Conference Wrap-Up

Anita Poole-Endsley Executive Director The 13th Annual OCM Conference entitled “Voices Rising from the Land” was held on August 12-13, 2011 in Kansas City, MO at the Westin Crown Center. The meeting carried three themes which illustrate the strategy used by the organization to fight for fair, open and competitive markets: legislation, litigation, and alternative solutions. According to Fred Stokes, former OCM Executive Director and current OCM President, litigation has not been completely successful, and efforts at passing Read More …

Is the Independent U.S. Family Farm About to Be History?

Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes President Back in July of 1999, journalist Bill Bishop wrote a piece in the Lexington Herald Leader, entitled; “Corporate Interests plow deep”. In the article he said; “In the new agriculture, all farmers will work for “the man”. They’ll raise his chickens, turkeys, cattle, corn, tobacco, wheat and hogs. Farmers won’t farm; they’ll fulfill contracts. They will be hog-house janitors for Smithfield and plow jockeys for Cargill and ConAgra. ………. These companies don’t own the farm; Read More …

Letter from Langdon: Voices Rising

Published in The Yonder, 8/17/11 by Richard Oswald For the past 13 years, members of the Organization for Competitive Markets have gathered to talk about unfair markets and antitrust violations in the agriculture business. The voices were rising again last week in Kansas City. Agriculture and the people who build lives around it have never really been known to cry wolf. We seek understanding and occasionally we argue for fair treatment, but creating problems where none exist is Read More …

U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance;

Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes Executive Director Seeking to help U. S. farmers and ranchers or bent on selling the industrial model to a skeptical public? When I first saw the list of the founding members of the new U. S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, all sorts of alarm bells went off. The list includes such groups as; American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), American Soybean Association (ASA), Cattlemen’s Beef Board(CBB), Federation of State Beef Councils (FSBC), National Cattlemen’s Beef Read More …

The Beef Checkoff – Who Pays, Who Benefits?

Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes In response to diminishing market share in the early 80’s, a program to promote beef and beef cattle producers interest was initiated. The program was funded through the assessment of $1 per head each time a bovine animal was sold. Initially, participation was voluntary, but was made mandatory when the program became part of the Farm Bill as The Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985. The stated objectives were; “To enable cattle producers Read More …

Reforming the Marketplace; What’s Next?

Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes Executive Director In a February 9th letter to Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and Attorney General Holder, Senators Patrick Leahy and Charles Grassley state; “we would appreciate an update as to what the DOJ and USDA plans for its next steps.” The two senators, Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were referring to following-on actions after the conclusion of last year’s joint DOJ/USDA workshops. “What’s next” seems to be the question on the Read More …

Packers and Stockyards Act; Nullified by Judcial Activism! – Must We Let It Rest in Peace?

Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes Executive Director The Rule doesn’t reinvent the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (PSA) but rather reinvigorates it”, so says David Domina, OCM General Counsel of the Proposed GIPSA Rule published on the federal register June 22, 2010. The rule was issued pursuant to the 2008 Farm Bill to clarify and interpret the 89 year old Packers and Stockyards Act, but the PSA (sometimes called the producer’s protection act) may well be nullified by Read More …

The Changing Structure of American Agriculture: Will the Family Farm Survive?

OCM is now interning its thirteenth year as an advocate for open, transparent, fair and competitive markets. I offer this somewhat lengthy manuscript to show our early vision and mission and that we have remained true to these precepts over the years. Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes, Executive Director Summerville, Tennessee, March 16, 2000 I’m Fred Stokes from Porterville, Mississippi, a little withering rural community some two hundred miles south of here. I want to thank Don Dowdel and Read More …