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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
Category Archives: Beef Checkoff
Local Catholic rancher sues USDA, others over alleged favoritism to large cattle producers
By VERONICA AMBUUL 9/7/2012 COLORADO SPRINGS. Catholic rancher Mike Callicrate, a St. Mary Cathedral parishioner, is the plaintiff in a lawsuit in federal district court in Kansas City against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Cattlemens’ Beef Board (CBB) … Continue reading
R-CALF USA Demands Suspension of Contracts Between NCBA and Beef Checkoff
August 28, 2012 The Honorable Tom Vilsack Secretary of Agriculture U.S. Department of Agriculture 1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250 Sent via facsimile and U.S. Mail: 202-720-6314 Re: R-CALF USA’s Demand for the Immediate and Permanent Suspension of all … Continue reading
R-CALF USA Summary of Beef Checkoff Lawsuit
Summary of Beef Checkoff Lawsuit Mike Callicrate v. USDA et al. Prepared by R-CALF USA Revised August 23, 2012 THE PARTIES: Mike Callicrate is the only Plaintiff in the complaint. Named Defendants in the complaint include: U.S. Department of Agriculture … Continue reading
Stop the NCBA Beef Checkoff lies, the public deserves the truth
I am J. Dudley Butler. I am an independent family farmer, agricultural lawyer and former Admin. of the Grain Inspection Packer and Stockyard Administration at USDA. I’ve experienced first-hand the vicious, slanderous personal attacks by the meat packers, their chosen … Continue reading
I am Joe Maxwell
I am Joe Maxwell, a fourth generation family farmer from Missouri, and Director of Rural Development and Outreach for the Humane Society of the United States. HSUS is not asking that you join them, only that we join together to stop … Continue reading