and guards against deceptive and fraudulent trade practices that affect the movement and price of meat animals and their products. P&SP’s work protects consumers and members of the livestock, meat, and poultry industries.
The Agency’s Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) facilitates the marketing of U.S. grain and related agricultural products by establishing standards for quality assessments, regulating handling practices, and managing a network of Federal, State, and private laboratories that provide impartial, user fee funded official inspection and weighing services.
Another Market Reformer Quits
Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes President On January 26th, J. Dudley Butler resigned his position as the livestock industry’s top cop. It was a sad day for independent livestock producers and poultry growers. There was lots of excitement and enthusiasm as the Obama Administration’s Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) forged an historic joint effort to deal with the long-neglected concentration and market power abuse in agriculture. But after some three years and five workshops which Read More …
Ranchers Must Keep Pushing, Ex-GIPSA Chief Says
Updated: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 11:42 AM By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Ranchers risk losing their independence unless they keep pressing for stronger oversight of meat packers, according to a former USDA official who recently resigned after losing a battle over livestock industry reforms. Cattle producers are subject to the same forces as the packer-dominated hog and chicken industries, said Dudley Butler, who left his post as chief of the agency’s Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration in Read More …
Letter from Langdon: Bedfellows
By Richard Oswald Some people may think it’s strange that the Nebraska Farmers Union and the Humane Society of the United States have found some areas of agreement. Not me. When I was a kid growing up on the big river bottom I had a couple of pets that fought like you might expect. Chip the Chesapeake retriever and Tom the barn cat never saw eye to eye at feeding time. To the victor went the leftovers. But Read More …
Rewired, Revamped and Renewed!- OCM Updates Website & More
Anita Poole-Endsley Executive Director Technology is a wonderful thing, and has made communication to the masses possible faster and easier than ever before. OCM offers its thanks to Eryn Taylor and Mike Callicrate for their time, energy and expertise in reworking OCM’s website, www.competitivemarkets.com. The new site has much more capacity to allow our organization to publish news, information, photos and videos. It will be much faster to download articles and find information that is important to you. Read More …
What’s Ahead for American Agriculture?
Thomas F “Fred” Stokes President After attending an OCM retreat near Kansas City in 2000, noted writer William Greider wrote an article containing this rather apocalyptic bit of prophecy. “The contemporary triumph of free-market capitalism has revealed to farmers, if not to other Americans, the bitter last act in this drama. Farmers can see themselves being reduced from their mythological status as independent producers to a subservient and vulnerable role as sharecroppers or franchisees. The control of food Read More …
GIPSA Rule: Victimized by a Captive Congress and an Acquiescent Administration
by: Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes, OCM President Well they’ve done it; they’ve successfully ripped the very heart out of the proposed GIPSA Rule! The current administration gave us high hopes for reform of livestock markets and fair treatment for contract poultry and hog growers by reinvigorating the 90 year old Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA) through the rulemaking process. But the proposed GIPSA Rule has been reduced to relatively insignificant fragments by a congress that is beholden to Read More …
Looking to the Future!
Anita Poole-Endsley Executive Director I envision a future where farmers and ranchers remain independent and corporate agriculture compliments rather than dominates our existence. I look forward to a day when a cattle producer can realize a truly fair price at market because we as a society demanded that corruption and manipulation are not allowed in a free and open market. I hope that our nation re-learns the truths made self-evident throughout our history, that the establishment of justice Read More …