¶ … threats to Hank's lifestyle. Development has taken over grazing land. Another issue is that environmentalists demanding that practices like Hank's be made illegal (Schlosser 134). Also, the race track nearby is disturbing the animals, among other things. The text describes other threats, including: "rising land prices, stagnant beef prices, oversupplies of cattle, increased shipments of live cattle from Canada and Mexico, development pressures, inheritance taxes, health scares about beef" (136).

How are Hank's problems similar to the problems faced by ranchers 100 years ago?

When the Industrial Revolution occurred, natural land was taken over so that factories could be built. The ranchers and farmers had to learn to live with this. Also, this was the time when the country was dealing with large trusts who controlled whole industries.

How does the meat packing industry keep the price of cattle low?

The meat packing industry keeps the price of cattle low by feeding the animals less expensive feed. Also, since they have industrialized...

They do not own ranches themselves, but instead lease out the care and upbringing of cows to others to keep costs down (139).
4. What is price-fixing, and how does it hurt ranchers and consumers?

Price-fixing is when cost of things is illegally controlled by those in charge of a service or commodity in order to artificially inflate costs or keep them ridiculously low, such as is occurring in the beef industry.

5. What happened to Mike Callicrate? What are the implications of his outcome for other ranchers?

He was a cattleman who spoke out against what he found to be criminal activities. Consequently the large meatpacking companies stopped bidding on his cattle which harmed him financially (144). The implication to other ranchers was clear, if they too spoke out against the meatpacking conglomerates, then they too would be financially ruined. If they wanted to keep their businesses and be able to support their families, then they would simply…