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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
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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 Categories
Food Policy & Law
E. Coli Confessions Part I
by John Munsell | Oct 11, 2011
Opinion
Editor's Note: This is the first part in a series written by John Munsell of Miles City, MT, who explains how the small meat plant his family owned for 59 years ran afoul of USDA's meat inspection program. The events he writes about began a decade ago, but remain relevant today.
They say that confession is good for the soul. I've been involved in a series of ugly events since my plant in 2002 recalled 270 pounds of ground beef contaminated with E.coli O157:H7 and now want to admit the embarrassing truth for public review. moreTags
- advanced meat recovery
- antibiotics
- beef checkoff
- Big Food
- BPI
- Callicrate
- Callicrate Beef
- Callicrate Cattle Co.
- Cargill
- Chipotle
- Colorado Springs
- COOL
- Dudley Butler
- e. coli
- Eric Schlosser
- fast food nation
- food Inc.
- Foodopoly
- GIPSA
- HSUS
- IBP
- Industrial Agriculture
- JBS
- McDonald's
- meat packers
- Mike Callicrate
- Monsanto
- NCBA
- OCM
- Organization for Competitive Markets
- pink slime
- R-CALF
- Ranch Foods Direct
- Rick Hughes
- Smithfield
- Sodexo
- steroids
- Sysco
- Tom Vilsack
- Tyson
- U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance
- USDA
- Vandana Shiva
- Walmart
- zilmax
National News Supplement
Author Archives: Mike Callicrate
Colorado Springs Business Journal: Rancher-retailer has a beef with Big Food
by Jeanne Davant | November 1, 2018 Raising and selling top-quality meats puts bread on Mike Callicrate’s table. But activism feeds his soul. The owner of Ranch Foods Direct has been a passionate advocate for family farmers and small businesses … Continue reading
The Kansas Union Farmer 1944: Jefferson Fought Barons of His Day
— courtesy of Tom Giessel Thomas Jefferson, in a letter written to William Johnson spoke of the industrial and plantation barons of his day as follows: Still further to constrain the brute force of the people they deem it necessary … Continue reading
NFU’s Robert G. Lewis article, published in 1954: Revolution from the Right
-courtesy of Tom Giessel Corporate Socialism Emerges as the Chief Threat to American Democracy by Robert G. Lewis, NUF Washington Correspondent A TOTALITARIAN revolutionary movement is being developed in the United States. It seeks far-reaching and fundamental changes in the … Continue reading
The Wichita Eagle: Kansas needs solutions that help farmers and keep our water clean
by Mike Callicrate and Karen Stillerman | August 30, 2018 The Kansas town of Pretty Prairie has gained national attention for the wrong reason: as documented by Harper’s Magazine earlier this year, this community of 600 has a tap water … Continue reading