Saying things that need to be said.
The Beef Fleece
BY LEE PITTS
Ihope you’re enjoying these flush times. These are the days old-timers will talk about with endearment 30 years from now. And according to a report by The Food Industry Association called The Power of Meat, there’s much to be hopeful about in the future.
For example, in 2024 nearly 98 percent of households in the U.S. purchased meat and spent an average of $871 keeping meat the largest fresh department in grocery stores. Beef especially did well in 2024, most notably ground beef. Meat department sales at grocery stores set an all-time record of $104.6 billion in 2024, up 4.7 percent over the previous year. The number of pounds sold increased 2.3 percent in 2024 and 96 percent of shoppers were open to spending more on meat.
These Taxing Times
In December 2024 Denmark became the first country in the world to impose a “fart tax” on cows. According to a report by Hanna Ziady of CNN Business, “The world’s first carbon tax on livestock will cost farmers nearly $100 per year per cow” for the planet-heating emissions they generate.
So we haven’t turned into a vegetarian nation. What could possibly go wrong? Here’s a hint: the answer is hidden in this quote from Ronald Reagan regarding the DC. bureaucracy. He said their attitude is, “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
transformation of the Danish landscape in recent times,” said their Foreign Minister. “At the same time, we will be the first country in the world with a carbon tax on agriculture.”
“The move comes just months after farmers held protests across Europe, blocking roads with tractors and pelting the European Parliament with eggs over a long list of complaints, including gripes about environmental regulation and excessive red tape,” said Ziady.
Always drink upstream from the herd.
The new levies on livestock start in 2030.
“Denmark is a major dairy and pork exporter, and agriculture is the country’s biggest source of emissions,” said Ziady. “With today’s agreement, we are investing billions in the biggest
The fact that scientists cannot agree to what extent cows contribute to the supposed climate crisis is your first clue that climate change is the biggest fleece job of the 21st century.
While Denmark officials insist cattle are responsible for 30 percent of greenhouse gases, the United Nations’ Food and
Global Greening from Higher CO2 Hits “Striking” New Heights
BY CHRIS MORRISON / DAILY SCEPTIC.ORG
Significant new evidence has emerged of widespread and significant increases in plant vegetation across the Earth due to the recent rise of the trace gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Using what they describe as True Significant Trends – a workflow program integrating sophisticated spatial and time-period data – a geographer and an agrobiologist in Spain found “robust quantitative evidence” of widespread global greening, describing it as “striking” –“with a significant portion of Earth’s terrestrial land surface showing measurable increases in vegetation cover over the last four decades”.
This is the CO2 story that dare not print its tale in the mainstream media. Recent dramatic world vegetation boosts are easily tracked by satellite, and estimates of growth range around 14 to 20 percent over just 40 years. Recent scientific work has found the rate of greening has actually been increasing since the turn of the century. Ask Grok for recent coverage of this important trend in the BBC and Guardian, and the answer comes back with none since 2016.
Global greening heads a long list of taboo subjects for captured journalists promoting the political Net Zero fantasy. Also on the not-todo list is the pause of the Arctic sea ice extent since 2007, the continued strength of the Gulf Stream, record growth for three years of coral on the Great Barrier Reef and North American continued on page 4
Riding Herd
by LEE PITTS
The Rattler Relocation Project
Agriculture Organization said they produced 12 percent of global emissions in 2015, and the Animal Agriculture Alliance says American dairy and beef production only contributes around 3.3 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Obviously it’s not settled science and a tax on cows for the methane they produce could never happen here. Or could it?
False Pretenses
In an essay by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA he said, “Two decades ago, the USDA attempted to force America’s cattle producers to register their premises with the federal government, to individually identify all their cattle with electronic identification (EID) ear tags, and to record their animals’ movements in a government database. Unsurprisingly, American citizens resoundingly said ‘NO’ to the USDA’s onerous plan, and the USDA retreated.”
continued on page 2
Healing Making America Heathy Again Wounds
BY GRACE YARROW / POLITICO WEEKLY AGRIC.A
The White House set up meetings in mid-June to discuss farm groups’ concerns with a recent Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report that targeted pesticides, according to two people familiar with the plans.
Officials will meet with several groups at a time across the commodity, food manufacturing and pesticide industries for hour-long conversations, said the people, who were granted anonymity to share further details.
The meeting invitations come after farm groups spent the last few weeks aggressively lobbying the Trump administration to open up public comment and gather industry input privately before releasing its final list of MAHA policy recommendations, which is due in August.
One agriculture industry insider, granted anonymity so they could candidly share their thoughts, said that it’s “not clear” how this effort will influence the final recommendations.
“We’re all very interested to see how these meetings play out over the next week and if it is a meaningful gesture or not,” the person said. “Is this just an exercise in placating stakeholders?”
How we got here
Groups that have kept quiet in the face of President Donald Trump’s tariff plans and funding cuts drew the line at supporti ng HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA Commis-
The rattle of a rattlesnake has been the soundtrack of my life as I’ve lived in rattler country most of my time on earth, but it seems like lately I’m seeing and hearing more of them. In the last five years I’ve killed six of the cold-blooded killers within ten yards of my front door! A friend who likes to go hiking says he too has seen so many more rattlers in the state park that he is now wearing shin guards that baseball catchers wear. It’s a good thing because one rattler got a nasty headache when it struck the hard plastic that covered his leg from his knee down.
