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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!
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:
- More CO2 enhances plant growth.
- More CO2 boosts crop yields which helps feed more people worldwide.
- Nearly all plants increase photosynthesis in response to increasing CO2 (CO2
fertilization). More plant growth means less topsoil erosion. - More CO2 makes plants grow faster, with less stress and water. Moister soil.
- More CO2 helps plants to create natural repellants to fight insect predators.
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, Cargill, 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.
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Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education and American sovereignty and independence.
Featured image is from APC
