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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
Ranchers take on the beef industry over mandatory checkoff payments
By MIKE McGRAW and PEGGY LOWE | Harvest Public Media NEMAHA COUNTY, Kan. – From their small farms set in the rolling hills of northeast Kansas, two ranchers are raising a few cattle — and a lot of Cain. David … Continue reading
Meat Quality Presentation at 3rd Annual Western Colorado Food and Farm Forum – Winter 2015
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Connecting Producers to Eaters Presentation at 3rd Annual Western Colorado Food and Farm Forum – Winter 2015
[slideshare id=43946830&doc=westerncoloradofoodandfarmforum1-10-15-150127075553-conversion-gate02] Mike Callicrate is an independent cattle producer, feedyard owner, business entrepreneur and political activist in St. Francis Kansas. In 2000, he formed a value-added meat company called Ranch Foods Direct to go around the highly concentrated big food … Continue reading
Farm Tenancy – Dr. H. J. Waters, 1917
Plowing the life out of the ground – a history of farm ownership/tenancy by Dr. Waters [president of Kansas State University , early 1900’s].