I’m not ashamed to say that I kill every rattlesnake I can because the way I see it, it’s kill or be killed. My admission probably horrifies the animal rightists who live in big cities where the only snakes they come in contact with are politicians and bureaucrats.
One busy body, who used to semi-like me, got word that I killed a rattlesnake and now won’t even return my wave because I didn’t call The Rattlesnake Relocation Project instead which supposedly catches rattlers and relocates them. I tried explaining to my neighbor that the only way that a rattler would even be in the same zip code by the time the rattler trapper got there was because I’d chopped its head off. I bet if her beloved blind dog got bit by one she’d change her tune. Speaking of dogs getting bit, I have another neighbor who went from being a snake lover to being repelled by reptiles when a rattler bit the nose of her dog. I think the only reason the dog survived was because it was a rough and tough Catahoula with a proud heritage of fighting gators in the swamps of Louisiana. Still, it nearly died and hasn’t been the same since. To prevent future occurrences my neighbor put in a rattlesnake fence and it had hardly been completed when her dog got bit a second time. After surviving two rattler attacks that dog is now on a mission to rid the world of rattlesnakes and went from being a nice dog to a deadly assassin. Because of her dog’s new desire to kill rattlesnakes, my neighbor sold
her beautiful home, took her now-nutty dog and moved to a condo in a sanctuary city.
When I worked in the oilfields it was in an area crawling with rattlers. It was a slow week if at least one wasn’t killed and put in someone’s lunch box to scare them to death like they did me on my first day on the job. We killed so many rattlesnakes that I started collecting their rattles and skinning their hides.
On my first day in the oilfields, I was handed two things, a hard-hat and a snakebite kit which consisted of one rubber end that held a razor blade and the other end was a rubber suction cup you were supposed to use to suck out the venom after you’d cut a deep X through the fang marks. I always wondered if I’d have had the guts to cut myself if I was ever bit. A friend who retired from working in those same oilfields told me they no longer issue snakebite kits and said the old rules no longer apply. Now they tell you to remain calm (easy for them to say), apply a tourniquet and have someone drive you to the nearest hospital, or mortuary, whatever the case may be.
What prompted this essay was an event that made me even more proud of my wife, if that’s possible. She loves to garden but before she gets down on her hands and knees to plant or trim she shakes the bushes with a stick to scare any snakes away. Today my wife casually mentioned that she’d killed a rattlesnake while gardening.
At first I was leery of her claim but sure enough she showed me the dead rattler with its head chopped cleanly off. I wonder, how many women can say they’ve killed a rattlesnake? It’s got to be a very low number. Now, just like that Catahoula, my shovel-wielding wife is on a deadly mission and has embarked on her own version of the Rattlesnake Relocation Project.
sion report, which targets the use of glyphosate and atrazine, according to industry representatives and former and current administration officials, granted anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes tensions.
The initial report, which came out in May, only briefly mentions that glyphosate and atrazine — two of the most widely used herbicides — could lead to adverse health impacts, and it notes that federal reviews of data have not established a direct link. But groups are nevertheless worried that the report could create the impression that U.S.-produced food products aren’t safe.
“American agriculture does not feel sufficiently protected against government mandates that would outlaw chemicals they need,” said one agriculture advocate granted anonymity to share concerns about the administration’s work. “How do we know that the nanny-state side of RFK Jr.’s agenda isn’t going to show itself?”
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment about the meetings, but spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement on June 6 that the MAHA Commission will “continue to engage with stakeholders” as it drafts next steps.
“President Trump’s initiative to Make America Healthy Again is a bottom-up movement, with stakeholders across the board — including farmers, everyday parents, local governments, and family physicians — having a role to play,” Desai said.
A former Biden administration official, granted anonymity to discuss the private lobbying efforts, said farmers “basically instinctively trust Trump” on tariff and other agricultural policies, but don’t have the same belief in Kennedy.
“They think [Trump] has a master plan and that ultimately it will all work out,” the person said. “That is not the feeling about this report.” ▫
Endangered Species Act Overdue for Major Overhaul
BY WILLIAM PERRY PENDLEY
Long before COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other “experts” who “represent science,” and their senseless and baseless federal mandates and other authoritarian decrees, there was the Endangered Species Act. My home state of Wyoming, long after President Biden’s “patience [with non-vaxxers had] “w[orn] thin,” enjoyed the nation’s lowest “full vaccination rate” because we had been inoculated to junk science peddled by the federal government. After all, we lived through decades of “scientists” trying to control how we work and live because of the grizzly bear, the greater sage-grouse, and the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse.
Little wonder we greeted with enthusiasm President Trump’s plans, announced last month, to redefine the term “harm” as used in the ESA and last week’s executive order to require “Gold Standard Science in the conduc t and management of [agencies’] scientific activities.” Trump’s order singled out the ESA as having failed to meet that standard and thereby lost the public’s trust — along with federal decision-making regarding COVID-19 and so-called climate change.
