Packers & Stockyards Act – Organization for Competitive Markets

OCM Releases Report on Regulatory Capture

OCM Staff — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 18:26:02 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 24, 2020 Media Contact: Ben Gotschall bgotschall@competitivemarkets.com 402-540-1342 Organization for Competitive Markets Releases Report on Regulatory Capture White paper reveals ag industry and government are too close for comfort LINCOLN, NE: The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) has released a report on regulatory agency capture entitled “Captured: How Agribusiness Controls Regulatory Agencies and Harms Producers and Consumers.” The 25-page paper details the revolving door between major agribusiness firms and the regulatory agencies Read More ...

Heritage Radio Network | OCM Weighs in on Cattle

OCM Staff — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 15:54:47 +0000

The Interim Director of OCM, Ben Gotschall, talks about a moratorium on beef imports, consolidation in the industry, and improving the markets for American producers.

OCM Calls for Breakup of Big Four Meatpackers

OCM Staff — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 21:00:30 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 30, 2020 Media Contact: Ben Gotschall bgotschall@competitivemarkets.com 402-540-1342 OCM Calls for Breakup of Big Four Meatpackers Weak Links in Food Supply Chain Must Be Removed LINCOLN, NE: Today, Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) is calling for the breakup of the “Big Four” meatpacking companies: Cargill, JBS, National Beef, and Tyson. Together, these four companies control over 85% of the United States beef supply. Recent packing plant closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have Read More ...

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 ...

Voice from the Ranch: Nebraska Cattle Producer Screwed by JBS Speaks the Truth

OCM Staff — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 17:59:57 +0000

The world’s largest beef processing corporation, JBS, is underpaying family farmers and ranchers for their cattle. Even worse, our government is letting them get away with it. A recent announcement of yet another case where a JBS meatpacking plant failed to properly weigh and keep track of cattle delivered to its plant resulted in a paltry settlement between JBS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), highlighting how USDA is failing the American farmer and rancher. USDA Secretary Read More ...

New JBS Violations Highlight Weak Enforcement of Packers & Stockyards Act

OCM Staff — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 01:07:19 +0000

Today, Organization for Competitive Markets received information indicating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will be releasing the terms of a settlement agreement with JBS Swift over its gross mishandling of beef carcasses at its Grand Island, Nebraska facility, its largest beef processing plant in the U.S. This unconscionable practice led to probable underpayments to cattle producers in violation of the Packers & Stockyards Act. In a soon to be released press statement, AMS 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 ...

For Meat Industry, Anti-trust Efforts in Corporate Control Collapse

Mike Callicrate — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:10:46 +0000

by David Andrews In 2008 the Federal Farm Bill instructed the Department of Agriculture to write rules for competition in the meat industry. This directive was to complete the details lacking in the 80-plus-year-old legislation on competition in the meat industry from the Theodore Roosevelt era. That legislation was to be enhanced with detailed directions on contracts, anti-trust policies and mandates requiring greater justice in meat production, processing and distribution. The rules were to be developed by a Read More ...

Another Market Reformer Quits

Mike Callicrate — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:35:06 +0000

Thomas F. “Fred” Stokes President On January 26th, J. Dudley Butler resigned his position as the livestock industry’s top cop. It was a sad day for independent livestock producers and poultry growers. There was lots of excitement and enthusiasm as the Obama Administration’s Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) forged an historic joint effort to deal with the long-neglected concentration and market power abuse in agriculture. But after some three years and five workshops which Read More ...