Organization for Competitive Markets

Joint Letter to USDA

Report Concerning Failings in the Beef Checkoff Program

Request for Investigation of Specific NCBA Activities to Determine Extent to Which NCBA Misused the Beef Checkoff to Promote Its Policy Agenda

By C. Robert Taylor and David Domina Many academic economists have blinders on: All they see is efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. This is true of recent comments about GIPSA proposed regulations and the Packers & Stockyards Act of 1921. It is also true of numerous economic analyses by government and academic economists. Generations of economists have recognized that economic efficiency is necessarily a value-laden concept, and a particularly narrow view of…

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…

by Randy Stevenson, President Controversy has erupted over the proposed new GIPSA rules. This disagreement is not unusual in a discussion of the details of the role of government in the marketplace. Nearly everybody agrees that government involvement ought to be “just right”, and not too much nor too little. The disagreement comes over what constitutes “just right”. One argument brought forth by both sides is that the nature of…

by Richard Oswald According to National Public Radio, (1), the one thing vegans can’t resist is a slice of crispy fried pork. That makes bacon the gateway meat for wavering vegetarians. Bacon lures us first through smell, which has a lot to do with the way tastebuds do their job. It has salt, protein, and fat—things human bodies crave. That’s why a scientist named Johan Lundstrom claims the bacon/human love…