Like everything else in government, the ESA began with good intentions but empty promises. Enacted in 1973 with only a handful of dissenting votes, everyone thought it a marvelous idea to save species like the bald eagle from extinction. Congress told us that as few as 100 species were likely to be named as threatened or endangered. Those that were listed were primarily in the third of the county owned by the federal government, most of which is in the American West and Alaska,
and, in the unlikely event protected species were found on private lands, property owners would be compensated.
Today, as many as 1,678 are listed in the United States with hundreds more pending mostly due to petitions and lawsuits filed by well-heeled nongovernmental organizations. Not surprisingly, in what conservationist Robert Gordon calls a “bait and switch,” the ESA is used mainly to benefit “not the warm and fuzzies but the cold and slimies.” Furthermore, listed species, those requiring federal studies, land-use mandates and restrictions, and even all-out seizure of private property, occur nationwide regardless of who owns the land. Finally, the federal government rarely, if ever, willingly grants “just compensation” for the “taking” of “private property” for the ”public use” that is species protection.
The ESA went off the rails early. The ink was barely dry on the act when a law student and his professors used it to sue the Tennessee Valley Authority to stop the building of the Tellico Dam, under construction since 1967 and almost finished. After the U.S. Supreme Court hoisted Congress with its own petard by holding the ESA deemed snail darters more important than the dam — they must be protected “whatever the cost” — Congress exempted Tellico Dam from the act. Nevertheless, an early 2025 study concluded that the snail darter was neither a species nor endangered.
The snail darter fiasco foreshadowed decades of mischief by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, primarily, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. So controversial did the ESA, as implemented, become that Congress failed to reauthorize the act and it continues via annual appropriations. For example, in the 1990s, the ESA was used to end logging in the Pacific Northwest, killing thousands of jobs, dooming hundreds of small communities, and putting scores of counties on life support ostensibly to save the northern spotted owl. Nowadays, says
the FWS, it is not logging that threatened the northern spotted owl, but 400,000 barred owls, which must be killed at a cost of $1.35 billion over 30 years.
Experts like Gordon argue that the ESA does not “protect” species, but only “regulates” them, in the process of which agencies play fast and loose with terms such as “distinct population segment,” by which species that are in great abundance elsewhere are regulated in an area where few, perhaps naturally, occur, and “critical habitat” by which an area that contains neither species nor its habitat is placed off-limits to human activity. Moreover, as part of their regulatory processes, agencies make no distinction between species that are “endangered” and those that are merely “threatened.”
Given the misguided focus of the agencies implementing the ESA, after more than 50 years, it continued on page 4
wildfires in the last 100 years running at barely a quarter of those recorded back to 1600.
Global greening helps reduce world famine and reclaim desert areas but it is not of the slight-
continued from page 1
est interest in the mainstream since it disrupts the fake claims of a climate in crisis due to humans burning hydrocarbons. It is easier to stick with the witch doctor attribution pronounce-
ments of extreme weather and all the dodgy temperature data pumped out at unnaturally heat-ravaged measuring sites.
To consider all the data that show extreme events are not getting worse, with or without human involvement, risks the
Five Reassuring Stats About Americans’ Meat Consumption
BY PETER THOMAS RICCI / MEATINGPLACE.COM
An expansive new survey delivered nutritional insights on how U.S. consumers are meeting their protein needs. Conducted by Datassential (along with the Culinary Institute of America and others), the study interviewed
more than 1,500 Americans and gleaned key trends:
1. Twenty-four percent of consumers limit their meat consumption, down from 29 percent in 2022; furthermore, the other 76 percent of consumers do not actively limit meat consumption.
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punters concluding that a little extra warmth and CO2 in the atmosphere is probably a good thing. Perish the thought that the climate is currently in a rather pleasant and benign phase of Earth’s existence. If that is the uplifting take, cue, of course, the end of Net Zero and that would never do. Net Zero relies on fake science and much of the real stuff is fatal to the collectivist ambitions of its hard-Left promoters.
The Spanish researchers do not quantify the amount of new vegetation but conclude that 38 percent of the world’s land surface shows significant vegetation change. It was found that 76 percent of the change total showed more greening and, interestingly, those areas with more plant life showed higher rates of additional growth.
The results help confirm global greening, with the researchers hoping their work incorporating addition relevant data will provide a clearer picture of what is going on. (Just don’t tell the mainstream press!)
These striking growth trends are replicated in recent scientific work. They should not be a surprise since plants on Earth have evolved to thrive in levels of atmospheric CO2 much higher than the current historically-sparse totals around 400 parts per million (ppm). Far from being a politicized ‘pollutant’, CO2 is rightly known as the gas of life.
2. Numerous indicators point to Americans cooking more with meat since 2023: The share who intentionally choose meals or dishes without meat fell 8 percent; the share ordering more inherently plant-based dishes fell 8 percent; and the share ordering plant-based meat dishes fell 7 percent.
