Media

This is so NOT COOL!

Mike Callicrate

Download the poster to print and share! Groups Criticize Ag Secretary for Allowing Checkoff-funded NCBA to Attack COOL Washington, D.C. – In a graphic issued today, R-CALF USA and the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) criticize Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for not doing his job to end the abuses to the national Beef Checkoff Program (Beef Checkoff) perpetrated by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The NCBA receives over 80 percent of its funding from the Beef Checkoff Read More …

Letter from Langdon: Blinded by the Light

Richard Oswald

County of Origin Labeling didn’t hurt the Canadian cattle market, a new study of U.S. meat prices says. Big meatpackers would just to prefer to keep customers in the dark about where their meat comes from. The American people seem to be ready to take off the blindfold and see where our meat is coming from. Your family is hungry. They rely on you to feed them. And you want to provide them with healthy, safe, good-quality food Read More …

The Failure of Modern Industrial Agriculture

Mike Callicrate

By John Ikerd | March/April 2015 Americans are being subjected to an ongoing multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign designed to “increase confidence and trust in today’s agriculture.” Food Dialogues, just one example of this broader trend, is a campaign sponsored by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance—an industry organization whose funders and board members include Monsanto, DuPont, and John Deere. The campaign features the “faces of farming and ranching”—articulate, attractive young farmers, obviously chosen to put the best possible face Read More …

NCBA is the cattlemen’s worst nightmare

Mike Callicrate

Download the poster to print and share! Assumed by its name to be an advocate for the cattle industry, the NCBA is actually the independent cattlemen’s worst nightmare. With its control of the Beef Checkoff Program, the NCBA is: Leading the attack against country of origin labeling (COOL) Undermining every effort to restore competition to U.S. livestock markets. Facilitating trade agreements that are lowering our U.S. food safety standards. Click here for the real history

Merchants of Doubt Exposes the Bull

Mike Callicrate

Not believing 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 discusses the value of living in a place for a long time and observing, in that place, what’s missing. Over the last 35 years, as Wendell Berry describes, corporations have assumed near total control of agriculture while family farmers have Read More …

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 …