Globalization vs. Community

A Question of Economic and Social Well-Being

By Mike Callicrate

UCCS - Fall 2010

Photograph from the book, Great Ranches of the West ©2007 Jim Keen, All Rights ReservedRead a sample chapter and order the book at www.greatranchesofthewest.com – 800-363-5336

So this is where you grew up...

What happened Grandpa?

*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

19501975

1995 1996 1997 1998

2001

20001999

Farm share of the consumer retail beef dollar

Breakdown of Retail Beef Dollar - 1975When the market was competitive

Cattle Producer

Retailer

Packer

Producer raises a1,325 lb. animal andreceives 42.5% of

retail dollar ≈ $1,000

Retailer receives 49% of retail dollar selling556 lbs. of beef from a 1,325 lb. animal @ $4.26 per lb. average

price = $2,369

Packer receives 8.5% Kills 1,325 lb. animal for

around $200 per hd.

NOTE:Calculations are based on 2009 USDA-ERS dataRetail beef dollar calculation represents fresh beef consistently through the time period - doesn’t include value added products.Costs to make retail ready shouldn’t exceed 50 cents per lb. x 556 lbs. - about $250 per hd. Prepared By Mike Callicrate, St. Francis, KS

Breakdown of Retail Beef Dollar - 2010A picture of abusive market power and rural decline

Time from conception to retail meat counter is approximately 27 months.

More than 85% of total capital investment to put meat on the consumer’s plate is provided by the producer.

The producer has lost approximately$400 per head, or 20%, of their share of the consumer beef dollarsince 1980.

41% of U.S. cattle producers have gone out of business since 1980.

Approximately 1,000 cattle producers continue to go out of business every month.

Product turns every 7 to 14 days.Retailer gets ≈ $1,100 per hd..

Packer and retailer share less than 15% of the capital investment required to get product to consumer.

Concentration and resultingmarket power of the packer and retailer has taken away approximately 20% of the producer’s share of what the consumer spends - around $400 per head.

Market Concentration Kills Competition Four biggest packers control 88% of marketFour biggest retailers control 50.7% (FWW)

Big Packers and Retailers Cash InCattle Producers Go Broke

Retailer is grabbing $1,100

“Fast food has hastened the mauling 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

Industrial food

is killing us…

…and our communities.

Poorest counties by per capita income

Statistics derived from U.S. Census Bureau data; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Survey of Current Business; and DataQuickInformation Systems, a public records database company located in La Jolla, San Diego, CA.

Note: The poorest counties are in rural cattle producing areas.

The wealthiest households reaped a sharply growing share of the nation’s income, while the share going to middle- and lower-income households shrank (see Figure 3). Between 1979 and 2007:

The top 1 percent’s share of the nation’s total after-tax household income more than doubled, from 7.5 percent to 17.1 percent.

The share of income going to the middle three-fifths (or 60 percent) of households shrank from 51.1 percent to 43.5 percent.

The share going to the bottom fifth of households declined from 6.8 percent to 4.9 percent.

The share going to the bottom four-fifths (80 percent) of the population declined from 58 percent to 48 percent.

In 2007, the top 1 percent received a larger share of the nation’s after-tax income than the middle 20 percent of the population. This represents a significant change from 1979, when the middle fifth received more than twice as much of the nation’s income as the top 1 percent (16.5 percent versus 7.5 percent).

WTO

Corporate Controlled Globalization:

The greatest folly in human history!

TYSON

“But the cruelest of our revenue laws, I will venture to affirm, are mild and gentle in comparison to some of those which the clamour of our merchants and manufacturers has extorted from the legislature, for the support of their own absurd and oppressive monopolies. Like the laws of Draco, these laws may be said to be all written in blood.”

- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776

Barry Lynn's Cornered is..."A manifesto for our time."

--Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal

“I believe that if trade is not fair for all,

then trade is free in name only. I will

not stand by and watch American

workers lose their jobs because other

nations do not play by the rules.” - Ronald Reagan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvuiIn3ej4Y&feature=related

“We will never have true

civilization until we learn to

recognize the rights of

others.”

-Will Rogers

There is no greater threat to human social and economic well-being than the concentration of power and wealth into the hands of a few.

Protectionism: The act of protecting. In global

terms it means protecting ones country from

ruin; avoiding policy, whether economic or

political, that results in the economic and social

destruction of a nation, its people and culture;

preventing the concentration of power and

wealth in the hands of a few global elites.

(Global elites: The gangsters (a.k.a. banksters), thugs and thieves that leverage one

nation’s economy against another until all wealth is accumulated in their hands.)

"I see in the near future a crisis

approaching that unnerves me and

causes me to tremble for the safety

of my country. . . . 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."

-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864

(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)

Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950,

NY)

Grocery Manufactures Association

There is money in the food business…

N7100C – CargillN199HF – Hormel FoodsN97SJ – J.M. SmuckerN1897S – J.M. SmuckerN135FT – Albertson’sN46E – HuntN604CL – HersheyN654CM – Crossmark Corp.N457H – Bank of AmericaN606RP – Nestle Purina Pet Care Co.N102CX – CloroxN545CS – Wells FargoN604MU – Dean Mfg. Group

Trucks in St. Francis, KSSept. 6, 2009

Old Calnon place, So. of St. Francis

Winter day on Webster St.

Meanwhile, back on the farm…

“There isn’t one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. Not one! The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians.”

- Dwayne Andreas (Rats in the Grain, p. 306.)

ADM Mission:To unlock the potential of nature to improve the quality of life.

“We have a saying in our company: Our competitors are our friends. Our customers are the enemy.”

Under the NAFTA time frame, Archer

Daniels Midland's profits nearly

tripled - from $ 110 million to $ 301

million - and ConAgra's profits grew

from $ 143 million to $ 413 million

dollars. - Public Citizen

Corporate controlled globalization will

destroy food security, self reliance,

and reduce all food producing

countries to third world status.

- Mike Callicrate 2003

"The condition upon which God hath

given liberty to man is eternal

vigilance; which condition if he break,

servitude is at once the consequence

of his crime, and the punishment of his

guilt."

- John Philpot Curran, Irish lawyer and politician, July 10, 1790

Consumer Warning: Shopping at

Wal-Mart contributes to the economic destruction of rural America and your community! 2000

Economic development

vs.

Community Development

We cannot separate what we believe from how we act in the marketplace and the broader community, for this is where we make our primary contribution to the pursuit of economic justice.- U.S. Bishops 1986

Community or Globalization?

Your choice…of coffee