LMD May 24

Saying things that need to be said.

The S Word

Lee’s Law: If you see or hear a speaker say the words ‘sustainable,’ ‘paradigm’ and ‘stakeholder’ all in the same sentence that person is a bureaucrat, believes in man-made weather change and probably works for the government or an NGO (non-governmental organization). He or she has probably never owned a cow or castrated a calf. The closest that person ever got to the cattle business was eating a steak.

want to tell you and have power over you regarding how you run your ranch or your feedlot. I know that bureaucrats in DC who couldn’t get a real job in private enterprise and only survive by sucking off the teat of government largess, who can’t even balance a checkbook or meet a payroll, shoe a horse, pull a calf,

The Pitts’ Principle: If you read or hear ‘sustainable,’ ‘stakeholder’ and ‘paradigm’ more than four times in the same speech or article RUN as fast as you can to safety in the opposite direction, stop reading or listening and cover your wallet because you are dealing with someone who wants your money, your vote or power over you.

The Sustainability Disease

I know that this is heresy, and it might ignite a firestorm of backlash and adverse reaction but somebody has got to stand up say these unspoken thoughts: “I think all this sustainability nonsense is a bunch of BS.”

I may not know what sustainable is, but I’ll tell you for a fact what is not sustainable... That hordes of people who live in concrete jungles in skyscrapers reaching into the skies with hardly any contact with nature,

know a Hereford from a heifer, who’ve never stepped in a cow pie in their life telling people who’ve kept their ranches in the same family through good times and bad for five generations how they should run their ranch to meet arbitrary sustainability standards dreamed up and imposed by the aforementioned idiots.

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back into your pocket.

get their hands dirty, or grow a single row of radishes, now want to have the power to tell farm and ranch families how they should grow their food ‘sustainably.’ We’re talking about people who think that food comes from the refrigerator and wouldn’t

Now think about that for a moment... isn’t that the most ludicrous things you’ve ever heard?

I’ll tell you what else is not sustainable... Listening to the federal government tell you how to run your business and balance your books when they are in debt to the tune of 34 TRILLION DOLLARS. And half of that debt was amassed in just the last ten years. Does that sound

The “Amazing Tale” of How Three Billionaires Plunged the

World into

Climate Catastrophism

BY CHRIS MORRISON / DAILY SCEPTIC

Do you think that the constant catastrophising of weather and climate in the mainstream media, politics and science has just appeared by accident? Over the last few years, the BBC and the Guardian, as of one mind, decided to float improbable ‘tipping point’ scares under cover of ‘scientists say,’ while UN officials concluded that we had two years to save a ‘boiling’ planet and the ubiquitous ‘Jim’ Dale has been given free rein to make it up as he goes along on Talk TV and GB News. Of course, all this didn’t suddenly happen. Each of these examples is testament to an extraordinary corruption of the true scientific process – an “amazing tale” according to political science writer Roger Pielke Jnr., “a story of how wealth and power sought to shape climate science in pursuit of political goals.”

The main culprit in this amazing tale will not be unknown to regular readers of the Daily Sceptic and it is the improbable scenario of RCP8.5. This has been promoted as a ‘business as usual’ set of scientific, economic and societal assumptions and it suggests temperature rises up to 4°C in less than 80 years.

continued on page 3

Riding Herd

by

Proud of His Pride

sustainable to you? Or how about consumers and businesses who’ve run up well over 100 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt telling you how to balance your books?

Yeah, I’ll tell you what’s not sustainable...The jokers in Congress have painted themselves into a tight corner these days. They’ve been running a chronic deficit for decades now and every three months have to agree to run up even more debt just to keep the lights on. They regularly create trillions more money out of thin air that’s not backed by anything. At the rate they’re going in just a few decades every penny they seize from you in the form of income taxes will go towards paying the interest on the ever-burgeoning national debt. It’s the biggest Ponzi scheme in history and yet these are the same people who we are supposed to listen to in order to make our business more sustainable?

continued on page 2

$20,000 Offered To Help Grand County Ranchers Fend Off Wolves That Are Killing Calves

BY TRACY ROSS / COLORADO SUN

On-the-ground help for ranchers in Grand County is on the way under an agreement with the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association and the Colorado Department of Agriculture to help ranchers fend off wolves during calving season.

The agriculture department says it will spend $20,000 on nonlethal deterrents, including nighttime patrols and herd protection in a region where two wolves have killed six cows and one wolf is thought to be pregnant or with pups in the same region.

Additionally, the department and Colorado Parks and Wildlife are expanding their permanent wolf conflict mitigation programs to support producers implementing non-lethal predator control measures through funding in the recently passed 2024 Long Bill.