3. Although the Gen Z cohort consumes less animal proteins than millennial and Gen X Americans, they are not replacing them with plant-based proteins; for instance, while 29 percent of millennials eat plant-based meats, only 18 percent of Gen Z do.
4. Ninety percent of Americans consider poultry an “excellent” or “good” source of protein, as do 85 percent for red meat; that contrasts with 36 percent for plantbased meat alternatives.
5. A near-majority of Americans (45 percent) are concerned with the taste of plant-based proteins, while 28 percent worry they’ll be hungry “2-3 hours later.” ▫
A group of American scientists recently highlighted 2020 as an “historic landmark” since it registered as the greenest year in the satellite record from 2001 to 2020. Debate over the percentage of total global land greening and ‘browning’ is ongoing.
The Spanish team suggests 38 percent greening but other
work finds a greening change over at least 50 percent of the surface. A group of Chinese scientists noted there has been an “accelerated rate” of recent vegetation growth. Drought supposedly caused by climate change is a favorite fearmongering tactic with activists but the Chinese scientists also found that any water scarcity trend only slowed global greening and “was far from triggering browning”.
In fact some of the deserts across the world are reducing in size, particularly around areas prone to subsistence living. The map below shows recent greening south of the Sahara and in other famine-prone areas in eastern Africa. Considerable greening across Eurasia has also been found by many scientific teams.
Link for chart: https:// dailysceptic.org/2025/06/06/ global-greening-from-higherco2-hits-striking-new-heightsbut-the-mainstream-mediawont-tell-you-about-it/ Everywhere you look these days, the mainstream media are making themselves look stupid by putting a blind faith in the unworkable Net Zero agenda and turning a Nelsonian eye to the actual science around climate, including the benefits of CO2. The authors of a recent science paper, Charles Taylor and Wolfram Schlenker, recently found what they called a consistently large fertilization effect of a 1 ppm increase in CO2, equating to a 0.4 percent, 0.6 percent and 1 percent higher yield for corn, soybean and wheat respectively. You don’t need Grok to tell you that the BBC and the Guardian are uninterested in reporting on the astonishing improvements in crop yields caused by extra enriching atmospheric CO2. ▫
is a failure. In 2023, Gordon’s Western Caucus Foundation report found that, of the 62 species FWS claimed to be “recovered” and then delisted, 36 — almost 60 percent — were “data errors” and “should … set off alarm bells about … scientific integrity, or really lack thereof.” At this rate, Gordon notes, it will take 150 years for the FWS to clear the ESA list, assuming no new species are added.
Dr. Rob Roy Ramey, who courageously blew the whistle on the erroneous listing of the Preble’s jumping mouse that threatened to shut down the I-25 corridor from Colorado Springs, Colorado, north to Casper, Wyoming, believes the FWS fails as a scientific institution because of a conflict of interest. Its work is the product of “species cartels” afflicted with groupthink, confirmation bias, and a common desire to preserve the prestige, power, and appropriations of the FWS.
For example, in one sage-grouse monograph, 41 percent of the authors were federal workers and the editor — a federal bureaucrat — authored one-third of the papers. Further, too often the peer-reviewed, published “science” the FWS uses to make decisions has neither data nor computer codes available to the public Finally, when FWS data are available publicly but its results are not reproducible, the FWS and activist scientists argue the study was “peer reviewed” even though peer reviewers never saw the data.
Since 1984, rulemaking by the FWS and NOAA Fisheries benefited mightily from the Chevron doctrine, which requires courts to defer to agency expertise. Such deference occurred before the Supreme Court in an ESA case about the northern spotted owl and the red-cockaded woodpecker in which I filed a friend of the court brief in support of loggers and others.
Over Justice Antonin Scalia’s vigorous dissent, the court concluded it owed deference to the FWS’s expansive definition of “harm.” With the recent demise of the Chevron doctrine, the Trump administration now seeks to restore both Scalia’s view of the ESA and the public’s confidence in the scientific integrity of the agencies that enforce the act.
William Pendley, a Wyoming attorney and Colorado-based, public-interest lawyer for three decades with victories at the Supreme Court of the United States, served in the Reagan administration and led the Bureau of Land Management for President Trump.
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Bezos Expands Climate Philanthropy
with $100 Million Investment in Alternative Protein Research
BY JUSTIN BROWN / VEGOUT
The Bezos Earth Fund has significantly expanded its commitment to developing sustainable alternatives to conventional meat, boosting its investment from an initial $60 million to $100 million to establish a network of research centers focused on plant-based, fermented, and cultivated proteins.
The fund’s latest move involves a $30 million grant to North Carolina State University, announced in May 2024, to create the Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein. The center, which officially launched operations, represents the first in a planned global network of research facilities dedicated to
overcoming the technological barriers that have prevented alternative proteins from achieving mainstream adoption.
“Food production is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s critical we find ways to feed a growing population without degrading the planet,” said Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Sustainable protein has tremendous potential but more research is needed to reduce the price and boost the flavor and texture.”
