Industrial Agriculture vs. The Family Farm - University of Denver 2013 Presentation

“Agriculture is a business, not a way of life!” - Teaching of land-grant institutions from around 40 years ago to present

1

Industrial Agriculture vs. The Family Farm

University of Denver – February, 2013

“Agriculture is a business, not a way of life!” - Teaching of land-grant institutions from around 40 years ago to present

2

Industrial Agriculture vs. The Family Farm

University of Denver – February, 2013

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.

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

3

http://www.greatranchesofthewest.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!

4

http://www.greatranchesofthewest.com/

5

Family farmers care FOR their livestock

Richard and David Nameth, Greenhorn Acres, Fowler, CO Patrick Hamilton, Venetucci Farm, Colorado Springs, CO

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

6

We domesticated farm animals, we owe them good care.

“I raise hogs. I don’t produce pork.” - Joe Maxwell, Missouri family hog farmer

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.

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

Grocery Manufactures Association

There is money in the food business…

8

N7100C – Cargill N199HF – Hormel Foods N97SJ – J.M. Smucker N1897S – J.M. Smucker N135FT – Albertson’s N46E – Hunt N604CL – Hershey N654CM – Crossmark Corp. N457H – Bank of America N606RP – Nestle Purina Pet Care Co. N102CX – Clorox N545CS – Wells Fargo N604MU – Dean Mfg. Group


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…


America: Becoming a Land Without Farmers Evaggelos Vallianatos, September 10, 2012

“The plutocratic remaking of America has a parallel in the countryside. In rural America less than 3 percent of farmers make more than 63 percent of the money, including government subsidies. “The results of this emerging feudal economy are everywhere. Large areas of the United States are becoming impoverished farm towns with abandoned farmhouses and deserted land. More and more of the countryside has been devoted to massive factory farms and plantations.”


“You should be suing Walmart [instead of IBP], they are the problem. They tell us what they will pay and we have no choice but to pay you less.” - John Tyson, 2002


“These guys [Tyson] are nothing but old-time gangsters, thugs and thieves. They beat your brains in with their market power and take your money.” January 12, 2004, Montgomery, AL -Associated Press quoting Mike Callicrate on opening day of IBP/Tyson trial


http://www.nobull.net/CattlemenLegal/news/2004/1-31-04MikeResponse.htm

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

Callicrate Cattle Co., 1999 14 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com

http://nobull.mikecallicrate.com/2010/08/02/history-repeated/

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/


http://www.bizminer.com/industries/Meat-packing-plants-2011/







http://www.fmi.org/

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/ARMS/

Farmers and Ranchers

Eaters

BIG FOOD Exploiting Producers and Consumers


“Advances in food science, such as GMO’s and LFTB, antibiotics and lean meat-promoting beta agonists, like ractopamine, are key to meeting myriad challenges, from feeding a growing population to reducing the incidence of all types of foodborne illnesses…political efforts, fueled by nostalgia for simpler times, ignore the potential for greater food safety disasters, lower yields, high food prices and more widespread hunger and disease.” – Lisa M, Keefe, editor, Meatingplace magazine

17

The BIG lie…

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

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

"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

For a person to be a serf in a more humane hog factory is not the answer for man, pig or eater.

20

Family farmers want to be good stewards, but they need the income that fair, open and competitive markets provide. They deserve a fair share of the consumer food dollar.

Pigs at Callicrate Cattle Co.

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

21 Bred heifers at Callicrate Cattle Co.

Supporting a restorative solar economy! Grass Beef Manure Grass

37%

http://www.deepakchopra.com/news/view/66/deepak_chopra_and_vandana_shiva_talk_seeds_and_gmos_

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

22

Jacek Popiel’s garden in Colorado Springs, fertilized with Callicrate Cattle manure

Farmers and Ranchers

Eaters

THE RANCH FOODS DIRECT SOLUTION

BIG FOOD

23

25

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

26

Refrigerated trailer transports carcasses from mobile unit to cut plant

27

Slaughtering animals where they are raised means: - More humane treatment - Less stress means better quality meat - 37% less weight transported to market - Slaughter waste is composted into valuable fertilizer - Increased rural employment

28

Carcasses from mobile unit are hung for dry aging or cut into primals and boxed.

“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


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


Industrial Agriculture vs. The Family Farm - University of Denver 2013 Presentation

Education

Transcript of Industrial Agriculture vs. The Family Farm - University of Denver 2013 Presentation