The Politics and Economics of Food
Corporate or Family Farms Global or Local
MikeCallicrate.com
Lamar Community College – March 2014
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So this is where you grew up...
What happened Grandpa?
The U.S. has lost over 40% of it’s ranchers, 90% of it’s hog farmers and 80% of it’s dairymen in the last 30 years.
2 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Photograph from the book, Great Ranches of the West ©2007 Jim Keen, All Rights Reserved Read a sample chapter and order the book at www.greatranchesofthewest.com – 800-363-5336
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Photograph from the book, Great Ranches of the West ©2007 Jim Keen, All Rights Reserved Read a sample chapter and order the book at www.greatranchesofthewest.com – 800-363-5336
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The National Security issue
no one is talking about!
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“Agriculture is a business, not a way of life!”
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Teaching of land-grant institutions from around forty years ago to present
"Let us not forget that the cultivation of
the earth is the most important labor of
man. When tillage begins, other arts will
follow. The farmers, therefore, are the
founders of civilization." -- Daniel Webster
*All Fresh Choice Beef – USDA-ERS Data
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
50.0%
55.0%
60.0%
65.0%
70.0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1950 1975
1995 1996 1997
1998
2002
2000
2006
1999
Farm share of the consumer retail beef dollar A picture of abusive market power
2012
2009
2013
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March 2014
Barry Lynn's Cornered is... "A manifesto for our time."
--Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal
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Eric Schlosser, author of the best seller Fast Food Nation, has an apt description of the industry. Over the last twenty years, about half a million ranchers sold off their cattle and quit the business. Many of the nation’s remaining eight hundred thousand ranchers are fairing poorly. They’re taking second jobs. They’re selling cattle at break-even prices or at a loss. The ranchers who are faring the worst run three to four hundred head of cattle, manage the ranch themselves, and live solely off the proceeds… Ranchers currently face a host of economic problems: rising land prices, stagnant beef prices, oversupplies of cattle, increased shipments of live cattle from Canada and Mexico, development pressures.
9 "What we support prospers, what we feed
grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 10
Grocery Manufactures Association
There is money in the food business…
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N7100C – Cargill N199HF – Hormel Foods N97SJ – J.M. Smucker N1897S – J.M. Smucker N135FT – Albertson’s N46E – Hunt N604CL – Hershey N654CM – Crossmark Corp. N457H – Bank of America N606RP – Nestle Purina Pet Care Co. N102CX – Clorox N545CS – Wells Fargo N604MU – Dean Mfg. Group
12 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Trucks in St. Francis, KS Sept. 6, 2009
Old Calnon place, So. of St. Francis
Winter day on Webster St.
Meanwhile, back on the farm…
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"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
St. Francis, Kansas - May 2013
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"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
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Enrollment in St. Francis schools is 50% of thirty years ago.
America: Becoming a Land Without Farmers Evaggelos Vallianatos, September 10, 2012
“The plutocratic remaking of America has a parallel in the countryside. In rural America less than 3 percent of farmers make more than 63 percent of the money, including government subsidies. “The results of this emerging feudal economy are everywhere. Large areas of the United States are becoming impoverished farm towns with abandoned farmhouses and deserted land. More and more of the countryside has been devoted to massive factory farms and plantations.”
16 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Emptiness: A picture of big meat packer retaliation – Why cattle feeders won’t speak out against meat packer abuses…
Callicrate Cattle Co., 1999 17
“These guys [Tyson] are nothing but old-time gangsters, thugs and thieves. They beat your brains in with their market power and take your money.” January 12, 2004, Montgomery, AL -Associated Press quoting Mike Callicrate on opening day of IBP/Tyson trial
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Average return on equity before tax (ROE)
Retail grocery: ROE = 21% (last 6 years)
Meat packing: ROE = 17% (last 6 years)
All Farming & ranching: ROE = NEGATIVE 0.54%
(last 13 years)
Packers--for those with sales > $500k - Before tax ROE, 2002-2009: 17.38% - source: http://www.bizminer.com/industries/Meat-packing-plants-2011/ Retail grocery--food marketing institute book - http://www.fmi.org - 2003-2009 average: before tax ROE = 20.75% Cattle--for the farm typology "cattle" meaning primarily cattle operations in USDA/ERS annual surveys - http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/ARMS/
19 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
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The U.S. is now a net food importer on a value basis
The largest firms in beef, pork, and poultry are now foreign owned:
It’s The National Security
issue no one is talking about!
