Globalism is killing US farms under guise of 'sustainability'
National Black Farmers Association founder John Boyd Jr. and Texas rancher Shad Sullivan warn of dire effects on US food supply on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
American liberals who join their global counterparts in applauding the acclaim of "sustainability," among other interests, are ignoring the damage their policies are already wreaking on U.S. agriculture, farmers told Fox News.
While nationwide organizations like the FFA are going strong and statewide affairs like the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show and Iowa State Fair continue to draw exhibitors and guests alike, beneath the surface are troubling signs, two guests on "The Ingraham Angle" warned this week.
Globalist "green" policies as well as inflation and rising costs have led to thinner herds, and in some instances, foreclosure or shuttering of farms altogether, bringing with them a potential domestic food crisis, they said.
"Farmers are going out of business every day," said John Boyd Jr., founder of the Black Farmers of America.
"What's happening is America's beef cattle producers are depleting their herds. So they're not having more calves so they can multiply."
IOWA FARMER BLASTS INFLATION, WARNS MONTHLY GROCERY BILLS COULD INCREASE $1,000
Boyd said there has been a one billion pound decrease in U.S. beef production over the past year, warning it is an impending crisis that every American could discover one day at their grocer or butcher.
He noted the feds are keen on financially aiding farmers abroad, particularly in war-torn Ukraine, but have done little to help American agriculture.
"We have farmers facing foreclosure. And the USDA will not stop farm foreclosures in this country for direct loans, guaranteed loans and other agricultural lenders," he said.
"And I've made that request on your network many times," added Boyd, who previously but unsuccessfully dipped his toe in the political waters himself in 2000, when he faced off as a Democrat against then-Rep. Virgil Goode, I-Va.
Boyd, who farms soybeans, grain and cattle in Boydton, Va., a small community between South Boston and South Hill, warned Black farmers like himself are "facing extinction," with the combination of adverse public policy and higher input costs.
He cited the spike in diesel fuel over the past few years as one example of a financial crunch facing tracts like his.
"This is why farmers can't stay on the farm," he said, adding the Biden administration has failed to properly address issues facing American ag.
Additionally, host Laura Ingraham pointed to news stories like a recent PBS expose on what it described as problematic methane emissions from cattle and their "high-fiber diet."
The public broadcaster went on to claim that makes beef "one of the least climate-friendly" food sources.
She also pointed to Biden Climate Czar John Kerry, a former Massachusetts Democratic senator who said in recent comments abroad that agriculture purportedly contributes to one-third of all harmful emissions, which the host said suggests a global push to shrink the emissions, and thereby shrink the ag sector itself.
Ingraham reported that, in her words, the U.S. cattle population has not been this low since Kerry was infamously testifying before Congress about the Vietnam War in the early 1970s – and that the negative repercussions of elites' policies are "what they want."
Shad Sullivan, a rancher in Olney, a small town south of Wichita Falls, Texas, said globalism is indeed the overarching issue.
"It's the global elites -- claiming that climate change is ruining the world and that we must implement sustainability: which is just production and consumption control across the world," Sullivan said.
"We see it going on all over -- because of this, we're becoming vertically integrated, in our system. The beef cattle industry is the last bastion of freedom."
He said it is therefore time to fittingly "take the bull by the horns" and stop global elites from implementing sustainability regulations that would cripple Western agriculture – particularly ripping claims that cattle are a danger to the world.
He warned that corporate agricultural interests have already invested resources in studying consumption of insects including crickets as a potential replacement for purportedly dangerous beef and pork – citing a report that chicken titan Tyson Foods earlier this month invested in a Dutch insect ingredient maker.
However, in comments to CNN, Tyson CFO John Tyson said the company's focus is more on "ingredient application with insect protein" rather than "consumer application."
Sullivan later added such problems are however, "liberty and freedom issue[s]. And that's where we have to focus on. We have to stop this," he said.