Tag: USDA

OCM Releases Report on Regulatory Capture

OCM Staff

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 …

OCM Calls for Moratorium on Beef Imports

OCM Staff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 20, 2020 Media Contact: Ben Gotschall bgotschall@competitivemarkets.com 402-540-1342 OCM Calls for Moratorium on Beef Imports American Producers Can Feed America LINCOLN, NE–Today, the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) sent a letter to United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, calling on him to follow President Trump’s suggestion yesterday to terminate the importation of cattle into the United States. “While we agree with that strategy, we feel it does not go far enough,” said Ben Read More …

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

OCM Staff

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 …

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

OCM Staff

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 …

GIPSA is Dead; the Fight for Producer Protections Continues

OCM Staff

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 …

America Returns to the Jungle

Mike Callicrate

A safe and secure food supply is essential to a free society The United States was always able to feed itself. Except for a few non-essentials like coffee, tea and bananas, we were self-sufficient. The British government, along with their corporate partner, the East India Company, saw unlimited potential to extract wealth through the American colonies. Our Founding Fathers, willing to fight for our freedom and sovereignty, risked their lives and the lives of many citizens, to save Read More …

The Beef Checkoff: A Broken and Failed Program

Mike Callicrate

Organization for Competitive Markets In the early 80’s, after several years of losing market share to other meats, especially chicken,U.S. beef cattle producers initiated a Beef Checkoff Program (Checkoff Program) to promote beef. The program came into being on the third referendum and was included in the Farm Bill in 1985 as the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985. In 1996, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) became the prime contractor of the Checkoff Program, receiving the Read More …