Search Results for: ncba

Guideline for AMS Oversight of Commodity Research and Promotion Programs

Fred Stokes

Conflicts of Interest in Research and Promotion Programs As a general matter of policy, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) guidelines for oversight of all checkoff programs expressly require contracting procedures that “avoid any conflict of interest or a situation that could reasonably be perceived by a third party as a conflict of interest.”1 The Beef Order includes provisions that reflect these principles, as well. Before service on the board or as a Federation representative on the Beef Promotion Read More …

Briefing for USDA AMS Administrator Anne Alonzo

Fred Stokes

Ms. Alonzo, I am Fred Stokes representing The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM), a sixteen year old non-profit advocate for a fair marketplace for what farmers and ranchers buy and what they sell.In other words, we want the game to be straight. I thank you for giving us this opportunity to express our concerns regarding the Beef Promotion and Research Program, commonly known as the Beef Checkoff. OCM has associated itself with other like-minded groups, including the Humane Read More …

Breakwater Cattle Company’s Letter to President: Protecting Taxpayer Dollars

Mike Callicrate

PRESS RELEASE BREAKWATER CATTLE COMPANY 499 Breakwater Drive Benton, MS 39039 August 4, 2014 United States President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20500 Re: Protecting Taxpayer Dollars Dear Mr. President I know we can agree that there are seven continents, and North America is one of them. North America includes 41 separate countries and territories. I also know there are embedded within USDA certain National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) sympathizers that want Read More …

Confronting The Lie: Open Letter to Steve Dittmer

Mike Callicrate

June 24, 2014 Dear Mr. Dittmer, After reading Mike Callicrate’s article about you in the OCM newsletter, I feel compelled to respond to your recent blog about me and the good hardworking employees at GIPSA that I was honored to lead. Two old sayings come to mind when dealing with you. First is “a wise man has something to say and a fool just has to say something”. The other is that “some people would rather climb a Read More …

The Other Shoe Drops

Fred Stokes

The second “final” report on the USDA OIG Audit of the Beef Checkoff was released the end of January. An earlier seventeen page report was released in March of 2013 but was shortly withdrawn for “additional audit work” under withering charges of whitewash and cover-up. It was generally accepted that the audit was prompted by the disturbing findings in an Audit in 2010, ordered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). You may recall that the CBB ordered audit Read More …

Important anniversary coincides with compelling new book

Mike Callicrate

By Mike Callicrate | February 20, 2014 This week I’m taking a moment to observe the 10-year anniversary of the most important court case in the history of the U.S. cattle industry, while turning the last page on a powerful new book that tells in precise and riveting detail the sad story of why the lawsuit was so critically needed. Christopher Leonard’s new book, The Meat Racket – The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business, which hits book Read More …

Robber Barons Return – U.S. Becoming Beggar Nation


Mike Callicrate

As Big Food’s tentacles wind tighter around markets and governments, OCM fights on From seed to plate, a handful of global corporations have combined their power to extract unprecedented amounts of resources and wealth. Even Upton Sinclair* couldn’t have predicted that today our nation’s four largest meat packers would control over 85% of the market. Surely even he would be surprised to find the biggest companies in all three major meat categories— beef, pork, and poultry—now foreign owned! Read More …

Big Beef

Mike Callicrate

Independent ranchers and animal rights activists don’t agree about much, except that it’s time to stop using federal tax dollars to support the meat lobby. By Siddhartha Mahanta | New America Foundation Imagine if the federal government mandated that a portion of all federal gas taxes go directly to the oil industry’s trade association, the American Petroleum Institute. Imagine further that API used this public money to finance ad campaigns encouraging people to drive more and turn up Read More …