The investment comes at a pivotal moment for the alternative protein industry. After years of rapid growth and billions in venture capital investment, the sector has faced headwinds as
Dean Edge Wins World Livestock Auctioneer Championship
The week of June 2 was an emotional one for Dean Edge.
On Tuesday, he celebrated the life of Blair Vold, the mentor who gave him one of his first chances to sell. By Saturday night, Edge was named the World Livestock Auctioneer Champion.
companies struggle to achieve price parity with conventional meat while meeting consumer expectations for taste and texture. Investment in the sector dropped from $6.8 billion in 2021 to $2.3 billion in 2023, according to data from PitchBook.
The North Carolina center will focus on three main areas: plant-based proteins, precision fermentation technologies that produce protein nutrients, and cultivated meat grown from animal cells. The five-year funding commitment will support both basic research and efforts to scale production methods that could dramatically reduce costs.
NC State’s selection as the first center location was strategic, according to Andy Jarvis, director of Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund. Despite North Carolina’s deep roots in traditional animal agriculture—particularly poultry and pork production—the state has avoided the political polarization around alternative proteins seen in states like Florida and Alabama, which have introduced legislation restricting labgrown meat sales.
Hailing from Rimbey, Alberta, Edge became only the third Canadian to win the contest, which debuted in 1963.
In his acceptance speech and comments after, he was quick to credit the support of his family — wife, Jeanine, and children Erin, Lexie and Lane.
He also shared the spotlight with his fellow competitors.
“This world championship might be connected to my name for the next year, but it’s not mine,” Edge said. “It’s ours. I’m going to be working for us for the next year to the very best of my ability to get out there and promote what we do.”
As the reigning World Livestock Auctioneer Champion, he will spend the next year driving the custom-wrapped World Livestock Auctioneer Championship pickup all over the country to showcase his talents and promote the livestock industry. Edge can’t wait.
“I’ve always loved the travel, and especially the chance to see
2025 WLAC Champion Dean Edge (center), pictured left to right with 2024 WLAC Champion Wade Leist, 2022 WLAC Champion and WLAC host Will Epperly with Dunlap Livestock Auction and LMA President Mike VanMaanen.
The university will collaborate with several academic partners, including Duke University, North Carolina A&T State University, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Forsyth Tech Community College. More than 20 industry partners have also joined the initiative, which aims to facilitate technology transfer and create workforce development programs for the emerging sector.
Imperial College London was selected as the second location for a Bezos Center, receiving $30 million in June 2024. The London facility will span seven academic departments and focus on precision fermentation, bioprocessing automation, and applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to protein development.
The expanded $100 million commitment is part of the Bezos Earth Fund’s broader $1 billion pledge to transform global food systems by 2030. The fund, established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with a $10 billion commitment to fight climate change, has positioned
so many livestock auction markets and learn how they do things,” he said. “While they have a lot of differences, they’re all working hard for producers, providing true price discovery and a reliable, transparent marketing method.”
In addition to the truck, Edge, a 1999 graduate of Western College of Auctioneering, went home with several prizes, including $6,000 in cash and custom items like a belt buckle, champion’s rifle, bronze sculpture, world champion ring, golden gavel and money clip.
Brennin Jack, Virden, Manitoba, was named reserve champion, and Preston Smith, Imperial, Nebraska, was runner up. Steve Goedert, Templeton, California, was recognized for the highest score in the interview portion of the contest.
Other top 10 finalists were: Neil Bouray, Webber, Kansas; Justin Mebane, Bakersfield, California; Jace Thompson, Billings, Montana; Ryan Konynenbelt, Fort Macleod, Alberta; Andrew Sylvester, Westmoreland, Kansas; and Barrett Simon, Rosalia, Kansas.
Tyler Bell, Anderson, Texas, was the Audrey K. Banks Rookie of the Year.
A one-hour highlight show from the 2025 competition will air on RFD-TV July 2. The 2026 World Livestock Auctioneer Championship will be held June 17-20 in St. Onge, South Dakota. ▫
sustainable proteins as a critical component of reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint. Critics have noted the apparent contradiction between Bezos’s climate philanthropy and the environmental impact of his business ventures, including Amazon’s carbon footprint and his space company Blue Origin. Dr. Stephan Singer of Climate Action Network International described the protein research funding as “nice” but “cosmetic,” suggesting it may serve as a form of greenwashing. ▫
Beef Producers to Gather in Columbia, Missouri, for Free Educational Gathering — Fall Focus 2025
Beef producers are under increasing pressure to produce more with less, all while meeting the ultimate demand of the consumer. How can farmers and ranchers balance these pressures that often feel contradictory?
This question and much more will be discussed at Fall Focus 2025 in Columbia, Missouri, August 22 through 26. The American Simmental Association and Missouri Simmental Association will co-host the interactive, educational event, which will include tours, networking, and education. The event is completely free to attend, but registration is required for planning.
Friday, August 22, will include several sessions at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) campus. Industry experts and scientists will cover topics including fescue tolerance, beef on dairy, beef packing, and seedstock marketing at the Trowbridge Livestock Center. In the afternoon, attendees will have the option to visit Rocheport, Missouri, or take a tour of the Cattle Visions facility. The day will close with a dinner at the Warm Springs Ranch, which is the official breeding farm of the Budweiser Clydesdales.
