By Tom Deweese ——Bio and Archives--July 11, 2023
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“Farmland lost is farmland lost forever.” That catchy phrase is a popular slogan distributed by the Virginia-based land trust called the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC). While it’s an accurate statement, apparently, the PEC and its like-minded Green brethren are only concerned about losing vital farmland to housing developers. Meanwhile, thousands of farmers and ranchers are losing their industries to radical environmental policies supported and promoted by such groups. Obviously, hypocrisy runs deep in the leftist Green movement.
However, farmland is under attack across the nation, mainly under the guise of climate change and environmental protection. Let’s review some of the main threats America’s farmers are facing.
The central unifying issue driving the attack on America’s farming industry is “climate change.” SUSTAINABLE! That’s the trigger word driving the attack on farming. Green activists say we face an impending apocalypse and so society, they warn, must pursue a stated goal of achieving “sustainable development” or all will be lost. “Sustainable development” determines how food will be grown, processed, packaged, and marketed. Very specific rules determined what kind of crops may be grown, and how much land may be used for that purpose, while much of a farm’s private property is forced into open space for habitat, wetlands, and “supposedly endangered species.
Meanwhile, Biden’s Energy Czar, John Kerry, has accused small farms of being significant emitters of nitrogen. Of course, this is the primary attack on cattle for their burps, flatulence, and manure. The current term is
“Climate Smart.” As sustainable development forces higher costs on
the farmers, Biden’s massive inflation makes it nearly impossible for
farmers to stay afloat.
While the Biden cabal is pushing to
maneuver it all into place, the real driving force is being driven by
the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its Great Reset agenda. The WEF has
actually launched something called its New Vision for Agriculture (NVA)
initiative, which it defines as a “roadmap for Stakeholders.”
Stakeholders are not farmers, property owners, or others in the
agriculture industry. They are Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
many of whom have been working directly with the United Nations for
decades to direct climate change policy.
“The World Economics
Forum’s New Vision for Agriculture initiative is led by 17 global
companies that are Industry Partners of the Forum,” according to the
WEF/McKinsey report. It continues, “the 17 global companies that
championed the initiative are Archer Daniels Midland, BASF, Bunge,
Cargill, The Coca-Cola Company, Dupont, General Mills, Kraft Foods,
Metro, Monsanto company, Nestle, PepsiCo, SABMiller, Syngenta,
Unileve4r, Wal-Mart Stores, and Yara International.”
Now add
the funds of private foundations such as the Rockefellers, Blackrock,
and Gates Foundation, then the true road map of those stakeholders and
their funders begins to emerge. These forces are NOT protectors of the
environment; they are destroyers of it and 0ur current living
standards.
Now comes the implementation of the plan. How do they
intend to ultimately change the entire food production system of the
nation and make it sustainable? Answer: target the land.
Wind and Solar
Reports
from the solar industry as far back as 2017, indicate that the
Midwestern states are the “growing hotspot for solar and wind power” to
replace traditional coal and gas power plants – meaning thousands of
acres of valuable farm land would be required to replace current energy
sources that now use only a few acres. A World Bank study published in
2017 admitted that “clean energy” technology is “significantly more
material intensive” than hydrocarbon energy sources, and that estimate
didn’t even consider farmland destruction.
The solar panels are
made of plastic – which takes oil to produce. Underneath those solar
panels that run end to end, row by row, for thousands of acres, is
cement for infrastructure wires. Little can grow underneath them – no
grass, no animals. That’s how farmland is being destroyed.
In
addition to solar, the Midwest states are also targeted for wind power.
Wind power needs enormous amounts of oil for the turbines to turn. And
those blades are not degradable when they no longer work. Again, they
also need the massive infrastructure under the planned forests of
turbines. How much raw material, including limestone, steel, aluminum,
cobalt, and nickel will it take to produce a single wind turbine? And
what about the transmission lines needed to get the electricity onto
the power grid?
Picture thousands of acres of these turbines –
the death of scenic views, of peaceful land, and in the air, nothing
will be flying. Millions of birds, rapture, and endangered species
destroyed – in the name of environmental protection. Ask the Interior
Department how many birds are killed yearly. Such information, they
will tell you, is classified. Why?
