Author: Mike Callicrate

Nebraska Senator Opens Door to Chinese Meat Racket

Mike Callicrate

For Immediate Release: February 10, 2015 Nebraska Senator Opens Door to Chinese Meat Racket Senator Ken Schilz is introducing two bills before the Nebraska Ag Committee this week that could turn the State of Nebraska into a massive industrial Chinese hog factory. Working hand- in-hand with Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods, the largest pork company in the world, Senator Schilz is facilitating the Chinese government’s five-year-plan to feed China while greatly reducing our own food security. The legislation opens the Read More …

Ranchers take on the beef industry over mandatory checkoff payments

Mike Callicrate

By MIKE McGRAW and PEGGY LOWE | Harvest Public Media NEMAHA COUNTY, Kan. – From their small farms set in the rolling hills of northeast Kansas, two ranchers are raising a few cattle — and a lot of Cain. David Pfrang and Jim Dobbins turned themselves into activists, launched a mirror corporation, got hauled into federal court and had to hire a lawyer. All over $1. That buck, though, divides the beef industry. And it may influence what Read More …

Brother David Andrews, 1944-2015

Mike Callicrate

A Catholic brother who spoke truth to “the powerful and the short-sighted profit-makers” will be remembered for his work bridging advocacy and religious communities. “Brother Dave” led the National Catholic Rural Life organization and helped found the Organization for Competitive Markets. By Tim Marema David Andrews, a Catholic brother and “truth speaker” who confronted powerful institutions on behalf of marginalized groups such as small farmers and rural residents, died this week at the age of 70. Known widely Read More …

We’re in an epic battle for control of our food supply and we need your support.

Mike Callicrate

January 1, 2015 We’re in an epic battle for control of our food supply and we need your support. After sixteen years of fighting for a fair marketplace, we find our food system more concentrated and consolidated than ever before. Walmart is now the biggest food retailer, while Walton family members control more wealth than the bottom 42% of Americans. Sysco, already a virtual robber baron with monopoly power in wholesale food distribution, is awaiting Federal Trade Commission Read More …

Former GIPSA Administrator Calls for Secretary Vilsack’s Resignation

Mike Callicrate

December 22, 2014 Former GIPSA Administrator Calls for Secretary Vilsack’s Resignation Open Letter to Secretary Vilsack When I first began working for you in May of 2009, I was informed by some of your senior advisors that it was their job to protect your legacy. I informed them that if you were true to your word, your legacy would take care of itself. It is apparent now that your legacy will be that of a man of grandiose Read More …

Vilsack Dropping Beef Checkoff Proposal; What was Vilsack thinking?

Mike Callicrate

By Chris Clayton With Congress blocking USDA from spending any funds to create a second beef checkoff, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he’s happy at least that people within the beef industry could at least find an area of agreement. In a phone interview Thursday, Vilsack said USDA won’t pursue efforts to create another checkoff under the 1996 commodity promotion law. A policy rider in the federal appropriations bill passed over the weekend prevents USDA from continuing to Read More …

WTO, COOL, TPP – The Alphabet Soup of the Loss of National Sovereignty

Mike Callicrate

By Gilles Stockton If you were not concerned about our loss of national sovereignty before, you should be now, following the World Trade Organization (WTO) recent ruling against the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL). Although the WTO acknowledges that the United States has the right to label, and even though Canada has their own version of COOL, the WTO cites a very minor excuse to deny American consumers from knowing the origin of their meat. The labeling requirement, Read More …

RURAL ROADS TO SECURITY: The Curse of Factory Farming

Mike Callicrate

Tenancy and land speculation constitute a very serious economic menace and should be reduced to a minimum. But there is a more serious economic menace on the horizon which also involves the land, and follows when ownership and tenant systems break down; namely, corporation farming. Although this menace has not progressed very far, yet it is very serious because it is being promoted by the industrialized, urban-minded, mechanized, stock-gambling forces of this generation. The unsound, agricultural technique of Read More …