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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
Tag Archives: Mike Callicrate
R-CALF USA COOL Presentation August 14, 2015
A hamstrung D-11 begins crucial cafeteria cuts to balance underfunded government mandates
by Matthew Schniper | February 25, 2015 “Hey son, what did you have for lunch today at school?” Well, we can tell you one thing Timmy didn’t dine on, if he chose a hamburger, or meatloaf, or pasta with meat … Continue reading
A look back to 2008 – Restoring Fair Trade, Prosperity and Food Security – a presentation by Mike Callicrate
This presentation made in 2008 is still relevant today JBS is a State sponsored Brazilian meat packer, and now the largest meat packer in the world, as well as the largest beef and poultry packer in the U.S. They are … Continue reading
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
New Public Market coming to Colorado Springs
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Developers and community members are working on a public market near downtown Colorado Springs. Part of the former Gazette building, off Pikes Peak Avenue just east of downtown, will be turned … Continue reading