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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
Search Results for: antitrust
American Cattle Industry on the Brink – Ignoring the Obvious
Truth loses to big money and political power. After the 1996 South Dakota Auction Markets meeting and South Dakota Governor’s Cattle Conference of the same year, and following the 2004 trial in Montgomery, Alabama where a jury found Tyson/IBP guilty … Continue reading
Breaking Points – Understanding the Challenges of the Meatpacking Monopoly
This is the best overview of the destructive meatpacking monopoly and the challenges in dealing with it. The Biden administration will have to do a lot more, and soon. USDA, FTC, and the Justice Department should file a flurry of … Continue reading
Story of the Steer and a Theft of Epic Proportions
The following tells the story of a steer, and also a story of the meatpacker/retailer cartel that captured the largest sector of our food system, while touting efficiencies and economies of scale. Since the early 1980’s when the big-four meatpackers … Continue reading
It’s our last chance!
The following article appeared three years after the IBP lawsuit was filed. The largest poultry company, Tyson, purchased IBP, the largest beef packer, before the case went to trial in 2004. The jury awarded the cattlemen $1.28 billion, which was … Continue reading
Family Farm Dairies Hope “Build Back Better” Helps Soon
America needs a new food system, free of the market predators that have forced producers and workers into lives of perpetual fear and bankruptcy. As of September 29th, 2021, one-hundred and seventy-eight of the best organic dairy farmers in the … Continue reading
