Mike Callicrate featured on The Tim Danahey Show discussing the recent Smithfield Foods sale to China
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 consequences of China’s purchase. Government’s acquiescence to the creation of another massive multi-national food corporation will negatively affect every American and every rural Chinese person who value their way of life.
Listen to this fascinating step in a series of steps of how major corporations value their interests over the health, environment, and food shared by all people.
Monsanto’s growing monopoly
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…
Read more...Tags:Agriculture , Biotech , Business News , Department of Justice , Editor's Picks , Farmer , GMO , Marcy Kaptur , Monsanto , patent , Patent Law , Politics News , Supreme Court , Technology News
MILK AND HONEY
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?…
Read more...Tags:additives , antibiotics , big food , chain supermarket , drugs , hormones , industrial food , land of milk and honey , preservatives
It’s Still Called Stealing
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…
Read more...Tags:big food , Boston Consulting Group , Bruce Bass , Certified Angus Beef , David Domina , de-regulation , Dr. John Helmuth , Great Ranches of the West , IBP , Kroger , Miranda Reiman , Reagan , Robert M. Cook , Safeway , Tyson , Walmart
Defend COOL from Sen. Johanns
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…
Read more...Tags:COOL , country of origin labeling , Nebraska Farmers Union , Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns , REPEAL COOL , Senate Ag Committee , USDA , WTO
College Girl, Economy, Jobs
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…
Read more...Tags:American factories , American owners , American workers , banking , Big Business , corporate influence , Corporations , economy , England , finance , globalization , publicly traded multinationals , The Global Economy
OCM Files Demand for Inspector General Records
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 April 11, 2013 Group Wants Answers to Questionable Audit Report The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) announced today a series of actions in furtherance of its efforts to bring transparency and integrity to the beef checkoff program. OCM has submitted a Freedom of Information Act demand for records relating to…
Read more...Tags:Beef Checkoff , Mike Callicrate , NCBA , Office of Inspector General , OIG , USDA
From Berkeley to Boston: Coming Together Around Freedom, Fairness and Food
By Mike Callicrate & Fred Stokes Eating is one thing we all have in common. And, to millions of us, what we eat, how it’s produced, and where it comes from is important. OCM has worked for the last fourteen years to restore competition in the agricultural marketplace. We believe family farmers and ranchers make the best stewards of our land and livestock, and are the most reliable and trustworthy…
Read more...Tags:Beef Checkoff , big food , big packers , chickenization , Coalition for a Prosperous America , Fred Stokes , GIPSA , HSUS , Humane Society of the United States , IBP , John Dittrich , Mike Callicrate , Mississippi Farm Bureau , National Cattlemen's Beef Association , NCBA , Polsinelli Shughart , The Beef Checkoff Reform Taskforce , U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance , USDA , USFRA











Add One