Saturday, August 23, attendees will reconvene at the Hilton Garden Inn for a day-long educational symposium. The morning sessions will focus on cow efficiency and navigating the future demands of beef production. The International Genetic Solutions (IGS) team will share about new trait development, and in the afternoon, tools for reproductive and genetic success will be discussed.
The event will also include an ASA Board of Trustees meeting August 24 through 26, which is open to participants and will include several opportunities to ask questions and share feedback.
Registration for Fall Focus 2025 is free, but required for planning. To see the whole schedule and learn more, head to fallfocus.org, or pick up the July/August issue of the Register magazine. ▫
Vetoes Bill Banning China from Owning Land in Arizona
BY: CAITLIN SIEVERS / ARIZONA MIRROR
Arizona’s Democratic governor has vetoed legislation that would have barred the Chinese government from owning land in the state.
The GOP-backed measure banned the People’s Republic of China — including enterprises that are totally owned by the Chinese government and subdivisions of the Chinese government — from having a substantial interest in Arizona property. The bill defines a substantial interest as a stake of 30 percent or more.
Senator Janae Shamp, the Republican sponsor of Senate Bill 1109, said during a debate of the bill on February 26 that it was aimed at protecting U.S. military bases from spying, and she alleged that has already happened in Arizona.
“The actual Chinese government, our enemy, was trying to lease buildings near the (Luke Air Force) base,” Shamp said. “(N)ot making sure that we are protecting our national security or our men and women on the ground here in Arizona is ludicrous to me.”
Reports about the Chinese government purchasing land near military bases in the U.S. has, in many cases, been misleading.
Democrats in the state House of Representatives and Senate shared concerns that the original version of Shamp’s proposal was unconstitutional and that it would lead to discrimination in land sales.
A substantial amendment to the bill, passed through the House on May 6, allayed some of those concerns. The initial version of the bill banned certain people and businesses from countries designated as enemies of the United States by the director of national intelligence from owning land in Arizona.
There were exceptions for small plots of residential land more than 50 miles away from
a U.S. military installation. The amended version narrowed the ban to only the Chinese government and its subsidiaries.
The Arizona House of Representatives approved the amended bill on May 7 by a vote of 4117, with eight Democrats voting in favor alongside Republicans. The Arizona Senate gave its final approval of the bill by a vote of 17-11 along party lines on May 28.
In her veto letter on June 2, Governor Katie Hobbs wrote that protecting infrastructure was important.
“However, this legislation is ineffective at counter-espionage and does not directly protect our military assets,” she said in the letter. “Additionally, it lacks clear implementation criteria and opens the door to arbitrary enforcement.”
In the language of the bill, Shamp claimed that the bill language “protection of this state’s military, commercial and agricultural assets from foreign espionage and sabotage will place this state in a significantly stronger position to withstand national security threats” addressed some of those concerns.
LMA Praises Introduction of the HERITAGE Act
Livestock Marketing Association, or LMA, applauds the introduction of the Helping Ensure Rural Inheritance Transfers Are Generationally Enduring, or HERITAGE, Act. The bill, set in motion by Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), would help preserve family-owned agricultural land by adjusting the Internal Revenue Code that forces many families to sell their farmland to pay federal estate tax liabilities.
Mike VanMaanen, LMA president and owner of Eastern Missouri Commission Co., applauded the bill.
“As an auction market owner and cattleman, I see firsthand how the death tax negatively impacts not only livestock producers, but our nation’s food security,” he said. “We appreciate Sen. Hyde-Smith’s commitment to the cattle industry, rural communities and consumers everywhere.”
The HERITAGE Act would amend IRC Section 2032A, which was enacted in 1976 to allow special-use valuation of farmland to reduce the estate tax value of farming operations. The maximum reduction under the 1976 law was just $750,000. Adjusted for inflation in 2025 that figure is $1.42 million, and woefully inadequate for preserving modern family farm operations — many of which are considered “land rich but cash poor.”
Hyde-Smith’s legislation would, among other things, increase the special-use valuation cap to $15 million for qualified real property used for farming purposes. This change would help keep many heirs from being forced to face a choice between selling portions of their productive farmland or incurring substantial debt to pay estate tax liabilities. ▫
Texas Court Vacates Federal Protections For Lesser PrairieChicken
BY DAVID MURRAY / HIGH PLAINS JOURNAL
Can private ecosystem markets protect the lesser prairie-chicken’s habitat when federal regulation has either failed or may be overturned?
That’s the question that the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Landowner Alliance has been trying to answer since 2021. The alliance is a landowner group focused on conserving grouse species in the Great Plains and Midwest, including the lesser prairie-chicken. Researchers estimate that the total population of lesser prairie-chickens—a ground-nesting species of grouse—has declined, mostly due to habitat loss, from millions to about 30,000 today, spread across five mid-western states.
On March 29, a Texas court vacated the Endangered Species Act special 4(d) rule for the northern distinct population segment of the lesser prairie-chicken. Many landowners and oil and gas interests had chafed under the rules imposed under those designations. The above photo is from Michael Smith.
