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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
“We have more reason to fear USDA than any foreign power.”
Who Is Allan Savory Allan Savory has been many things in his life: an environmentalist, an academic, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and a political refugee, just to name a few. He graduated from the University of Natal in South Africa … Continue reading
COOL – “What you don’t know can hurt you.”
A 2007 video on Country of Origin Labeling is relevant today – “In this case, what you don’t know can hurt you.” The U.S. Congress repealed country of origin labeling (COOL) for beef and pork in late 2015, just ahead … Continue reading
“THE HUSBANDMAN THAT LABORETH MUST BE THE FIRST PARTAKER OF THE FRUITS.”
St. Paul’s quote, “The husbandman that laboreth must be the first partaker of the fruits,” is cut in stone above the entrance to the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington DC. Only one person I have talked to over … Continue reading
Big Hunger
January 25, 2018 Recently I attended, “Rooting out Hunger: Strategies and Perspectives in the Anti-Hunger Movement“, held at Colorado College and featuring Andy Fisher, author of the new book Big Hunger. Mr. Fisher seemed to present an open-and-shut case. Chronic … Continue reading
Shedding Light on Fast Food’s Dark Side
February 1, 2018 All American Meal Even Less American Now It’s been nearly twenty years since Rolling Stone magazine serialized Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser’s story about how franchise food chains and their … Continue reading
