September 2013 MikeCallicrate.com

A Conference on Food, Farming, and the Life of Faith

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

The National Security issue

no one is talking about!

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*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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The value of a finished beef animal is over $3,000 at the retail meat case. This nearly 20% reduction in the farm share of the consumer beef dollar represents around $600 per head loss to the cattle producer.

Prolonged Losses to Cow/Calf Producers

-$800

-$700

-$600

-$500

-$400

-$300

-$200

-$100

$0

$100

$200

Do

lla

r R

etu

rns

Pe

r B

red

Co

w

U.S. Cow-Calf Returns Per Bred Cow

Returns based only on operating costs Returns based on total costs

Source: U.S. cow-calf production costs and returns per bred cow, USDA-ERS

Operating costs do not include: Hired labor, Opportunity cost of unpaid labor, Capitol R-CALF USA

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.

6 "What we support prospers, what we feed

grows." - MikeCallicrate.com

Grocery Manufactures Association

There is money in the food business…

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From Walmart to Cargill, the Masters of the Food Universe Convene!

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.

Emptiness: A picture of big meat packer retaliation – Why cattle feeders won’t speak out against meat packer abuses…

Callicrate Cattle Co., 1999 11 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com

Callicrate Cattle Co., 1999

Farmers and Ranchers

Eaters

BIG FOOD Exploiting producers and consumers

while destroying the planet

12 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com

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/

13 "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

"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

"There seem to be but three ways

for a nation to acquire wealth: the

first is by war, as the Romans did,

in plundering their conquered

neighbors --- this is robbery; the

second by commerce, which is

generally cheating; the third by

agriculture, the only honest way,

wherein man received a real

increase of the seed thrown into the

ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the

hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent

life and his virtuous industry.“

Benjamin Franklin, "Positions to be Examined Concerning National Health," April 4, 1769

"The husbandman that

laboreth must be the first

partaker of the fruits"

- St. Paul This inscription appears over the portico

of the U.S. Department of Agriculture

headquarters in Washington, D.C.

USDA has assisted BIG FOOD in driving

family farmers and ranchers from the land.

Normalizing the Unthinkable - the gradual turning away

from the natural path from God’s garden to our tables

The policy-driven transition from family farm agriculture,

it’s good stewardship, husbandry, and healthy food, to

today’s destructive industrial food system, was planned

and managed over the last fifty to sixty years.

Once nutritious whole grain bread is now unhealthy, highly

processed Wonder Bread. Family hog farmers have been

replaced with hog factories using gestation crates. Poultry

farmers have become indentured servants and debt

slaves. Pink Slime, produced with Zilmax, is now called

beef.

"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 19

Animal Husbandry has been replaced with Animal Science, Ag Business, and the worship of technology

…but what about food,

kids, and animals?

Performance Enhancing Drugs

"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 21

"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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Hog factories are dreadful prison-like places for pigs and workers, and environmental disasters.

"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com

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"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 24

“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.”

Farmers and Ranchers

Eaters

THE RANCH FOODS DIRECT SOLUTION

BIG FOOD

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"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 26

Their grazing helps our dehydrating planet retain moisture in the earth, contributing to global water supplies. Vandana Shiva – Winner of Monsanto’s “Bullshit” award

27 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com

“Our cow dung is worth more than your Wall Street stocks.” -Vandana Shiva speaking to Hillary Clinton in India

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For fertile soils, happy animals, and good food, we must recombine crop and animal agriculture on family farms.

A better, more direct route for producers and consumers wanting to know where their food comes from…

Mobile meat processing unit and portable corral system at Callicrate Cattle Co., St. Francis, Kansas - September, 2013

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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

38 "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

39 "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

40 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com

"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 41

“In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits. The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church

The SOIL initiative – Sustaining our interdependent livelihoods

Family farmers, ranchers, and consumers working together building new alternative connections from farm to plate

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.

42 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com

"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 43