Kate Greenberg, agriculture commissioner, reached out to affected Grand County ranchers after wolves that were transplanted from Oregon in December started killing cattle, asking them how the department could provide support. She said the Middle Park Stockgrowers felt range riders, who guard cattle and disrupt wolves’ hunting patterns, were “the tool that could really be helpful,” but added the $20,000 grant “will give them flexibility to use other nonlethal tools if they feel they should be useful.”

continued on page 4

“What is the difference between a cowboy and a buckaroo?” you ask.

A Great Basin buckaroo drives a beat-up old pickup with a fully-tooled $5,000 saddle resting comfortably in the bed. He wears silver spurs made in Elko in the vaquero tradition, meaning silver is hanging all over them. His horse is decked out with a hackamore, Santa Ynez style reins, bosal and headstall made by Luis Ortega, hanging on to a spade bit made by Mark Dahl.

A cowboy, on the other hand, drives a brand-new pickup with a $125 beat-up old saddle thrown in the back and his Chihuahua spurs have no maker’s mark. They do have wide heel bands and look like they were horseshoer’s rasps in a previous life. There’s no silver adornment because it wouldn’t last two minutes in the brush of south Texas. A cowboy’s gear is built for functionality, not for beauty.

It’s been said that the cowboy can gather two pastures while the buckaroo is still decorating his horse. But to be fair, the buckaroo with all his or her horsehair, latigo and rawhide contraptions, might just be, as a class, unrivaled in the making of a cow pony.

I’ve been collecting old bits and spurs for half a century and have learned how to craft all the old tools of the cowboy trade by fixing up old spurs, saddles and anything else made of leather.

A restaurateur who inherited a valuable pair of old G.S. Garcia spurs came by my place several years ago and wanted to know how much I’d charge for a pair of spur leathers with silver conchos and buckles that would match the engraving on the spurs. If I recall correctly, I quoted a price of $350 and the guy blew a gasket. You’d have thought I killed his dog or had a sordid affair with his wife. I thought he was gonna stroke-out on me!

I tried to explain that to make each concho I’d use a silver dollar, then worth $25 apiece. I’d also use a silver dollar to make each fancy buckle that would also be heavily engraved. So, you can see that before I’d even begun to pound or engrave

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I’ll tell you what else is not sustainable...That the country that taught the world how to farm and how to ranch, who was responsible for the Green Revolution that kept billions of people from starving to death, now imports more food than we export! Think about that! Who’d have ever thought that this once mighty US of A who fed much of the world now has to worry about a famine in our own country if the boatloads of food from the likes of Somalia, Russia, Venezuela and China don’t arrive at American docks on time.

I’ll tell you what’s not sustainable... llegal aliens flooding across our border overwhelming our health care services, bringing in tons of illegal drugs, frightening ranch families on the border with their violence (they have already killed one rancher) and trashing ranches as they work their way north to take jobs away from Americans by working off the books, availing themselves of all the subsidies we have to offer while not contributing one thin dime to the IRS.

I’ll tell you what’s not sustainable...That the American government owns 840 million acres of public land, 400 national parks and 560 national wildlife refuges. That’s one third of America’s land mass and yet they have a 32.4 BILLION dollar maintenance backlog on work that needs to be done on what they already own as of September 2023. And the backlog grows daily as the feds are desperately trying to acquire more land they can’t take care of. And the President can bypass Congress in acquiring more land by merely designating new national monuments.

I’ll tell you what’s not sustainable...Having a ‘let it burn’ philosophy regarding fires that have never been this big in recorded human history, kicking the cows and sheep off more and more ground and stopping responsible logging conducted by private companies who pay for the privilege to rid the forest floor of kindling.

I’ll tell you what’s not sustainable…Pretending to care about the environment when these fires gush ton after ton of pollutants into the air that turn the day into night creating a health crises for all living beings as the microscopic, sooty specks that form aerosols damage our hearts and lungs.

I’ll tell you what’s not sustainable...Translocating grizzly bears to Washington state because they are supposedly ‘endangered’ while right across the border in British Columbia close to 15,000 Grizzlies are estimated to live. Ditto releasing wolves into Colorado that were formerly ‘problem wolves’ in other states and insisting that these wolves are not a threat to human life while at the same time publishing a pamphlet on ways humans can avoid being harmed. How sustainable is life going to be for humans when these grizzlies and wolves start attacking humans?

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I’ll tell you what’s not sustainable...By 2016, America’s cooperatives were relying on coal or gas-fired generation plants for 67 percent of the electricity they were selling. Non-hydro renewables were providing about 8 percent of their electricity. Forcing those coops to junk their coal and gas-fired power plants and replacing them with all-renewable systems will cost untold billions of dollars. That will mean higher prices for consumers.

