CHARLESTON, WV – The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) and Competitive Markets Action (CMA), recently announced the recipients of their 2023 Congressional Leadership Awards and their Competitive Markets Legislator of the Year Award recipient, U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-WV.The groups measured recognition by three actions in the U.S. House: those who signed a Congressional letter to the House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-PA, and Ranking Member David Scott, D-GA, with staunch opposition to the terrible so-called Ending Agriculture Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, H.R. 4417, led by Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-IA. The measure would nullify more than a thousand state and local laws that provide certainty and security in the marketplace for independent family farmers and ranchers across America. Mooney was a signor of the letter that included Reps. Carol Miller, R-WV, Lance Gooden, R-TX, and Buddy Carter, R-GA, to name a few.Mooney also cosponsored the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act, H.R. 1249/S. 557, led by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, and Sens. Mike Lee, R-UT, and Rand Paul, R-KY, that would reform the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s scandal-ridden commodity checkoff programs that have been plagued by unethical and illegal activities for decades. This was the second metric by which the groups measured their Legislator of the Year Award for 2023. OFF is backed by more than 200,000 farmers and ranchers across the country and groups like FreedomWorks, the American Grassfed Association, Contract Poultry Growers Association of the Virginias, and the Heritage Foundation.In the third and final metric, Mooney voted in support of a House Appropriations Amendment in September of 2023 led by Reps. Victoria Spartz, R-IN, and Thomas Massie, R-KY, that would have temporarily halted the corruption within USDA’s commodity checkoff programs by cutting off funding until a USDA OIG Audit on the programs could be completed. Joe Biden's USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has been at the center of checkoff controversy as he has directly benefited from millions of checkoff dollars funneled into his own personal coffers. Mooney was selected as the Competitive Markets overall Legislator of the Year for 2023 as he was the only Member of Congress who supported each of the three legislative initiatives. While not a metric for the award as the action occurred in 2024, Mooney also led a House letter to Agriculture Committee leaders in January, against increasing crop reference prices in the upcoming Farm Bill in which he was joined by Reps. Andy Ogles, R-TN, Brian Mast, R-FL, Carol Miller, R-WV, Nancy Mace, R-SC, and Andy Biggs, R-AZ, that was supported by CMA and OCM, as well the Heritage Foundation, the Club for Growth, R-Street, the National Taxpayers Union, FreedomWorks, and Taxpayers for Common Sense.“I’m honored to be named the Competitive Markets Legislator of the Year in Congress. I am committed to keeping West Virginia family farms in the hands of our hard-working American producers,” said Rep. Alex X. Mooney, R-WV, who was named Legislator of the Year for 2023. “Keeping our food supply safe from a Communist Chinese takeover is one of the most critical issues facing our country.”“I applaud our legislator of the year Rep. Alex Mooney for working to help American family farmers protect our food supply from the globalists who’ve sold our country out for a quick buck,” said Mike Weaver, a Past President at the Organization for Competitive Markets and Contract Poultry Growers Association of the Virginias that includes West Virginia.

Hens on a Poultry Farm; image courtesy of Alexas_Fotos via Pixabay, www.pixabay.com

“We applaud Rep. Mooney for his tireless work, tremendous leadership, and intestinal fortitude in standing up to Chinese interests and multinational conglomerates who continue to further consolidate American agriculture,” said Taylor Haynes, President of the Organization for Competitive Markets and Founder of the Wyoming Independent Cattlemen’s Association. “If Agriculture Committee leaders want to get a Farm Bill done in 2024 they’d be wise to jettison any language that nullifies state and local agriculture laws and include a provision to reform USDA’s swampy checkoff slush funds.”“We applaud Rep. Alex Mooney for going against the grain by pushing back against the leaders of EATS, the USDA’s scandal-ridden commodity checkoff programs, and China’s continuous attempts to takeover American agriculture,” said Marty Irby, President at Competitive Markets Action and Board Secretary of the Organization for Competitive Markets. “Industrial agribusiness interests and multinational conglomerates have turned far too many of our hard-working farm families into modern-day indentured servants and we’re amidst an uprising in the farm world Agri-Big Brother never seen before.”“As a proud American and lifelong producer, I proudly applaud Rep. Mooney for being committed to defeating Big Ag’s Chinese and Brazilian backers that threaten our food supply,” said Jonathan Buttram, Treasurer at the Organization for Competitive Markets, and President of the Alabama Contract Poultry Growers Association and. “The industrial agriculture mafia is petrified of our work because they see the writing on the wall and we hope they soon meet the same fate as New York’s infamous ‘Five Families.’”OCM and CMA also conducted its third fly-in since July of 2023 to Washington, D.C. this month and engaged in nearly 90 meetings on the OFF and EATS Acts during that event. In addition to their grassroots advocacy, CMA is represented on the EATS Act by several lobbying firms including Capitol South, LLC, and Conaway-Graves, led by former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-TX.The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Lincoln, Nebraska. The foundation of the Organization for Competitive Markets is to fight for competitive markets in agriculture for farmers, ranchers and rural communities. True competition reduces the need for economic regulation. Our mission, and our duty, is to define and advocate the proper role of government in the agricultural economy as a regulator and enforcer of rules necessary for markets that are fair, honest, accessible and competitive for all citizens.Competitive Markets Action (CMA) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit based in Washington, D.C., that was formed with the mission of shaping policy to promote more regenerative and sustainable agriculture, and competitive markets in the U.S., and to defend against attacks on states’ rights by the federal government. CMA works to raise awareness of the harm caused by multinational conglomerates to the American family farmer, the consumer and our U.S. economy as a whole in an effort to bring about legislative and regulatory reforms.