- The plant will be forty years old next year.
- Excuse to break the cattle market further – Cattle futures were down the limit two days in a row.
- The free water from the Ogallala Aquifer is disappearing.
- The U.S. cattle herd continues to decline.
- Many workers are illegal – Lack of immigration reform is making the hiring of low-cost refugee workers more difficult. Public support for foreign wars and abusive trade policy that displaces refugees to slaughterhouse jobs is becoming less popular.
- Foreign beef is cheaper.
- Memphis Meats – Tyson’s investment in fake meat competes with their existing and aging beef plant infrastructure.
- Tyson can force cattle feeders to redirect cattle to other Tyson plants, increasing utilization of remaining facilities. Additional freight will be at cattle owners’ expense. Additional stress will be at the animals’ expense. With USDA’s new non-inspection rules, chain speeds can be increased at existing facilities and cleanup shifts reduced to absorb additional numbers.
- If Elizabeth Warren’s vision for farming and food is implemented, a breakup of Big Food’s monopoly power is possible, and the cheap grain benefitting Big Food companies will become more expensive.
- It’s a clear warning and lesson to cattle producers supporting R-CALF’s lawsuit against Tyson and the other big packers claiming ongoing anti-competitive practices.
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“The money and political power of Wall Street has stolen America’s food system, bankrupted our farmers and ranchers, mined our soils, polluted our environment, wasted our precious water, and left us with expensive industrially produced food that makes us sick.” – Occupy Wall Street Food Day, December 2011 -
Industrial Agriculture and Urban Sprawl – A model of growth that’s made to fail. -
Ranching Reboot Episode 4, Mike Callicrate “It’s time for a third revolution against monopolies”
Above: Ranching Reboot – Episode 4 – Mike Callicrate, owner of Ranch Foods Direct, sat down with us to talk about all manner of things from cattle markets, to public food spaces, the Bander, his feedlot and the pathway he built to market.
He shares valuable lessons learned from fighting against the commodity production system and how he’s built his own pathway to the consumer.
We talk about small community slaughter plants and public meat spaces and what that could look like going in to the future. We discuss environmental challenges, the food police and what it means when a Dollar General comes to town.
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- This Cattleman's Got A Beef
Photo: Sean Cayton - 2003People producing good food from happy animals, while improving the environment, shouldn’t have to fear the government.
Photo above featured in a 2003 article: This cattleman's got a beef, Mike Callicrate and Ranch Foods Direct take on the big meat packersby Kathryn Eastburn
Are you saying in number 10 that Tyson deliberately set the fire?
No, but a reminder that the big meat packer cartel has the power to punish.
Definitely points for consideration and to ponder