The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and National Chicken Council (NCC) refuse to answer the Organization for Competitive Markets’ (OCM) challenge to debate the benefits of the recently released GIPSA Farmer Fair Practices Rules.
After all three industrialized agriculture trade organizations blasted the newly released rules, OCM sent a letter on December 27th, 2016 to NCBA, NPPC and NCC challenging them to a series of debates over the merits of the rules. All three groups have denounced these rules which clearly benefit America’s family farmers and ranchers.
OCM president Mike Weaver said, “We all know these big meat companies and industrial ag industry groups want to hide the truth from the farmers and the consumers. Their failure to debate us is just further evidence of this fact. OCM does not hide; we are confident of our positions and we are out in the communities delivering the truth. Consumers have a right to know how their food is raised and processed and that the farmers are treated fairly in that process.”
In an effort to stay connected with rural America and America’s consumers, OCM is hosting a series of meetings called the “Taking it Back” tour with the goal of building support to take back the markets restoring the agriculture markets to a fair and just system for farmers and consumers alike.
Just this past week OCM held two tour meetings in Virginia and Alabama, and previously in Mississippi. These meetings allow farmers and the rural community to learn what forces are extracting the wealth from the community. OCM supports transparency in the market and works to educate the public on the state of agriculture in America.
OCM has worked toward the implementation of meaningful GIPSA rules for nearly a decade, and is proud to stand with the USDA in taking this important step toward ensuring needed transparency in the marketplace for America’s livestock producers and poultry growers who have struggled against predatory, anti-competitive practices by the largest multinational corporations.
Weaver added, “It is just unconscionable that the trade organizations who receive the lion’s chair of our checkoff fees use them to build their influence to work against family farm market safeguards or consumer transparency issues such as Country of Origin Labeling. It should simply be a crime, and that is exactly why they are hiding behind their closed doors and not willing to step out into the light and debate us.”
Media Contact: Angela Huffman, 614-390-7552
ahuffman@competitivemarkets.com