Wind and solar are a joke. Remember when we used to call
environmentalists “Tree Huggers?” Well, where are they now? Why are
they not standing up to stop wind and solar from destroying the
environment? For example, the Wind industry has cleared over 17,283
acres in Scotland for wind farms. To do it they have wiped out
14,000,000 trees – to save the planet!
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Wind and solar processes produce next to nothing for the power grid. If all other sources of fuels were banned and all power was to come from wind and solar, estimates are that it would only provide between 4% and 12%
of the energy we need to run the country. Yet millions of acres of
vital farmland – private property needed to produce our food supply --
are targeted to be buried under this insanity.
Carbon Capture Pipelines
Those
pushing for more solar and wind energy also champion carbon capture
pipelines. They insist that manmade CO2 is driving climate change and
therefore pipelines are needed to be used to safely bury this threat
from fossil fuel plants into the ground. Here’s the scheme.
Private
corporations have targeted thousands of acres of privately-owned,
food-producing Midwest Corn Belt farmland to build several
interconnecting pipelines. A letter being sent to targeted property
owners from Navigator Heartland Greenway LLC says, “Navigator is
proposing to build a large-scale carbon capture pipeline system spanning
1300 miles across five states in the Midwest…” The letter goes on to explain that “the
pipeline will materially reduce the participant’s carbon footprint and
further the global goal of carbon neutrality… The pipeline system… will
capture carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from local facilities before
these emissions reach the atmosphere and transport the CO2 safely via
pipeline to a permanent and secure underground sequestration site in
Illinois.”
There is no sound scientific reason for such a project. Trees
and plants need CO2 to live. Here are some actual scientific facts that
prove CO2 is not a pollutant but is necessary for a sound environment:
The Carbon Capture Pipelines are unnecessary and dangerous to all of human society. Many scientists warn of a growing CO2 shortage that will lead to famine. The U.S. Navy has produced a chart entitled “CO2 Starvation.
The chart reports that average CO2 needs for plant life is 1,600
Parts Per Million(PPM). However, according to the Navy. we are
currently at 400 PPM. These figures have been verified by other
scientists, including Climate expert Dr. Willy Soon and Dr. Lee
Merritt. Dr. Merritt also predicts a “dust bowl” phenomena as a result
of plants starving from CO2. Millions of acres covered by solar panels
and wind turbines will lead to the destruction of the environment.
Today,
in targeted states, including Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota,
Nebraska, and Minnesota, there is growing opposition to the pipelines.
Farmers are beginning to understand the threat to their property
rights. In response, the corporations behind the scheme resort to
ruthless intimidation tactics to scare the farmers into compliance as
they boldly trespass on private farmland with armed guards and heavy
equipment, damaging crops. With this tactic employed, will local and
state governments stand with the farmers who feed us or the powerful
corporations?
Attack on the Cattle Industry – Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
“Meat
consumption is devastating some of the world’s most valuable and
vulnerable regions, due to the vast amount of land needed to produce animal feed.”
The quote is from a report issued by one of the most powerful
environmental NGOs, the World Wildlife Fund. They have made it their
mission to stop beef consumption. How can they do that, you may ask?
First,
the WWF was influential in creating the Global Roundtable for
Sustainable Beef. Quick to join were the four min packing companies
that control access to the beef market, including Tysons, Cargil, JBS
and National Beef. Next to join was the National Cattleman’s Beef
Association (NCBA), the largest association representing the beef
industry.
Working together, these organizations began to create
new rules that coerced cattlemen to be “certified” to attain what is
called “Beef Quality Assurance” recognition from the federal Department
of Agriculture. This would grant them the label of being
“sustainable,” of course. In the name of environmental protection,
these new rules placed restrictions on water grazing, reduced
productive uses of the ranchland to make way for wildlife habitat, and
forced cattle growers to have smaller herds. All this served to make
the ranching process more expensive.
