We are an organization following sustainable and healthy farming and lifestyle practices while investing in local economies.

Mike Callicrate, a cow pool founder, is the owner Ranch Foods Direct and Callicrate Cattle Company. He is an independent cattle producer, business entrepreneur and political activist, who serves as an outspoken leader in addressing the rural, social and cultural impacts of current economic trends.

Since the mid-1990s, Mike has been active in social and political efforts to improve the welfare of family farms and to restore effective publicly regulated markets. He was a founding member of several farm advocacy groups including the Organization for Competitive Markets, R-CALF and the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association. He also was a lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against the world’s largest meatpacker, IBP, now part of Tyson Foods, alleging unfair and discriminatory marketing practices.

In recognition of his efforts, he has received the “Westerner of the Year” award from Western Ranchers Beef Cooperative; the first ever Legacy Award from the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association; and the Carl L. King Distinguished Service Award from the American Corn Growers Association.

Mike has been an advisor for the films Food Inc. and FRESH , and is cited in several books including The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Fast Food Nation. He is revered as the “go-to expert” for understanding negative consequences of trends in the modern meat industry.

Building Connections between Producers and Eaters

A presentation at Rocky Mountains Farmer Union in association with The Humane Society of the United States at the Meeting of the Markets Summit on October 15th 2012

Timeline:
00:55 How important is a Farmer?
03:10 Changing the way we eat can change the way food is produced
03:55 What happened to family farms?
06:25 Where does the money go?
08:09 Big Food – A Dark Place.
09:30 Big Food – They operate above the law
10:30 “Drones of the National Beehive” – Vincent C Vickers
11:50 More Wealth Creation
12:30 What is an animal worth?
16:30 How to increase farm and ranch income?
17:15 Cowpool™, what a cool idea – sell direct
17:40 Yield to Producer, Cost to Consumer
20:30 Mobile Meat Processing
23:20 Inside Ranch Foods Direct
24:45 Economic Development vs. Community Development
26:55 Big companies swallowing up school lunch money?
27:59 Putting the family farm face on industrial agribusiness
29:05 Cargill, Safeway Go Locavore in Colorado
30:09 Tyson launches unique new audit program for on-farm animal treatment
30:30 Fast Food Alley, Want Real Meat?
31:15 Colorado Springs Public Market

“What you support prospers, what you feed grows” – Mike Callicrate