Organization for Competitive Markets

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…

The worries about the power of Wall Street have their roots in rural America. More than 120 years ago, rural Grangers and Populists were warning about concentrations of business power. Maybe it’s time we listened to our rural forebears. By C. Robert Taylor When Nebraska farmers in the 1880s saw that their economic future was being controlled by large businesses, they didn’t occupy Wall Street. They built a new political…

Our adversaries in industrialized agriculture want to frame the animal protection debate in static, black-and-white terms. They want to position all animal advocates as opponents of farming. They want to be judge and jury when it comes to best practices. They pillory animal advocates, and increasingly all consumers and even food retailers, as unfamiliar with the basics, and even the harsh realities, of agriculture. That’s their fictional representation, just like…

For Immediate Release October 19, 2012 Mad Cow, E. coli and abusive market power broker the deal The world witnessed as Cargill and Tyson plundered the Canadian cattle and beef industries after the 2003 Mad Cow debacle. By 2008, there was little meat left on the industries’ bones, so Tyson sold to Nilsson Brothers Inc., an Alberta based cattle dealer, auction house operator, and owner of a 10,000 head per…

Colorado Congressional District 5 covers El Paso County, site of Colorado Springs, the state’s second largest city, as well as five “rural” counties to the south and west. It is considered solidly Republican. GOP Representative Doug Lamborn, now running for a fourth term in the House, is nevertheless being challenged by Dave Anderson, a businessman running on an independent platform. Lamborn is a local attorney who served in the Colorado…

“Voices Rising from the Land” “Addressing the Threats to Independent Family Agriculture.” August 10, 2012 – 14th Annual OCM Food and Agriculture Conference, Kansas City, MO View Press Conference Video Welcome, Introductions, Opening Remarks Fred Stokes, OCM President PANEL – SETBACKS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS (From Left to Right) Fred Stokes, J. Dudley Butler, Bob Taylor and Bill Bullard J. Dudley Butler – GIPSA Rule Butler has recently returned to the practice…

I am J. Dudley Butler. I am an independent family farmer, agricultural lawyer and former Admin. of the Grain Inspection Packer and Stockyard Administration at USDA. I’ve experienced first-hand the vicious, slanderous personal attacks by the meat packers, their chosen media minions, and the puppets like the leaders at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. These types of lies must stop. The public deserves better. The lone plaintiff, Mike Callicrate, in…

September 4, 2012 By Mike Callicrate With much appreciation for the courageous leadership of our past president, Fred Stokes, I write my first message as OCM’s president. I recently asked Fred, “Is OCM irrelevant? How can there be competitive markets without competitors?” In his important and must-read book, Cornered, author Barry C. Lynn describes how every major industry is controlled by a few companies – cartels, shared monopolies and outright…