Thursday, October 24, 2024

U.S. Farm Policy: Possibility Of Some Big Changes Ahead

Something is obviously wrong with the policies that have developed since the commodity crash of the 1920's and depression of the 1930's. The words of President Roosevelt's second inaugural speech: "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." are still true but now, 86 years on, much of the reason they are still true are the very policies that were implemented under his Presidency.

From DTN Progressive Farmer, October 23:

Kennedy Targets Farm Policy, Has Plans
RFK Jr. Ties Health Crisis to Ag Policies, Plans Major Overhaul Under Trump

Missouri farmer Blake Hurst is surprised that American farm groups aren't pushing back on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s assertions that agriculture is destroying America's health.

Kennedy has taken on a larger role in former President Donald Trump's campaign, as Kennedy vows to rewrite rules for agriculture by banning more crop-protection tools and rewriting the country's dietary guidelines.

"Current ag policy is destroying America's health on every level," Kennedy declared last week on a social media video in which he stood outside USDA's headquarters in Washington. Kennedy laid out what he would be pushing in the Trump administration to "Make America Healthy Again."

Talking about current farm policy, Kennedy said, "It also destroys the health of America's soil and water by tilting the playing field in favor of more chemicals, more herbicides, more insecticides, more concentrated monocropping and feedlots, and finally, it destroys the health of consumers."

Kennedy added, "When Donald Trump gets me inside the building I'm standing outside of right now, it won't be this way anymore. American agriculture will come roaring back and so will Americans' health."

Kennedy then said a new Trump administration is going to change the rules and "give farmers an off-ramp from the current system that destroys their health, wrecks the soil, makes Americans sick and destroys family farms."

Trump has said repeatedly recently that Kennedy will have a role in the administration if Trump is elected. "Everybody likes Bobby Kennedy. And he's so big into the health food and women things. Everything. He wants to do things in the environment."

Hurst, a former president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, wrote an op-ed criticizing some of Kennedy's views. In an interview with DTN, Hurst said he's not surprised farm leaders are being quiet about Kennedy's plans for farmers.

"Everything is so tribal," Hurst said. "We're in the Trump tribe and we don't want to criticize it. Trump did it so it has to be good, right? The second thing is there's an assumption we're supposed to take him (Kennedy) figuratively and not literally."

Hurst said he believes one of Trump's biggest successes economically in his first term was the administration's entire emphasis on deregulation.

"And I think you can draw a direct line from those efforts to the performance of the economy," Hurst said. "Some of the things RFK Jr. is talking about will lead in the other direction. Rather, it would be a 180-degree turn from the first term, so that has to be concerning."

Rod Snyder, a former EPA agricultural adviser in the Biden administration and a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, said regulatory decisions on issues such as pesticide registrations involve a great deal of science and experts whose missions are to protect public health and the environment. Snyder said he's concerned Kennedy would set aside expert analysis for his own opinions.

"There's a huge risk to American agriculture if he ends up in a leadership role, and it just feels like it needs to be said out loud," Snyder said.

BANNING CROP PROTECTION TOOLS

A key claim Kennedy has made is that the next Trump administration would get tougher on banning farm chemicals....

....MUCH MORE

Additionally we do not need any more of this;

Meanwhile, one of the biggest backers of faux meat has man boobs:

I'm not saying it's phytoestrogens in the product but geez, he's our health and wellness guru.

Since I've somehow wandered onto the subject:
"Washington Post Denies Claim New Estrogen-Packed 'Impossible Whopper' Will Make Men Grow Breasts"
Yellow Pea Protein In The Financial Times: People Have Thoughts (but no mention of man boobs)

—the outro from September 2022's "Following On The News That Beyond Meat's COO Is Not Just A Carnivore But A Cannibal.... (BYND)".