Category: Corporate Power

OCM to plot long overdue market revival at convention

Mike Callicrate

PRESS RELEASE Organization for Competitive Markets P.O. Box 6486 Lincoln, NE 68506 www.competitivemarkets.com Contact: Mike Callicrate, OCM President 785-332-8128 callicrate@competitivemarkets.com July 18, 2013 Expect a somber tribute to lost markets, followed by invigorating plans for a rebirth, at the Organization for Competitive Markets’ annual convention coming up August 9th and 10th in Kansas City. “The free market we all like to talk about is a mirage. We pretend it’s there, but in reality our competitive markets have been Read More …

Obituary: The Market Is Dead 1921-2013

Mike Callicrate

Funeral services will be held August 9th, 2013, in Kansas City, MO. It is with deepest regrets we announce that the market, age 92, passed away after a long illness. This was a terrible loss to livelihoods, rural communities and consumer choice. Survivors include a few farmers and ranchers, once symbols of free enterprise and economic freedom, who are now sharecroppers and serfs under the heel of concentrated and abusive economic power. The market was reborn in 1921 Read More …

Mike Callicrate featured on The Tim Danahey Show discussing the recent Smithfield Foods sale to China

Mike Callicrate

The Tim Danahey Show recorded on April 13th 2013 When China’s Shuanghui Group purchased America’s Smithfield Foods (the largest pork producer in America) for $7 billion, it only created a minor ripple in the media. It was perceived as a simple and welcome Chinese investment in American free enterprise. However, there is more to the story. Mike Callicrate, a nationally-recognized leader in the local food movement and an ethical rancher, tells of the environmental, economic, and food supply Read More …

Monsanto’s growing monopoly

Mike Callicrate

What the Supreme Court got wrong: Patents on self-replicating seed are unethical, dangerous and anti-competitive By Kristina Hubbard A still from a Monsanto ad When the Supreme Court unanimously sided with Monsanto recently, it upheld the company’s right to prohibit the replanting of patented seed – handing the biotech giant a major victory. The court ruled that the doctrine of “patent exhaustion,” which an Indiana farmer argued should apply after the first sale of patented seed, “does not Read More …

MILK AND HONEY

Richard Oswald

Industrial agriculture erases the identity of our food, filtering its origins as cleanly as removing bee pollen from honey. Just mix, blend, inject it with a brand – and it’s ready for a shelf near you. Who made your food? In these changing times that’s becoming an important question. Maybe it’s something we should all ask more often as industrial food becomes rule over exception. But what makes food industrial? With so many working families and no one Read More …

It’s Still Called Stealing

Mike Callicrate

Grade and yield buying used to be called “Grade and Steal” by most cattlemen. Today, it’s called Value-Based Marketing by the big packers and their cheerleaders, like Certified Angus Beef’s (CAB) Miranda Reiman. In her March 4th article, “Value-based cattle marketing dominates”, Reiman attempts to mentally condition Angus breeders and other cattlemen to accept their fate in Big Food’s supply chain where performance enhancing drugs, added flavorings, Pink Slime, various pre-digestion methods, and meat recalls, do more to Read More …

Defend COOL from Sen. Johanns

Mike Callicrate

May 13, 2013 Action Alert from Nebraska Farmers Union! Many of you have at one time or another supported our efforts to get and keep clear and effective Country of Origin Labeling for U.S. food products.  Thanks to all our efforts, COOL is now the law.  That law was challenged by lawsuits from Mexico and Canada in the WTO.  USDA has responded in a fashion that we support that makes more consistent and clear where the product was Read More …

College Girl, Economy, Jobs

Mike Callicrate

The following article originally appeared on TradeReform.org. The following is a transcript of a YouTube video. It’s well worth listening to! I’m a graduating senior, and I’m not worried about the economy or jobs. It’s all much simpler than we’re being told. So let’s put our political differences aside, have some fun and get some answers to what I call “Questions.” Like: Where does money come from? When our country was wealthy, it was because we had the Read More …