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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
‘Broken systems raise costs far faster than resilient ones.’
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, March 13, 2022 ‘Broken systems raise costs far faster than resilient ones.’ Alan Guebert One of the most beautiful–and inexplicable–aspects of economics is how its practitioners never seem to be wrong. … Continue reading
Post pandemic, we’re still captive to a flawed formula
American firms recruit thousands of Mexicans to do the nation’s dirtiest, most dangerous work. The New Jungle “Ninety years after Upton Sinclair published his groundbreaking expose of the nation’s meatpacking industry, illegal immigrants are flocking to the United States … Continue reading
NCBA Policy and Packer Monopoly Ride Herd on Independent Cattlemen
August 18, 2000 By Mike Callicrate It’s clear now that packer concentration vs. a free competitive cash market has divided the nation’s cattlemen. And the cattlemen are losing, big time. Nowhere was this deep division and capitulation more evident than … Continue reading
Ok, here’s how we fix it.
When the markets are gone, and the game of monopoly is over What Happened Grandpa? The big-four meatpackers income will be regulated and limited to the drop credit value of the animals they slaughter. Big food retailers and food service … Continue reading
Packer Concentration in the Beef Industry, By Kathleen S. Kelley
Before The Meat Trust (to the small farmer): My friend, why don’t you raise a few cattle each year? The price of beef is high. You will make good money. After The Meat Trust (to same small farmer): The price … Continue reading
