For Immediate Release: July 20, 2023
Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard
Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com
Please find below R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary that discusses how governments the world over have lost sight of their primary goal to strengthen their food security. It is in three formats: written, audio and video. Anyone is welcome to use it for broadcasting or reporting.
Bite the Hand That Feeds You
Commentary by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA
According to the United Nations, the world’s population reached 8 billion people last fall. Since the 50s, the world population has been growing at a rate of about 2 billion more people every 25 years. Predictions are that the population growth rate will subside somewhat, but in about 30 more years it’s expected to be around 10 billion people.
Now that’s a lot of people to feed. But the United Nations also states that 828 million of the current 8 billion people suffer from hunger. That’s somewhere around 1 in 10 people that are hungry.
So, it looks like the world is not yet capable of producing enough food to feed everyone and relatively soon there will be billions more people.
You’d think that responsible governments around the world would recognize a hierarchy of governmental priorities. Now picture that hierarchy as a pyramid. At the pyramid’s peak would be food security. And immediately below food security would be national security – the protection against aggression. Then immediately below it would be energy security – meaning the means of providing shelter, the production of essential goods, and the ability to deliver those goods.
But let’s focus on food security. Few would argue that you could maintain national security without food security, or that without food security you could still achieve energy security. Now of course they are all interdependent, but food is still on top.
And let’s start with the basics: Where does food come from? Well, it comes from the land and from the ocean. And who grows, raises, or gathers that food? Well, that would be farmers and ranchers and fishermen.
So, you’d think with food security as the top priority of governments, and because land and oceans are where the food comes from and it’s farmers and ranchers and fishermen that grow, raise or gather that food, then it follows that every government’s primary objectives for achieving their food security goal would be to preserve and protect where the food comes from and those who produce it.
But based on everything you’ve heard or read, how many of you believe that governments are actually focused on their most important goal and the most important objectives for achieving it?
Okay! Some of you are laughing, and for good reason.
Let’s look, for example, at the government of the world’s largest agricultural exporter – the United States – to determine what it’s doing to achieve food security by preserving its land resources suitable for food production and protecting those who produce food so U.S. citizens will never again go to their grocery stores to find the meat shelves empty.
Rather than to support grazing of cattle and sheep on federally managed lands the U.S. has been systematically reducing the numbers of livestock allowed to graze, which has caused many cattle farmers and ranchers and sheep producers to exit the industry. And rather than protect competition so family-sized farms and ranches can thrive, it has allowed multinational meatpackers to gain both power and leverage over independent producers.
In fact, in just the past two years, 2,000 more independent cattle feedlots have exited the U.S. cattle industry.
The U.S. government has lost its way, losing sight of its most important goal and attendant objectives. U.S. Cattle and sheep farmers and ranchers are exiting the industry at an alarming rate, the size of both the U.S. cattle herd and sheep flock are shrinking fast, and competition has been purged from livestock markets.
So, now let’s look at the government of the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter. It’s a tiny country, roughly the size of West Virginia, and it’s the largest exporter of meat to Europe. That country is the Netherlands, which has just over 11,000 Dutch farms.
And what is the Dutch government doing to its food production? It’s trying to force many of its cattle farmers to permanently quit raising cattle and it wants to force many of its other food producing farmers out of business as well.
Obviously, the Dutch government has also lost its way and is disconnected from its people, which explains the recent news stories about the collapse of the Dutch government. But from the tiny Netherlands arose a few world food champions.
Do you want to know what’s really going on with the global war on farming and the global effort to control, if not to limit food production? Well, only if you eat would you want to know.
And that’s why we’re bringing Dutch Farmers’ advocate and internationally renowned political commentator, Eva Vlaardingerbroek from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Rapid City, South Dakota, on Friday, Aug. 18 to be our keynote speaker at our R-CALF USA convention. She’s going to explain the global war against farmers that started in the Netherlands and is intended to control food production and thus people.
She’s going to explain why so many governments are biting the hands that feed them. You won’t want to miss this!
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R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary educates and informs both consumers and producers about timely issues important to the U.S. cattle industry and rural America.
Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. For more information visit www.r-calfusa.com or call (406) 252-2516.
