Corporate Power – Organization for Competitive Markets

9 Actions We Can Take Now to Strengthen Our Agriculture and Food System

OCM Staff — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 18:51:21 +0000

The Covid-19 Pandemic has had many effects on the economy of the United States, and particularly hard-hit has been the agriculture and food sector. Not since the Depression have we seen such a disparity between retail and farmgate prices, empty grocery shelves while people clamor for food, and farmers going out of business. Like something straight out of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, farmers are euthanizing livestock, dumping milk, and allowing produce to rot in the fields, Read More ...

30% of Nothing is Still Nothing

OCM Staff — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 19:56:12 +0000

Currently there is a movement in the cattle industry calling for a mandatory beef cattle cash market volume of 30%. Corbitt Wall is touting it as the biggest thing to hit the cattle industry since Y-Tex eartags, while patting himself on the back like he just invented a new card game. Meanwhile, NCBA has been spending our checkoff dollars developing an online cookbook. Beef producers need Market Reform, not Martha Stewart. Perhaps NCBA could spend less of its Read More ...

Advocates Take to Social Media to #BreakUpBigAg

OCM Staff — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 19:56:13 +0000

Between Monday, June 10th and Friday, June 14th the Organization for Competitive Markets led a social media campaign called #BreakUpBigAg to support the Agribusiness Merger Moratorium Act. Organizations and individual advocates published their pictures along with statements in support of the moratorium on Facebook and Twitter. In their pictures, participants were holding posters with facts about consolidation in our farm and food systems. These facts included: “1950s: farmers received 50% of the food dollar. Today: farmers receive 14.8% of Read More ...

GIPSA is Dead; the Fight for Producer Protections Continues

OCM Staff — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 13:29:38 +0000

In a move designed to take a thorn out of the side of the world’s largest meatpackers, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue put the final nail in the coffin of the Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) by formalizing the elimination of the standalone agency and transferring its delegation to the historically big agribusiness-friendly Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Among its duties, the now defunct GIPSA agency was responsible for enforcement of antitrust law in 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 ...

‘Picked Off Like a Single Quail’

Mike Callicrate — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 19:32:16 +0000

Daily Yonder – Ag and Trade | 12/30/2013 Unless rural people get organized to stand up to corporate power, the future of rural America will be grim, says veteran Nebraska agriculture attorney David Domina. If you care about rural communities, watch this speech — even if it means skipping a few cat videos. By Tim Marema If farmers don’t get organized and work together, they stand about as much chance of surviving as a lone bird flying into Read More ...

Forget Oil, Worry About Phosphorus

Mike Callicrate — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:36:54 +0000

“The following was authored by C. Robert Taylor, Alfa Eminent Scholar and Professor of Agricultural Economics at Auburn University and OCM Senior Economic Fellow and published in the Daily Yonder.” (all charts, graphs and illustrations can be found in the Newsletter archives, October 2010 edition) The world’s agriculture depends on a mineral that is declining in production and is controlled by a cartel of companies. Troubling, ain’t it? Modern farming methods depend increasingly on fossil fuels and major Read More ...

Download the Complaint: U.S. vs. Monsanto and Delta and Pine Land

Mike Callicrate — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:07:23 +0000

U.S.vsMonsantoDelta_COMPLAINT

Corporate Power

Mike Callicrate — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:41:46 +0000

The problem of consolidation in the seed industry is well known. One company in particular, the Monsanto Company, controls a high percentage of the global seed market and continues to increase its dominance by acquiring or merging with a significant number of companies in its industry. Monsanto has acquired dozens of independent seed companies in the last decade. It controls 70% of the transgenic corn market and more than 90% of the transgenic soybean market. In 2007, Monsanto Read More ...

Take Action

Mike Callicrate — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:29:23 +0000

The concentration of market power in the seed industry cannot be ignored. The problem is well known and already impacts every farmer, rancher and agricultural producer. In the face of historic fuel costs, farmers are also paying higher seed costs with less choice due to unfair trade practices in the crop seed and genetics industry. Our farmers and rural communities are at a disadvantage. Help us take back an open and fair seed industry. Educate yourself on the Read More ...