California has mandated that utilities must get at least 60 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2030. Last year the Berkeley-based think tank Environmental Progress, released a report that showed that between 2011 and 2017, electricity prices in California rose at more than five times the rate in the rest of the U.S.

Furthermore, if the all-renewable push becomes a reality, rural America will be forced to accept thousands of miles of new high-voltage transmission lines, as well as massive amounts of new wind and solar generation capacity. And we’re basing this all-electric future on batteries made from lithium, a product America has little of, but Russia and China have plenty. How sustainable is a future when as a result of man-made climate change which may or may not be happening, you ditch fossil fuels which we have plenty of and replace it with a product you have little of?

Fifty years ago, when they built a nuclear power plant eight miles from my house on the biggest earthquake fault in the state the greenies protested. Now those same greenies proclaim nuclear power as green energy. Have they never heard of Chernobyl? Don’t they know that there are two types of uranium used for fuel in nuclear reactors, U-238 and U-235. The half-life of U-325 is 700 million years, while U-238 has a much larger half-life of 4.5 billion years, yet we still don’t have a safe and reliable plan as to what we’re going to do with the partially spent fuel rods that contain one or the other of these two types of uranium.

And the clowns making these types of decisions are the very same people who now want to tell you how to make your ranch more sustainable? Don’t you see the hypocrisy here?

How Naive o f You!

I often wonder how we ever got in such sad state in this country? I’ll tell you how, by worshipping at the altar of globalization and sustainability. And one of the biggest cheerleaders has been none other than the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). They could care less about American ranchers and that’s why they have fought mandatory country of origin labeling so hard. They’ll get their money whether the beef we eat in America is produced in Brazil or Nebraska because the checkoff dollar is paid on imported beef too.

Along these lines, just how sustainable was it for our government to allow China to buy Smithfield, a purely American outfit and the largest pork processor in the world? And the same goons in DC allowed two outfits in Brazil to gobble up a lion’s share of the America’s Big Four beef packers. JBS was allowed to buy Swift and Company in 2007 and the Beef Division of Smithfield in 2008. Marfrig, another Brazilian global beef giant and a member of beef’s new Big Four, was allowed to buy an old member, National Beef. In addition to beef packing outfits JBS purchased Pilgrim’s Pride and Cargill’s pork division.

What’s even more galling is the biggest supporter of all this globalization and sustainability based on climate change is our very

own NCBA who became sustainable itself only by stealing the giant’s share of your checkoff dollars. Just how sustainable is NCBA’s business model if someday a real audit is finally performed on how your money is wasted or siphoned off? Perhaps they should be worried less about your sustainability and more about their own!

Going All In

These days you’re branded as a ‘climate denier’ if you doubt that man-made climate change is so dangerous that we must switch our entire country from fossil fuels to an all-electric grid but there’s no doubt that the NCBA has gone all in on the concept. And that’s by their very own admission. According to the NCBA, “One of the biggest challenges facing the world today is climate change and the global beef industry has a key role to play in mitigating it.” Through its worldwide network of members, the Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef (GRSB) of which the NCBA is a major member, “Intends to power progress in sustainable beef by setting ambitious goals around reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving land use, and enhancing best practices in animal welfare.”

“GRSB aims to globally reduce by 30 percent the net global warming impact of each unit of beef by 2030, on a pathway to climate neutrality,” says the NCBA. “In order to support the urgent global ambition

of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees by 2030, GRSB members will implement and incentivize climate smart beef production, processing, and trade, while safeguarding and building upon the carbon stores in soil and landscapes.”

According to the NCBA, “The goal is to advance sustainable beef production through the commitment of the stakeholders in the beef value chain.”

And just who are these stakeholders?

The NCBA says, “The GRSB wants to build and maintain positive working relationships with business and technical teams.” They called the GRSB, “a multi-stakeholder organization,” because they really don’t want you to know who they saddled up with. Let me give you some idea. The Vice President is Justin Sherrard who works for Rabobank. The Secretary-Treasurer is Shari Westerfeld who is employed by Zoetis, Two Members at Large on the Board are Mathew Cleveland who works for ABS Global and Lucas McKelvie who gets his paycheck from McDonalds. Other leaders in the group are from Walmart, Cargill, the World Wildlife Fund, JBS and The Nature Conservancy.

What, you thought this whole sustainability thing was about rancher’s profitability and not big business? How naive of you!

Who Needs Them?

This whole sustainability thing reminds me of a sup-

posed leader in the back of the pack saying, “I must hurry and catch up with my soldiers so I can lead them.” Here’s why. It turns out that we never needed the NCBA or the GRSB to become more sustainable all on our own and that’s according to NCBA’s own words. “U.S. beef production,” says the NCBA, “is the most sustainable in the world thanks to decades of improvement and innovation by farmers and ranchers. Today, we produce 17 percent of the world’s beef with just 6 percent of the world’s cattle due to scientific advancements in animal nutrition, genetics and production practices.”

