Mike Callicrate | No-Bull Food News

The Families Interest In Pure Food

By H. Louis Jackson

“Great pressure is being exerted on food officials by corporations.”

Excerpt:

“…I believe it is time that everyone should know the great pressure that is being exerted on food officials by corporations and groups of firms backed by millions of dollars. That the people should know the special privileges manufactures have gained, thereby so that it is now impossible to prosecute for certain forms of adulteration and misbranding. And lastly that the people should know that unless every family takes an active and intelligent interest in this law, which is for their benefit and exerts a strong pressure on their own food officials, that the law more and more will be adapted to the manufacturers and less and less to the people.”

The article was provided by Tom Giessel, Larned, KS

Download The Families Interest In Pure Food, By H. Loius Jackson

Interview – Mike Callicrate:Restoring Market Access

This longtime independent cattle producer has spent decades in the struggle to free the market from an ever-more-concentrated trust of packers and distributors. He shares what he’s learned and describes the hard work that still lies ahead.

Food Kaisers 

Engdahl: Food Kaisers [March 1918]

by J. Louis Engdahl

Leaflet published by the National Office of the Socialist Party of America (Chicago). “Organization Leaflet No. 15,” March 1918. Copy in DoJ/BoI Investigative Files, NARA M-1085, reel 927.

Let us dethrone the FIVE FOOD KAISERS of the United States! Let us put an end to the long reign of terror of the masters of meat, Swift, Armour, Morris, Cudahy, and Wilson.

We, the American people, have borne the burdensome yoke of these shameless oppressors too patiently and too long.

Have we lost all power of protest? Have we been bent so low in servitude to the rulers of industry that we shall never again stand erect as free men and women?

Millions dying of neglect, millions on the brink of starvation, millions on the hunger line, other millions, even up into the ranks of the middle class; all help swell the increasing demand for liberation from the greatest evil of all ages — THE PROFIT SYSTEM.

No Relief From Washington.

One year of war has taught us that there is no relief to be had from Washington. The government’s own representatives, in startling exposures, have shown us how the FIVE FOOD KAISERS dictate to the administration in power in many and devious ways.

The FIVE FOOD KAISERS have no dislike for Herbert Hoover, food dictator. He allows them to continue harvesting their increasing profits. They gladly allow him to toy with fantastic plans for satisfying the human stomach on a diminishing ration that already amounts to practically nothing for many of our people.

What the packers, the foot profiteers, think of Herbert Hoover, United States food dictator, is shown to some extent in a letter by P.L. Hughes, Washington representative of Cudahy & Co., dated July 5, 1917, to E.A. Cudahy, one of the members of the “Big Five Food Kaisers” at Chicago, in part as follows:

He took the position that we should get together and formulate plans for our government, and see that the public is protected after a fair profit on our output is taken.

The fact is he likes to talk more about the billions of dollars that will be saved to this country by organizing the housewives of America and inducing them to be frugal and

avoid waste.

He seems to be an earnest, straightforward man. I THINK HE WILL BE CONSERVATIVE AND USE ANY POWERS GIVEN HIM DISCREETLY.

He thought right. Mr. Hoover has been so “conservative” and used his powers so “discretely” that the war has been a godsend to the FIVE FOOD KAISERS — if we are to judge by the harvest of wealth reaped by the profiteers in the things we eat.

The following figures show that neither Mr. Hoover’s regulation of their own much vaunted patriotism has prevented them from gouging the public for all it could stand:

Profits 1913 Profits 1917

Armour & Co. $6,028,197 $21,000,000

Swift & Co. 9,250,000 34,650,000

Morris & Co. 1,916,997 10,358,489

While we do not have the exact figures at hand we understand that the profits of Cudahy & Co. and Wilson & Co. showed the same enormous increase.

So much for their profits and their patriotism, now WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

That is your problem, and mine.

No Hope from Old Parties.

There is no hope from either the Democratic or Republican Parties.

The only hope of labor lies in the growing strength of the Socialist movement. Every new Socialist vote is a fresh victory in the never-ceasing assaults upon the citadels of the profit system. Only the standards of Socialism lead on to the final and ultimate victory of labor everywhere.

Many Opportunities to Protest.

The hour for effective protest never ceases to strike. Up to the present time the right of decision at the ballot box has been preserved to us against all the assaults of blind prejudice and inspired hatreds.

Many cities scattered over the land will witness regular municipal elections in April. Prominent among these will be the struggles in Chicago and Milwaukee,

Wisconsin, [where] voters have won the right to choose a United States Senator to the vacancy that now exists.

There will be special Congressional elections in New York City, Chicago, and elsewhere.

The social struggle is being waged the world over. But the duty of every intelligent voter is confined to his or her own neighborhood. We can best win the

world struggle by achieving victory in the voting district in which we live.

