Protect The Harvest | The Inconvenient Truth about the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM)

Founded in 1998, the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) claims to be a “research and advocacy” group supporting the American food and agriculture economy. Mike Callicrate, a recognizable name in the beef world, and founder of OCM, says the group fights for “true supply-demand based competition” in the marketplace. Nevertheless, OCM’s actions and words tell a much different story, one in which they believe industry change must be forcibly implemented by the federal government to achieve their definition of marketplace “fairness.”

OCM routinely hurls unfounded and inflammatory accusations at the majority of the beef industry they do not represent regarding packer concentration and so-called cattle price collusion. These allegations have been litigated in court, and/or with federal regulators, numerous times over the past three-plus decades, each time reaching the conclusion the marketplace works equitably based on ever-changing dynamics at work. Factors including drought, import-export trade, feed prices, energy costs, the economy, beef demand and others are taken into account when weighing these allegations.

In addition to hurling unfounded allegations, OCM has aligned itself with like-minded groups that claim to support growth and improved profitability for America’s beef industry. As a result, one might conclude that OCM has good intentions. That’s difficult to accept when OCM embraces organizations with an anti-meat bias, a vegan agenda,