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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
Tag Archives: Organization for Competitive Markets
Cattle market crash: saving American family farms
By Candace Barnette Posted: Tue 4:53 PM, Nov 29, 2016 Updated: Tue 7:23 PM, Nov 29, 2016 KEMPER CO., Miss. (WTOK) – It’s a crisis for the American family farmer. “Rural America is slowly dying,” local cattleman Fred Stokes says. … Continue reading
Today I’m thinking about hungry people, farmers, ranchers, exploited contract growers and abused food workers
Today I’m thinking about hungry people, farmers, ranchers, exploited contract growers, and abused food workers. I’m also reflecting on the corporate takeover of our government and nearly all major industries, including, perhaps most importantly, our food supply. Agricultural commodity prices … Continue reading
Mega Mergers Focus for Organization for Competitive Markets
The Organization for Competitive Markets recently wrapped up their annual convention. One of their primary concerns is the increasing consolidation in U.S. agriculture. OCM President Mike Callicrate says they’re closely watching proposed mega-mergers between ChemChina and Syngenta, Dow and DuPont … Continue reading
Merchants of Doubt Exposes the Bull
Refusing to believe something doesn’t make it untrue In last week’s Atlantic article, Farmland Without Farmers, Wendell Berry describes how industrial agriculture has replaced men with machines, depriving the American landscape of its stewards and the culture they built. He … Continue reading
