Catholic conferencedenver2013
-
Upload
ranch-foods-direct -
Category
Documents
-
view
828 -
download
3
description
Transcript of Catholic conferencedenver2013
Eating is a Moral Act How food choices impact planet, people,
animals, health and community
Catholic Media Conference June 2013
By Mike Callicrate
2
“Agriculture is a business, not a way of life!”
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Teaching of land-grant institutions from around forty years ago to present
Where does your food come from?
"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
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!
6
Grocery Manufactures Association
There is money in the food business…
7
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
8 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
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…
9 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
St. Francis, Kansas - May 2013
10
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.”
11 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
“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
12 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Emptiness: A picture of big meat packer retaliation – Why cattle feeders won’t speak out against meat packer abuses…
Callicrate Cattle Co., 1999 13 "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/
14 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
“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 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.
Farmers and Ranchers
Eaters
BIG FOOD Exploiting Producers and Consumers
17 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
October 19, 1893 - Tiller and Toiler Newspaper, Larned, Kansas
"Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists."
- G.K. Chesterton
Barry Lynn's Cornered is... "A manifesto for our time."
--Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal
20
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.
21 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 22
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 23
Animal Husbandry has been replaced with Animal Science
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 24
"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.
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 food dollar.
25 Pigs at Callicrate Cattle Co.
Modern industrial production
26
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
27
We domesticated farm animals, we owe them good care.
“I raise hogs. I don’t produce pork.” - Joe Maxwell, Missouri family hog farmer
Their grazing helps our dehydrating planet retain moisture in the earth, contributing to global water supplies. - Vandana Shiva
28 Bred heifers at Callicrate Cattle Co.
37%
“Our cow dung is worth more than your Wall Street stocks.” -Vandana Shiva speaking to Hillary Clinton in India
29
Jacek Popiel’s garden in Colorado Springs, fertilized with Callicrate Cattle manure
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
30
“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”
― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
“…the key to a healthy food system lies in maintaining the immense local and regional bio-cultural diversity of seeds and traditional farming methods. “If we are really going to address these complicated issues around climate change and food production, then we need to follow the people who are most connected to the land, for these are the people who have cared for and nurtured this environment for thousands of years.” A new film: The Farmer, The Architect and The Scientist The ABN and The Gaia Foundation | June 12, 2013
The current system has led us to totalitarianism – concentrating wealth and power to the disadvantage of most citizens.
How do we devise a system that increases choices and possibilities, not just for farmers, but for every member of the community?
Farmers and Ranchers
Eaters
THE SOLUTION
BIG FOOD
33
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 34
“Future farm policy should focus on access to fair and open markets that benefit farmers, workers, consumers and the marketplace. At every point in the food chain, there are a handful of companies squeezing profits out of farmers, wages out of workers and choices out of eaters. A more vibrant marketplace with more choices for farmers and consumers is essential, but it cannot happen without breaking up the agribusiness cartels.” - Food and Water Watch, November, 2012 - The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies
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
36 "What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
Proposed Colorado Springs Public Market - Creating a new community space for eaters, growers, family farmers and ranchers and local businesses, separate and safe from BIG FOOD and Wall Street.
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com
"What we support prospers, what we feed grows." - MikeCallicrate.com 38