Beef – Brazilian owned Pork – Chinese owned Poultry – Brazilian owned
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Farmers and Ranchers
Eaters
BIG FOOD
22 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 23
Animal Husbandry has been replaced with Animal Science
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 24
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures
from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men
who will deal likewise with their fellow men." - St. Francis of Assisi, Roman Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans Order
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A pig’s life…with good animal husbandry.
The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. - Mahatma Gandhi
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 27
“Despite the intervening century, with it’s dizzying array of technological advances and dramatic social reforms, meat and poultry processing early in the twenty-first century is regrettably reminiscent of what Sinclair (The Jungle 1906) described early in the twentieth.”
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December 24, 2013 – The dirt cloud extended from Colorado Springs to the Colorado/Kansas border north of Lamar. It was over a mile high (12,500 ft. above sea level), 4 miles across, moving south at 50 mph – See The Dust Bowl
Many of the highly erodible acres that blew in the 1930’s and 1950’s were planted to grass under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). This major tax-payer investment in preserving our nation’s soils is now being lost as the grass is plowed for crop production. Lamar is in the area of the 1930’s Dust Bowl.
“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 29
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 30
Michael Pollan’s Edible Education 103 Class
“I really want to talk about Zilmax!” - Mike Callicrate
BIG FOOD sells: High fructose corn syrup instead of real sugar Hydrogenated vegetable oil instead of butter, olive oil, coconut oil, etc. MSG instead of real food flavors
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 31
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BIG FOOD is a dark and lawless place
A place where money and power come before people and freedom Where kickbacks and predatory pricing are standard practice
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
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Where family farms and ranches are bankrupted by unfair, manipulated and rigged markets It is a place where farmers become indentured servants and serfs, signing short term contracts with a lifetime debt Where workers, animals, and the earth are abused and exploited
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
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It is where Pink Slime is considered "beef“
Big Food makes money making us sick and leaves us with the health care bill Where growth enhancing compounds are illegal in sports, but legal in the meat we eat Where food is taken from the hungriest people and the poorest places on earth to sell to those with the most money
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
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It's a place where the biggest cheaters win Big food controls our government agencies and has captured our tax-payer funded universities Today's industrial food system is a full return to Upton Sinclair's Jungle
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Farmers and Ranchers
Eaters
THE RANCH FOODS DIRECT SOLUTION
BIG FOOD
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37 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 38
Their grazing helps our dehydrating planet retain moisture in the earth, contributing to global water supplies. Vandana Shiva – Winner of Monsanto’s “Bullshit” award
“Our cow dung is worth more than your Wall Street stocks.” -Vandana Shiva speaking to Hillary Clinton in India
A better , more direct route for producers, and consumers wanting to know where their food comes from…
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Slaughtering animals where they are raised means: - More humane treatment - Less stress means better quality meat - 37% less weight transported to market - Slaughter waste becomes valuable soil nutrients - Increased rural employment
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Refrigerated trailer transports carcasses from mobile unit to cut plant
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
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Carcasses from mobile unit are cut into primals and boxed or hung for dry aging
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
49 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." MikeCallicrate.com
“They sell things from somewhere else and take the money away…everyday.” - Francisco Chavez, Ranch Foods Direct delivery driver referring to Sysco
The industrial ag pantry is filled with…
…if you’re a shareholder?
• Human exploitation • Animal suffering • Environmental degradation • Community destruction • Family farm & rural decline • Degenerative diseases
50 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Your local family farm pantry is filled with…
Got a farmer? We’ll GROW your food!
Greenhorn Acres
• Love • Good health • Great taste • Family meals • Community • Good stewardship • Good husbandry
“Eating local means more for the local economy. A dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.” - Marcy Nameth, Arkansas Valley Organic Growers
51 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Proposed Colorado Springs Public Market - Creating a new community space for eaters, growers, family farmers, ranchers and local businesses, separate and safe from Big Food and Wall Street.
52 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 53