The New Falcon Herald: A Rancher’s Quest to Raise Healthy Meat, Rebuild Local Markets
February 2025
By Jon Huang
On Oct. 4, 2024, McDonalds sued the big four meat-packing corporations (Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Co.) who control 80% of the meatpacking market. According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit alleged that the corporations fixed prices for beef, and accused them of anticompetitive measures such as collectively limiting supply to boost prices and charging “illegally inflated” amounts.
The news came as no surprise to rancher Mike Callicrate, owner of Ranch Foods Direct. The issues with the big four was hardly new. He had already witnessed how the large meatpackers monopolized the market and then paid prices to producers below cost of production. To him, what happened was also a symptom of a larger issue.
“That’s the script of highly industrialized food systems,” he said, “They all need scale. Fast Food got big — they needed volume driving suppliers to get bigger. Now they are in a big fat fight.”
Callicrate grew up in Evergreen, Colorado, the third of seven siblings. His family had little disposable income when he was growing up and was exposed to much of the processed foods that were marketed as healthier, longer-lasting alternatives to their whole food counterparts. However, his father came from a farming family and passed down his appreciation for whole foods to his children.
Callicrate wanted to pursue professional rodeo. He went to college on a bull-riding scholarship and studied agricultural studies and animal science. When he finished, he became a rancher.
Ranchers typically raise cattle, sell them to meatpackers who then process the meat and ship them to retailers like food service companies and grocery store chains. As the large meatpackers colluded and eliminated smaller competition, the selling options and profit margins for local ranchers diminished. When Callicrate first started in 1978, he had 20 packers to sell to. By 1995, it was one. When he first started raising livestock, producers could get as much as 70% of the profits on cattle sales. By 2023, it was down to 44%.
In the beginning, Callicrate was raising 14,000 head of cattle following traditional methods he learned from college. Over the years, Callicrate saw the changes in industry and questioned whether this was the right thing to do. From the excessive use of antibiotics, growth hormones and corn-heavy diets to overpacked feedlots, the outsourcing of labor and overcrowded working conditions, Callicrate saw how the industrial approach to agriculture was affecting animal health, workers safety, the land and the food. Furthermore, the industry consolidation made it harder for small farmers to compete with large producers, and Callicrate himself was eventually pushed out of selling livestock.
He saw the need for change.
“My answer to feeding the world was to scale back, scale
down. Get smaller and feed your community and cut out all
this freight and all this other stuff that externalizes costs.”
Mike Callicrate, Ranch Foods Direct
“My answer to feeding the world was to scale back, scale down,” he said. “Get smaller and feed your community and cut out all this freight and all this other stuff that externalizes costs.”
In 2000, Callicrate began changing his own farming practices and opened Ranch Foods Direct, which sold his meat directly to consumers. Initially, he processed his meat at the local G&C Packing Co. in Colorado Springs, which was the last United States Department of Agricultureinspected plant in town, but it also closed.
“I was not going to have anywhere to slaughter my cattle,” he said.
In 2012, Callicrate built his own slaughterhouse and began processing his own meat; he also offered his butchering services to other farmers needing a place to process their livestock.
Today, Callicrate raises 1,200 head of cattle and 800 pigs a year on his farm in St. Francis, Kansas. The animals are raised on a balanced grass and grain diet that includes barley and some corn. Lastly, the meat is dry aged for two weeks, which serves as a natural disinfecting process against harmful pathogens. Because animals are killed prior to transport, it minimizes both animal stressors and transportation costs. In addition, this model allows for more sustainable practices like rotational grazing, and it returns nutrients to the land with the use of animal manure and carcasses as fertilizer.
“The bottom line is, if you lose your soil, you’re finished,” he said.
Callicrate’s passion goes beyond raising good meat. It’s about giving access to healthy, nutritious food and connecting local producers directly to consumers.
For this reason, RFD partners with local Colorado-based producers, including Valley Roots Food Hub based out of the San Luis Valley and Mountain Freshies out of the North Fork Valley. At the RFD store at 1228 E. Fillmore St. in Colorado Springs, one can find locally grown potatoes, carrots, sweet corn, tomatoes and onions. RFD also sells lettuce and greens from Emerge Aquaponics based in Black Forest and has a bulk foods section that includes beans, grains, rolled oats and split peas. During the warm months, the store grows produce in a community garden outside the store that is free to the public.
“We don’t want to say no to a small business that’s trying to get started, and we want to make it extremely affordable for them to come in and be on our shelf,” he said.
One challenge in local agriculture and food are the high costs of doing business. Callicrate points to the rising costs of land that make it harder for younger people to go into farming and the high commercial rents that make it harder for local vendors to start businesses to sell their products. For him, promoting local agriculture is about rebuilding local food systems and in doing so, returning wealth to local communities. It’s about giving local bakers, butchers, cheesemakers and producers more profits to not just survive but to have the margin to support healthier agricultural practices and working environments within their communities. He envisions cultivating local city markets that make it easier for local vendors to sell directly to the public without the huge overhead expenses.
In 2017, Callicrate opened the Peak to Plains Food Hub at 4635 Town Center Dr. in the Springs as a way to start addressing these needs. It has cold storage areas for local businesses to store food and provides lot space for local farmers, like the Peyton-based Ahavah Farms, to sell their produce as part of their local Community Supportive Agriculture program.
“It’s been one of the huge major human follies ever in history that we would think we’re going to feed the world from a handful of corporations. It’s not resilient, it’s not dependable, it’s not sustainable, it’s not safe. It’s abusive to people and abusive to animals in those models that they’ve created through this factory farming,” he said.
That’s why Callicrate seeks to create avenues where producers can receive fair pay, are accountable to the community and consumers can learn not only what’s in their food but also have more direct relationships with the people who grow it.
In a local food landscape that’s dominated by fast food chains, it’s been an uphill battle to preserve access to locally produced healthy food. Despite the setbacks, Callicrate believes the effort and sacrifice is not just necessary but worth it for future generations. As hard as the road may be, it’s a bull worth riding. After all, this isn’t his first rodeo.
For more information, visit https://ranchfoodsdirect.com.
A Rancher’s Quest to Raise Healthy Meat, Rebuild Local Markets – The New Falcon Herald