Worst of all is the removal
of “Nation of Origin” labeling, so consumers don’t know where their
beef is coming from. This allows the packers to use foreign beef which
is exempt from the strict Roundtable rules, making it much cheaper than
American beef.
The WWF’s Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
is nothing short of a monopoly controlling the industry. There is no
free market per se. A few years ago, an independent company called
Northern Beef Packers was created at an investment cost of
approximately $50 million to create an independent packing company not
tied to the Roundtable. The four major packers simply lowered their
costs to block the competition by making the price of beef so low that
it drove the independent company out of business.
Many suspect
the goal is to stop beef consumption and replace it with the fake meat
now being offered by Bill Gates and others. Of course, the packers will
still have something to market without contending with the animal
rights lobby. These corporations will continue to stuff their pockets
while gaining the power to set what products will be offered to
consumers.
It’s important to once again emphasize that one of
the main packing companies, Cargil, is one of the 17 global companies
that are Industry Partners of the World Economic Forum’s New Vision for
Agriculture, which, as already reported, is dedicated to transforming
the U.S. food industry. Another piece of the puzzle put in its place.
The threat from China – buying up American Farmland
China
now owns roughly 384,000 acres of U.S. farmland, according to a 2021
report from the Department of Agriculture. Of that, 195,000 acres are
owned by 85 Chinese investors. It is vital to make clear China is a
communist dictatorship. There is no free market in China, so there are
no private corporations. All are controlled by the government. So, even
if it appears that a Chinese individual or company is purchasing land,
the power behind it is the government which is an avowed opponent to
the concept of free markets, private property or individual liberty.
Allowing such a force to purchase massive amounts of American land is a
direct threat to American sovereignty, especially when much of the
land they buy is within visual range of American military bases.
China
is pushing hard for the U.S. to accept wind and solar power while we
eliminate gas and coal. Yet, China is leading the world in reopening
oil wells and coal mines for their OWN energy needs.
China is
behind much of the drive to convert to electric vehicles, away from
gas-powered cars. Does it surprise you that China has influence over
much of the lithium resources in the world necessary to power those gas
cars? China says America must follow the globalist dictates of
“Sustainable” policies – but China doesn’t.
China is allied and
works in partnership with those in Davos championing the Great Reset –
designed to destroy our free market system. The more American land
China controls, the more influence it can exert over U.S. policy.
China
is an avowed enemy of free markets and American influence. It has
proven over the years that it will support or undertake actions that
would impact American security and prosperity. That includes the use of
American
farmland. Through the purchase of American farmland China can add
power to the push for the carbon capture pipeline, thereby helping from
the inside to destroy American food sources. China can increase the
spread of wind and solar over valuable American farmland, decreasing
more of the farm industry. Plus, they can use American farmland to
raise crops and ship them back to China for their own use, while
American grocery shelves grow empty.
In Florida, twelve Chinese
investors have already put $16 million into an aquaculture project on
100 acres in Fellsmere, Florida. In Virginia, the Chinese bought
Smithfield Foods and its 460 large farms and facilities in 26 states,
employing tens of thousands of Americans. Additional projects such as
these are in literally every state in the Union.
So serious is
the threat that legislation has been introduced in Congress to control
or prevent Chinese purchases of farmland. Texas Congressman Chip Roy
has introduced the “Securing American Land from Foreign Interference
Act” (H.R. 3244). The specific purpose is to block Communist Chinese
farmland purchases in America. China has labeled the bill racist
against Asians.
However,
in the state legislature of South Dakota, legislation was introduced
to block China from buying farmland in that state. Yet, the bill faced
opposition from nearly every agriculture industry group. According to
reports, the farm industry pushed to block the measure because big
corporations, now working to destroy the small farmers see an
opportunity to extend the global influence of the Great Reset over the
United States.
Small,
independent farmers are facing extinction. Their replacement will be
powerful corporations that will no longer cater to consumers. Instead
consumers will have to accept what the big corporations decide to
provide –fake meat and all.
Americans must stand up to save and protect farmland because American Farmland lost, is America lost forever.
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Tom Deweese the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and is the President of the American Policy Center, a grassroots, activist think tank headquartered in Warrenton, Virginia.