By Mike Callicrate & Fred Stokes Eating is one thing we all have in common. And, to millions of us, what we eat, how it’s produced, and where it comes from is important. OCM has worked for the last fourteen years to restore competition in the agricultural marketplace. We believe family farmers and ranchers make the best stewards of our land and livestock, and are the most reliable and trustworthy sources of high quality, healthy and safe food. Read More …
By Mateusz Perkowski | Capital Press A rancher vows to continue his legal challenge against the national Beef Checkoff even though his original attorneys have decided to exit the court battle. “We fully intend to pursue the case,” said Michael Callicrate, a Colorado rancher and plaintiff in the litigation. A federal judge recently allowed attorneys to withdraw from Callicrate’s lawsuit, which alleges that national Beef Checkoff dollars intended for promotions were unlawfully misused for lobbying. The complaint claims Read More …
By Mateusz Perkowski | Capital Press Attorneys involved in a lawsuit against the national Beef Checkoff program want to quit the case, citing a conflict of interest. Michael Callicrate, the Colorado rancher who filed the complaint, said he believes the law firm has caved in to pressure from the meat industry. “I am very skeptical,” said Callicrate. “They have no legitimate basis for withdrawing from this lawsuit.” Gabriel Zorogastua, an attorney with the Polsinelli Shughart law firm who Read More …
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012 by Alan Guebert Somewhere along the line it became acceptable to bend and break the record of public figures and firms without any consequence whatsoever. Shortly thereafter distortion and deception replaced discussion and debate and yelling and lying replaced compromise and progress. And that’s just in agriculture; in politics it’s even worse. The latest farm and food fight centers on the legal battle that pits the Read More …
Daniel D. Owen – Polsinelli Shughart PC August 10, 2012 | Filing Date for Complaint for Permanent Injunction MICHAEL P. CALLICRATE, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (PDF) Mike Callicrate is the named plaintiff in the lawsuit filed against the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service, Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) and the CBB’s Beef Promotion Operating Committee. Callicrate is the owner of a meat packing facility and retail market called Ranch Direct Foods in Colorado Springs, Read More …
Press Release Blast NCBA2 Click to read OCM’s press release regarding NCBA’s announcement that it intends to make eliminating the livestock title in the 2012 farm bill a priority.
by Fred Stokes At the OCM Annual Conference in St. Louis in August of 2009, Phil Weiser, Deputy to Antitrust Chief Christine Varney, and J. Dudley Butler, Administrator of the Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), laid out an ambitious and historic plan to reform the agricultural marketplace. For the first time in our nation’s history, there was to be a joint DOJ/USDA initiative to restore a competitive marketplace for agriculture. Our antitrust laws were finally Read More …
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 …