-
“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.
-
- 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
Defending The Cattle Industry – Like our lives depend on it.
Herman Schumacher and Johnny Smith were fearless defenders of fair, open, and competitive markets, risking everything in the battle to protect their auction market customer – the cattle producer. The following presentations were part of the June 2, 1996 South … Continue reading
How to Fix the Broken Cattle Market
December 3, 2021 The Way to Fix a Flawed Compromise is to De-couple “Negotiated” from “Spot” By Gilles Stockton Senate Bill 3229, is said to be a compromise merging the 50/14 concept proposed by Senators Grassely and Tester, with a … Continue reading
We were warned about corporate power, crooked politicians, and big money …
Lincoln’s letter on corporations “We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood … It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see … Continue reading
Story of the Steer and a Theft of Epic Proportions
The following tells the story of a steer, and also a story of the meatpacker/retailer cartel that captured the largest sector of our food system, while touting efficiencies and economies of scale. Since the early 1980’s when the big-four meatpackers … Continue reading
Iowa Beef Processors Wasn’t Big Enough to Compete
Mini-Big meatpacking plants have no chance of success without breaking up the conglomerates. And even then, are smaller versions of the inefficient big plants that depend on below-cost-of-production cattle, reduced animal welfare, worker exploitation, and environmental degradation, a good idea? … Continue reading
