USDA – 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 Moratorium on Beef Imports

OCM Staff — Wed, 20 May 2020 09:33:18 +0000

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 — 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

America Returns to the Jungle

Mike Callicrate — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 17:41:07 +0000

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 — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 15:46:57 +0000

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 ...

Vilsack Drops Huge Bomb: Approving Beef Imports from FMD-Infected Brazil & Agentina

Mike Callicrate — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 13:33:32 +0000

USDA Approval of Brazilian Beef Imports Coming Soon?? by Jim Eichstadt | The Milkweed – Dairy’s best information and insights | Issue No. 431 • June 2015 Foot & Mouth Disease Threat Alert! USDA appears to be gearing up to do the unthinkable: allowing fresh beef imports from Brazil, a country contaminated with highly contagious Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD). No sane person would dare risk this “nuclear option.” Exposing U.S. livestock herds to an FMD outbreak could devastate millions Read More ...

Ranchers take on the beef industry over mandatory checkoff payments

Mike Callicrate — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 14:20:03 +0000

By MIKE McGRAW and PEGGY LOWE | Harvest Public Media NEMAHA COUNTY, Kan. – From their small farms set in the rolling hills of northeast Kansas, two ranchers are raising a few cattle — and a lot of Cain. David Pfrang and Jim Dobbins turned themselves into activists, launched a mirror corporation, got hauled into federal court and had to hire a lawyer. All over $1. That buck, though, divides the beef industry. And it may influence what Read More ...