USA: Globalism Always Destroys Domestic Industry

"The United States is an oligarchy."

-President Jimmy Carter

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Agri-business corporations have the money, and they have rigged the situation against individual farmers and ranchers.  

Nothing can be done about the real problems, because the political system is owned by the big money.  Money would have to come out of politics, the franchise would have to be reduced, and this would require a dictator backed by the military and secret police.  

As nothing can be done, America is in the hands of monopolists and financially well-endowed lobby groups.  We can call this a democracy, but it is not.  Some years ago former President Jimmy Carter said, truthfully, that the United States is an oligarchy.

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Bonifay farmer speaks on 2018 farm bill expiration

By Ashleigh Yuhas: The 2018 farm bill expired this week, and a farmer in Bonifay is speaking out on current agricultural issues that Congress should consider adding in the new bill.

The bill expired on Sep. 30 after it was extended for a 3rd time from Congress. Wes Madden, the owner of 9 Line Farms in Bonifay highlighted what panhandle farmers are asking for in the new farm bill.

“If you’re a farmer or a rancher and you’re waiting on Washington to solve your problems, you know it’s not necessarily a great strategy,” 9 Lines Farms Owner Wes Madden said.

The 2018 bill helped fund billions of dollars into financial assistance and programs to support farmers, including grant programs to help small farmers sell more products, such as the Local Agricultural Market program, also known as LAMP, which connects farmers directly to consumers in the market, receiving around $53 million for FY23, according to the USDA.

Farmers are still facing uphill battles with high input costs, and Madden is standing up for farmers for change in the new farm bill, including how farmers qualify for loan programs.

“When you get down to the qualifications for actually accessing those funds, most were matching grants, which meant if you were applying for a one million dollar grant, you need to raise one million and that it’s just difficult to pull that off,” Madden said.

According to the USDA, some of their programs do not require a matching requirement. Another issue Madden tackled is being transparent to the consumer when they are buying local products.

“The country of origin labeling is what all us producers really want. You know, if an animal is born and raised in America, we just want that on the label, and if it’s imported, we want that on the label. It really gives consumers the power to be able to choose,” Madden said.

The USDA says U.S. beef imports will hit 6.1 billion pounds this year, with 80% coming from five countries, but what consumers are seeing on the packaging is not the only problem Madden wants changed; it’s who local farmers are competing with.

“When you have four corporations that control 85% of the market, they’re dictating the pricing whether or not they’re you know colluding on said pricing that is the market. More competition would equalize that a little bit again and give us producers more choices in how they sell their animals,” Madden said.

The 4 corporations Wes is referring to is Tyson Foods, JBS U.S.A, Cargill and National Beef, who control majority of the deer and heifers’ market, making the competition a lot harder on farmers, according to Madden.

Madden wants to see change behind the scenes before products hit the shelves, especially during inspections.

“Every animal we take you know we have to drive to the USDA processor. Our closest one is 4 and a half hours away,” said Madden. “More power to the states to kind of regulate those processors, eliminate the USDA oversight over those processors, we believe in the inspection process you know but we also believe that processors should be able to get certified.”

These struggles farmers face behind the scenes is at the top of farmers’ minds, but for Madden, labor has been a worry too.

The annual employment for hired farmworkers has dropped from 2.3 million to 1.1 million, representing a 51% reduction, according to the USDA. Madden highlighted needing initiatives in the new farm bill to encourage more people to jump in the farming industry.

“We’re in our 6th year of operation, and I tell my ranch manager all the time, I have no idea how a young person could look at farming and ranching as a career,” said Madden. “It’s just so difficult mostly due to land acquisition costs.”

With more work still needing to get done to help local farmers around the panhandle, Madden said not knowing when the new farm bill will get passed creates uncertainty.

“You’ve got a farm bill that is held up right now and really won’t be getting passed until after the midterms, so yeah its delayed and it’s kind of putting farmers against families and that’s not really fair,” Madden said.

Congress is currently in a recess until the midterms, but both the Senate and the House passed their own versions of a new farm bill.

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