Shake Kaisers’ Thrones.

Let the workers, wherever the right of the ballot is given them during the next few weeks, shake the thrones of the FIVE FOOD KAISERS of the United States and the imperialists and exploiters of all the world, by voting in the Socialist column and swearing allegiance to the Socialist Party for all time to come.

Dot the nation with Socialist victories. Cover it solid with the enthusiasm growing out of big vote increases. Then, with heads erect and all faces toward human emancipation’s rising sun, we will press on untiringly in our efforts to completely dethrone the INDUSTRIAL KAISERS at the state legislative and national congressional elections in November.

MARCH 1918

This is No. 15 of the Series of ORGANIZATION LEAFLETS issued monthly by the National Office of the Socialist Party

803 West Madison St., Chicago, Ill.

PRICE 15¢ PER HUNDRED — $1.00 PER THOUSAND.

Published by 1000 Flowers Publishing, Corvallis, OR, 2008. • Non-commercial reproduction permitted.

http://www.marxisthistory.org

Edited by Tim Davenport.

Break up the meatpacker-retailer cartel

Federal action needed to restore domestic food system

By Mike Callicrate

The last thirty years have been tough times for independent livestock producers.

For decades, in addition to the hard work of keeping our farm and ranch operations running each day, we have literally been in a fight for our lives and for the life of our industry. We have lost our markets. Only the illusion of a market remains. When we lose our markets, we lose our farms and ranches, and America loses its food supply.

Ten years ago I downsized and reinvented my cattle operation to sell more directly to consumers, thereby avoiding what I saw as certain death in dealing with the big packers and retailers. My place in the production process came after the cattle left the ranch, at the final step before the packinghouse, where cattle are grown to around 1,250 pounds. This part of the production chain has become a bottleneck. With only four packers controlling over 85% of the market, few choices exist for selling cattle. Thirty years ago I could have sold to as many as twenty packers as compared to one or maybe two today. It was my responsibility to get the highest price for cattle that I could; instead, I felt complicit in a massive transfer of wealth from failing farmers and ranchers to the highly concentrated and profitable processing and distribution sector.

I, along with many other farmers and ranchers, have fought to free producers from the big meatpacker chains through public and private legal action and legislative efforts, all to no avail.

We have lost over 40% of our cattle producers, 90% of our hog producers, and 80% of our dairy operations in the last thirty years, along with most of our small to medium-sized packers and processors. An economic and social decline has ensued in rural America. Take the example of my home, St. Francis, Kansas, which now has half of the number of kids in its schools compared to 30 years ago.

Producers and consumers both lose in this out-of-control, unregulated marketplace. Consumers are paying record high meat prices while producers, who invest far more in capital, land, and labor than others, now receive the smallest ever share of the food dollar.

This administration has promised to rebuild rural America, our source of good food and wealth. The Justice Department and USDA recently held the first of several workshops in Ankeny, Iowa, showing a renewed interest in antitrust law enforcement, an important first step in restoring a competitive marketplace. However, this is a far bigger task than most people realize. Our processing and distribution infrastructure has been dismantled, and — once lost — is extremely difficult and costly to resurrect.

The traditional family farm food system that has fed America both nutritionally and financially has been displaced by an extractive and exploitive industrial system controlled by a handful of corporations. This is the same system capable of rapidly spreading food borne illnesses with the speed of assembly line style processing and the efficiency of national food service distribution. Excessive profits come before good food, healthy people, and our national interests. We are now a net food importer depending on arriving ships and trucks from somewhere else, for something to eat. How secure is a nation unable to feed itself?

An important point that is totally overlooked today is that the biggest retailers and food distributors are squeezing the few big packers and processors left with their big-buyer (monopsony) power. Packers are finding it more profitable to align with retailers, leaving producers the scraps.  The number one beef and pork packers, Tyson and Smithfield, have both acknowledged their weakness in dealing with Wal-Mart.

USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative combined with aggressive antitrust enforcement has great potential in laying the foundation for rebuilding broken communities while providing abundant supplies of good local food. The goal of this antitrust effort cannot fall short. Anything less than the total breakup of the meat packer/retailer cartel will leave independent producers and any new processors easy prey, with essentially no chance of success.

Like the Roosevelt “trust-busting” actions of 100 years ago, today’s antitrust law enforcement will provide the foundation for a return to free enterprise, bringing new life to both rural and urban communities. The USDA must also redirect government farm support dollars away from industrial agriculture to the support of local and regional food systems. A safe and friendly business environment is essential for both public and private investment in a new food system.

Many diverse family farms producing good food and receiving fair prices from a competitive marketplace is absolutely critical to the health and future of our nation.

Mike Callicrate is an independent cattle producer from St. Francis, Kansas, marketing his beef through his company, Ranch Foods Direct, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.