That decision by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas came in response to lawsuits challenging the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s (FWS) designation of the lesser prairie-chicken as a threatened species. The bird has been bounced off and on the protected-species list in recent years as the issue has become a political football.
After lesser prairie-chickens were de-listed by the first Trump administration, the Biden administration re-listed them, but divided them into two populations, a northern one that was “threatened”—a lesser designation requiring fewer protective measures—and a southern one that was “endangered.”
The Trump administration recently weighed in on May 7 with a request to remove it. One of its arguments for removing the federal protection was that there are already multiple state and private initiatives to protect it.
In the March 29 ruling, the court agreed with the plaintiffs that the FWS should have considered economic costs when crafting the 4(d) rule, which prohibits or restricts activities that may harm threatened or endangered species or their habitats. The FWS has not yet indicated whether it will appeal the decision, according to Nossaman LLP.
Harbinger of prairie health
Conservation entrepreneur Wayne Walker hopes that private interests will continue to work together toward that effort. He is a principal with Common Ground Capital LLC, which offers conservation credits, and CEO of LPC Conservation focused on prairie chickens.
“Producers are great at organizing their operations, but they don’t get paid market rates for conservation,” Walker told High Plains Journal. “These things aren’t often talked about. If you’re a steward of habitat reserves, why isn’t someone paying you for that service?”
Under CGC’s model, property owners sign long-term, market-based protective land easements that protect lesser prairie-chickens habitats in exchange for a prescribed revenue stream.
“The prairie chicken really is a harbinger for prairie health,” Walker said. “We have to learn to pay for ecosystem services. We have now figured out what it actually costs with this model.”
Government does have a role in setting fair third-party standards, Walker said, just as with other ecosystem markets. But regulation alone can often be heavy-handed and not responsive to market values.
“Regulators alone aren’t going to solve problems at a large enough scale,” he said. “Eco-system markets can be botched.”
He points to a 12-year-old effort by the Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies to price in impacts to prairie chicken habitats that under-priced the cost of effectively mitigating impact to the LPC and to achieving its 10-year conservation goals.
“Mostly non-resident property owners took the programs mitigation dollars from energy industry impact fees, but they didn’t help the prairie chicken and didn’t make any meaningful progress towards their own self-stated goals,” he said.
Could these habitat-protection easements and land-use restrictions eventually be passed on as property changes hands? “Yes,” Walker said. “But there is new evidence that these easements and land-use conditions do not negatively affect property values.”
David Murray can be reached at journal@hpj.com ▫
AAA: Answering Questions About the Bezos Earth Fund Grant
SOURCE: AMERICAN ANGUS ASSOCIATION
You may have seen some discussion online about the Angus Foundation receiving a grant from the Bezos Earth Fund. To clear up a few points, we wanted to provide more information on this beef-industry-led research.
On April 15, the American Angus Association released information on this research project. The article can be found at https://www.angus. org/angus-media/angus-journal/2025/04/angus-joins-global-initiative-to-improve-livestock-efficiency.
Obviously, this is a complicated topic and one that can be filled with strong emotions. That’s understandable. We all agree that we need to support families making their livelihood by raising cattle and recognize there are different perspectives on the best approach. Some believe there is more risk in being involved in the research around methane as it gives credence to our critics.
Others believe there is greater risk in not being involved and letting others have the data and control our fate. Some suggest any engagement on the topic of methane is wrong and supports an activist agenda. After much consideration of the options, the choice was made to engage in the research, be involved in directing the project, and ultimately have more influence on changing the false narrative around cows and climate.
For background, Angus Ge-
netics Inc. (AGI®), our genetics subsidiary, has previously collaborated with the Angus Foundation and Kansas State University on methane research and its relationship to the efficiency of grazing cattle. You can read about it in this 2023 article. Recently, AGI was approached by a group of beef industry researchers from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland to participate in a research project studying the influence genetics has on methane emissions and its relationship to feed efficiency, lifetime performance and beef quality traits.
Studies have shown that methane emissions vary among individual animals due to both genetics and environment, while also having a strong relationship to feed efficiency. This means collecting methane emission data can increase the amount of data and information available to better predict feed efficiency. While we understand that there is a lot of noise and debate around the topic of methane and climate change, this research is simply about improving efficiency.
The project we were invited to be a part of is aligned with current research priorities around efficiency. Additionally, it ensures the Association, through AGI, has a seat at the table when the research is conducted, validated, and results are communicated, particularly those related to U.S. Angus genetics. Ultimately, we believe those factors serve the breed’s best interests.
The research grant was submitted by the beef industry research group to the Global Methane Hub and funding was awarded by the Bezos Earth Fund. The Angus Foundation was awarded $4.85 million, not to keep but to be managed for the research participants.
These funds will be distributed to the University of New England (AUS), who is coordinat-
ing the project. As part of the grant, AGI will receive a portion of the funding to collect 4,600 methane phenotypes from participating Angus breeders and research herds in the United States. For dispersing the grant, the Angus Foundation received a three percent administrative fee that can go to unrestricted funding of scholarships, youth programs and education. The rest of the grant goes to the other collaborating researchers.
