Surviving in the land of the giants – A look back
Mike Callicrate says he was nearly driven out of business by a packing company that refused to buy cattle after he wrote an article criticizing the company. (Karen Krien/Special to The Wichita Eagle)...
View ArticleTwenty-One Years Later Food Fight Continues Over Labeling – How many cows are...
Video by Tiffany Schilling – April, 2023 Seattle Times Washington farmers have beef with imported meat: Food fight ensues over labeling Thursday, April 25, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific By Lynda V. Mapes...
View ArticleWhat does the biggest meatpacker in the world have over USDA?
Federal government purchasing shouldn’t discriminate against local/regional suppliers Politico bribery article So what does JBS, the biggest meatpacker in the world, have over USDA? In 2019, as...
View ArticleOnly a livestock and soil centered farm bill can repair the damage
“A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself” – February 1937, President, Franklin D. Roosevelt In Pictures: The legacy’s of industrial ag advocates Earl Butz, and authors of the 1996 Freedom to...
View ArticleFrom Great American Prairie to Dried Up Industrial Wasteland
The first settlers came upon a vast grassland teaming with ruminant animals and wildlife. Rivers flowed from the mountain peaks to the west, bringing precious water and life to the prairie land, and...
View ArticleImports and deception threaten new local/regional meat plants
Rather than supporting our own U.S. cattle producers and local/regional meat plants, beef from other countries is receiving preference from USDA and big food companies. Below-cost-of-production...
View ArticleLocal/Regional Meat Plants are Failing – Food Security is National Security.
The pandemic exposed the many failures and empty grocery shelves of our highly concentrated and consolidated food system. The Biden administration said, in the interest of food security, “Let’s build...
View ArticleHow Cows Can Save The World
Cows and other ruminate animals are a gift to humanity and the world with their ability to transform inedible plants into highly nutritious human food, while at the same time improving the environment....
View ArticleWho is Bob Peterson?
Who was the primary force in concentrating the beef industry, eliminating competition, and reducing cattle producers share of the consumer beef dollar? Who led the elimination of half a million cattle...
View ArticleWhy doesn’t USDA support our most ideal local/regional meat plants?
If we want more ideal operations like White Oak Pastures, we’re going to need to support them. USDA is already a major buyer of ground beef from the biggest meatpackers like JBS – the same meatpackers...
View ArticleSelling to the Packer – The farmer may need his head examined.
September, 1929 – The Farmers Union Herald, St. Paul, Minnesota From NFU historian Tom Giessel, Larned, Kansas The post Selling to the Packer – The farmer may need his head examined. appeared first on...
View ArticleThe Strom decision was a defining moment in the livestock industry
Judge Lyle E. Strom died recently on Dec 1st, twenty years after his landmark decision to reverse the $1.28 billion jury verdict in the cattlemen’s case for fair markets, Pickett vs IBP. Between the...
View ArticleThe Gutting of Rural America – What Happened?
The rural America that once fed us dependably from family farms is seeing its last days – Abandoned farmsteads and dollar stores mark the graves of once prosperous communities There’s an economic term...
View ArticleWhat does the financial sector really cost?
The independent owner-operated gas station on Circle Drive in Colorado Springs is consistently 40 cents/gallon better priced than the chains. Maverick, Kum & Go and Good2Go are owned by FJ...
View Article“Cowboys Can Save the World”
Saturday, I spent the day with a group of Montana ranchers at the Beartooth Stock Association annual meeting. They ventured out in minus 20 degree weather, many just finishing cow chores. Cattlemen and...
View ArticleReturn to carcass trade is essential for cattle industry and rural prosperity
After more than 50 years of concentration, consolidation, hyper-industrialization, and a pandemic, the producers, workers, animals, and consumers have all suffered from the loss of competition and...
View ArticleHarvesting Change: Making a Local Meat Market
How One Cattle Rancher Ditched the Industrial Meat Model and Forged a More Sustainable One Cami Koons ckoons@flatlandkc.org Mike Callicrate and his son Teegan are hardworking ranchers. But they aren’t...
View ArticlePerspectives on Agriculture: Past and Future
Callicrate note: Several years ago, in a conversation with John, we discussed the use of a new term describing what I thought was a better kind of agriculture. Since “sustainable” had been stolen by...
View ArticleWhat’s Wrong with the Beef you Buy?
Trinity Vandenacre met Mike at the Rendezvous City Beef Roundup last summer where Trinity was one of the beef competition judges. Mike presented, “Cows Can Save the World” for the first time. The...
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