The Staff of Life or the Sword

1. Food
The Staff of Life or the Sword?
By
Mike Callicrate
Kansas City Food Circles
March 27, 2004

2. Fast Food Destroys
•Farmers and Ranchers
•Rural Communities
•A Safe Food Supply
•An Affordable Food Supply
•A Dependable Food Supply
•The Environment
•The Economy

3. Real Beef Burger
$2.59/lb.
Fast Food AMR Burger
$1.79/lb.

4. “We are enslaved by speed and have all
succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast
Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the
privacy of our homes and forces us to eat
Fast Foods.”
“In the name of productivity, Fast Life has
changed our way of being and threatens our
environment and our landscapes.”
-The Slow Food International Manifesto

5. Do you want to know what it is?
“Industrial factory food isn’t good for you,
your community, or the environment…”
- Moopheus
Go to: www.themeatrix.com
The Meatrix…

6. Niche farming, such as organic
and aquatic farming and
hormone-free meat production,
is due to rise.
• Consolidation
of farms
• Higher
productivity
Produce
food
Farmers and
ranchers
The Silver Lining
Why It's Going
Away
DutiesThe Job
A Dozen Jobs with No Future?
by Susan Aaron
http://editorial.careers.msn.com/articles/nofuture
Eliminating our wealth creators…

7. USDA has reported that the earnings
for the entire year in 2004 for farm
operator households from their farming
activities are only $1,226, or about
$100 per month.
To see USDA's 2004 farm income forecast go to
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FarmIncome/Data/Hh_t5.htm

8. Farmers' Suicides Embarrass India's
Tech Paradise…officials and angry
farmers blame the free-market
policies of the World Trade
Organization as a key factor in
unsettling the farmers' lives.
Farmers' Suicides Embarrass India's Tech Paradise
By Narayanan Madhavan
November 07, 2001

9. “Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape ,
widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an
epidemic of obesity, and propelled a juggernaut of
American cultural imperialism abroad.”
The Dark Side of the All American Meal

10. So this is where you grew up...
What happened Grandpa?

11. Analyst: Ag myths abound when it
comes to food costs
America has the cheapest, safest food
supply in the world... but is it really?
By Keesia Wirt
“Several countries would score much
higher than the U.S. in terms of food safety,
including Denmark, France, the
Netherlands, Great Britain and Japan.”
- Charles Benbrook, Ag Economist

12. “…the U.S. ranks 23 out of 34 countries,
spending $2.28 per person for each
1,000 calories consumed.
"Some 90 percent of humanity spends
less per calorie of food than Americans.”
- Charles Benbrook, Ag Economist

13. 40.0%
45.0%
50.0%
55.0%
60.0%
65.0%
70.0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Farm Share
** 3rd Quarter*All Fresh Choice Beef – USDA – ERS Data
Producer Share of Consumer Beef Dollar*
68%
41.3%

14. There is an economic term to describe
this phenomenon. It is called…
STEALING

15. “…there is no stopping it
(concentration). This is an
evolution that’s going to take
place in spite of whoever
is in the way.”
Robert Peterson, IBP Chairman and CEO, July 1996
$20 Billion by 2001 article, in Meat and Poultry
Concentration and the resulting market power of the
big packer and retailer has cost cattlemen between $300
and $400/head of their share of the consumer beef dollar.

16. When we lose our markets
we lose our freedom.

17. www.competitivemarkets.com
Date: February 17, 2004
Jury Awards $1.3 Billion to Cattlemen
in Pickett Case
Montgomery, Alabama ~ The Organization for
Competitive Markets praised today’s jury
verdict that awarded nearly $1.3 billion to the
class of cattlemen suing Tyson/IBP for using
captive supplies to manipulate prices
downward.

18. How dependable is a food supply that
comes from gangsters, thugs and thieves?
Tyson demands retraction from Callicrate.
We are not gangsters, thugs and thieves.

19. Tyson pleads guilty to
bribing USDA Secretary

20. ConAgra pays up for cheating growers
ConAgra agreed to a $6.75 million settlement to a lawsuit filed by
Georgia contract poultry growers. ConAgra denied the charges in
the suit, but settled one day before trial.
“We are committed to ethically
and responsibly managing
our company for profitable
long-term growth.”
Bruce Rohde, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

21. ADM, “Super Price Fixer to
the World” pays $200 million
in fines and civil penalties
(ADM Profit was estimated between $250 and $500 million,
Taylor, Auburn)

22. Wal-Mart
Kroger
Safeway
Tyson
Cargill
ConAgra
Today’s most deadly alliances…
A fully loaded 10 gauge aimed at you!!

23. Consumer Warning: Shopping at
Wal-Mart contributes to the economic
destruction of rural America and your
community! 2000

24. Published on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
The Fruits of Poverty
The Wealth of Supermarkets is built on Monopoly,
Exploitation and Restriction of Choice
by George Monbiot
“Of the 10 richest people on Earth, five of them have the same
surname. It's not Gates, or Murdoch, or Rockefeller, but Walton.
They are the heirs and trustees of the supermarket chain Wal-
Mart.
“The global monopolization of the sector has destroyed the
livelihoods of tens of millions of small proprietors and their
employees.
“The superstores have used their buying power to force the world's
farmers to compete directly with each other.”

25. Living Quarters Of The New Global Workforce

26. What would Abraham Lincoln think?
- USDA
- P&S, Food Pyramid, Food safety, etc.
- Land Grant College system
- Monsanto, Cargill, ConAgra
- Corporate Power

27. Lincoln's letter on corporations
"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing
its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood....It
has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in
the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and
causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a
result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an
era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money
power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by
working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is
aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I
feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country
than ever before, even in the midst of war."
- Abraham Lincoln, letter to William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864. Archer H. Shaw,
ed., The Lincoln Encyclopedia 40 (1950)

28. Folly: "The pursuit by governments of policies
contrary to their own interests, despite the
availability of feasible alternatives."

29. This cattleman's got a beef ...
Mike Callicrate and Ranch Foods Direct take on
the big meat packers
by Kathryn Eastburn
Photo By Sean Cayton
November 20 -26, 2003
“Our goal is to keep
small farmers and
ranchers afloat.”
- Mike Callicrate

30. “Our defense should begin at the
table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the
flavors and savors of regional cooking and
banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.”
-The Slow Food International Manifesto