A few additional notes:
■ Like in the case of any grant funding, the Bezos Earth Fund/Global Methane Hub has no authority to influence or alter the direction, design, or use of the research outlined in the proposal. In other words, there is a firewall between the research findings, our member’s data, and the Bezos Earth Fund/Global Methane Hub.
■ This research could be used to develop a new selection tool or be incorporated into our existing Feed Efficiency EPD, but it does not commit the Association to publishing a new EPD nor the inclusion of methane traits into any of the current Angus $Values. The American Angus Association Board of Directors will have the final decision on what selection tools, if any, would be included on an American Angus Association registration certificate.
Justice Department Says Trump Can Cancel National Monuments
SOURCE: WWW.WFDD.ORG
Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s administration say he has the authority to abolish national monuments meant to protect historical and archaeological sites across broad landscapes, including two in California created by his predecessor at the request of Native American tribes.
A Justice Department legal opinion released in mid-June disavowed a 1938 determination that monuments created by previous presidents under the Antiquities Act can’t be revoked. The department said presidents can cancel monument designations if protections aren’t warranted.
The finding comes as the Interior Department under Trump weighs changes to monuments across the nation as part of the administration’s push to expand U.S. energy production.
Senator Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said that at Trump’s order, “his Justice Department is attempting to clear a path to erase national monuments.”
Trump in his first term reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah, calling them a “massive land grab.” He also lifted fishing restrictions within a sprawling marine monument off the New England Coast.
Former President Joe Biden reversed the moves and restored the monuments.
The two monuments singled out in the newly released Justice Department opinion were designated by Biden in his final days in office: Chuckwalla National Monument, in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in Northern California.
The Democrat’s declarations for the monuments barred oil and natural gas drilling and mining on the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla site, and the roughly 225,000 acres Sáttítla Highlands site near the California-Oregon border.
All but three presidents have used the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources. About half the national parks in the U.S. were first designated as monuments.
But critics of monument designations under Biden and Obama say the protective boundaries were stretched too far, hindering mining for critical minerals.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit wrote in the Trump administration opinion that Biden’s protections of Chuckwalla and the Sattítla Highlands were part of the Democrat’s attempts to create for himself an environmental legacy that includes more places to hike, bike, camp or hunt.
“Such activities are entirely expected in a park, but they are wholly unrelated to (if not outright incompatible with) the protection of scientific or historical monuments,” Pettit wrote.
Trump in April lifted commercial fishing prohibitions within an expansive marine monument in the Pacific Ocean created under former President Barack Obama.
Environmental groups said Tuesday’s Justice Department opinion doesn’t give him the authority to shrink monuments at will. Biden established 10 new monuments, among them the site of a 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, and another on a sacred Native American site near the Grand Canyon.
■ Methane selection tools are being researched and developed by other breeds, genetic companies and registered Angus breeders here in the United States and around the world. Funded by non-membership money, this research could help provide all members of the American Angus Association with similar tools should they choose to want them.
The Association Board of Directors meets will continue to discuss this topic, among many others. As we always do, The Angus Conversation podcast is recorded immediately following the board meeting to discuss the most important business items and allow board members to share their perspective on the meeting with members.
The full list of agenda topics can be found at www.angus.org/ member-center/announcements/ board-meeting-highlights/2025/ june-2025-board-meeting-business. If you have more questions, we hope you will listen to the podcast and of course, please reach out to our staff or board members with your questions, feedback or ideas.
Zinke and Vasquez Launch
Public Lands Caucus
U
.S. Representatives Ryan Zinke (R-MT) and Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) have launched a new public lands caucus in the US House of Rep-
Since 1912, presidents have issued more than a dozen proclamations that diminished monuments, according to a National Park Service database.
Dwight Eisenhower was most active in undoing the proclamations of his predecessors as he diminished six monuments, including Arches in Utah, Great Sand Dunes in Colorado and Glacier Bay in Alaska, which have all since become national parks.
Trump’s moves to shrink the Utah monuments in his first term were challenged by environmental groups that said protections for the sites safeguard water supplies and wildlife while preserving cultural sites.
The reductions were reversed by Biden before the case was resolved, and it remains pending.
President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act after lobbying by educators and scientists who wanted to protect sites from artifact looting and haphazard collecting by individuals. It was the first law in the U.S. to establish legal protections for cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on federal lands. ▫
resentatives. Dubbed the Public Lands Caucus, it is a bipartisan congressional coalition claiming to focus on conserving America’s public lands and expanding access for all Americans.
The House and Senate’s Western Caucus has long ably represented public lands.
Caucus Leadership Co-Chairs
Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-02)
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT-01)
Vice Chairs
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06)
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID-02)
Members Include
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA-25)
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11)
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO-02)
Rep. Jen Kiggan (R-VA-02)
Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA-06)
Rep. Troy Downing (R-MT-01)
Rep. Steven Horsford D-NV-04)
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA-04)
Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV-03)
Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06) ▫