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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
Author Archives: Mike Callicrate
Life in the West – China Doesn’t Own This Yet
Global corporations have now taken control of many industries. Companies like Walmart and the Dollar Stores are gutting the last of the money from our communities in America. At the same time, companies like Cargill and JBS take every advantage … Continue reading
Big Beef – $1.28 Billion Rigged Game
Go inside the rigged game of Big Beef and discover many differences between the giant Beef Industry and the local community-based storefront. This video is about Mike Callicrate’s story of deception and bribery as well as his will to build … Continue reading
Maker-Owned Marketplaces
The essential next step in building healthy, resilient, community-scaled food systems Growers, craftsmen, skilled workers, and food makers deserve a fair share of the consumer food dollar. The people who do the real work of growing and making good food … Continue reading
What’s Wrong with the Beef you Buy?
Trinity Vandenacre met Mike at the Rendezvous City Beef Roundup last summer where Trinity was one of the beef competition judges. Mike presented, “Cows Can Save the World” for the first time. The updated version, most recently presented to the … Continue reading
Perspectives on Agriculture: Past and Future
Callicrate note: Several years ago, in a conversation with John, we discussed the use of a new term describing what I thought was a better kind of agriculture. Since “sustainable” had been stolen by big corporate ag, I suggested the … Continue reading