According to a study from Washington State University, beef’s carbon footprint decreased by 16 percent over the last decade when there was no GRSB. That study also found that today’s beef is produced with 30 percent less land, 14 percent less water and 20 percent less feed ingredients than it was in 1977. The study demonstrated that farmers and ranchers are already committed to sustaining their industry as well as natural resources and wildlife conservation so why do we need all these government bureaucrats and NCBA types telling us how to do it, especially when they have proven so inept in the past?

Good question, don’t you think? ▫

Patronize Our Adver tisers

Although downgraded by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of late as “low likelihood,” it is still estimated to be behind about 50 percent of the climate modelled ‘impacts’ highlighted over the entire scientific literature.

Almost all the claims of climate Armageddon and economic disaster peddled by those identified in our first paragraph are based on RCP8.5 input. It is a tale of how three wealthy men bankrolled a project to promote an extreme scenario to guarantee that the economic impact of climate change they projected into the future would be “eye-poppingly large.”

It will also not be a surprise to learn that the billionaire green activist Michael Bloomberg has played a key role over the last decade in lifting this implausible pathway to underserved prominence. Notes Pielke: “It’s a story of privilege and conceit – the privilege in American democracy that accompanies being mindbogglingly wealthy, and the conceit that climate policies can best be pursued by corrupting the scientific literature on climate change.”

In 2012, three wealthy men, Bloomberg, hedge fund manager Tom Steyer and former CEO of Goldman Sachs Hank Paulson chipped in $500,000 each to fund a project “making the climate threat feel real, immediate and potentially devastating to the business world.” An early funded report was part-titled ‘Risky Business’ and it focused on RCP8.5 “as the pathway closest to a business-as-usual trajectory.” The pathway was said to be “closest to a future without concerted action to reduce future warming.”

In Pielke’s view, the authors of the ‘Risky Business’ report made two significant methodological mistakes. They characterized the extreme RCP8.5 scenario as ‘business as usual’ and suggested the world could move from one scenario to another. As Pielke notes, the four different scenarios are indepen-

dent with, for instance, RCP2.5 assuming a world with three billion people fewer than RCP8.5. Both of the mistaken methodological choices were said to be contrary to the appropriate use set by the people who created them.

The “genius” of ‘Risky Business’ was it undertook a “sophisticated campaign” to introduce its methodological ideas into mainstream scientific literature, “where they would take on a life of their own.” In 2016, a paper from the ‘Risky Business’ project was published in the prestigious journal Science featuring the erroneous notion of moving from one RCP scenario to another.

Despite the obvious methodological flaw, notes Pielke, the paper passed peer-review with little or no criticism, and to date has been cited more than 1,100 times. “Hundreds, maybe thousands of papers followed

continued on page 4

I’d already be out a hundred bucks. To make the actual spur leathers I’d use only the best Herman Oak leather which would add another fifty dollars. I’d use a four-step process to get the new leather looking old which requires an assortment of expensive finishes. I also had to tool and sew them, burnish the edges and solder backs to the conchas to mount on the spur leathers.

Long story short the guy took his business elsewhere.

Years went by and the restaurateur was back in my garage/ shop with the same old spurs hanging on to what I presume were spur leathers. By committing what I think should be a felony someone had assaulted the spurs with a wire wheel to remove all the beautiful old patina which devalued the spurs by about 90 percent. It seems the restaurateur had taken his business to a guy who sharpened knives for a living and had heard from someone how a new lucrative career awaited him in the uncrowded restoration field. The leathers were made with inferior leather probably

tanned in urine in Mexico, the stitches were frayed and nothing was tooled. But the restaurateur said the knife sharpener had stressed that the conchas had been made out of the finest German silver.

Now in addition to a set of spur leathers, conchas and silver buckles, the restaurateur asked if I could restore the shiny spurs to their former glory. I told the guy it would now be $750 for everything, hoping it would scare him off. When he once again objected to my price I mentioned the higher price of silver. He interrupted and asked if I couldn’t just reuse the German silver that the knife sharpener had insisted was the very best.

I took great pleasure in asking him, “You do know that there is actually no real silver in German silver don’t you?”

The restaurateur looked like I’d just barfed in his Bouillabaisse. After he finished choking and was able to breathe again he said, “Sure. Who doesn’t know that?” ▫

similarly in adopting the same assumption of moving between incommensurate scenarios,” observes Pielke.

A year later, Science published another study from ‘Risky Business’ with the bizarre suggestion that the United States would see a 10 percent hit to its economy under the most extreme version of RCP8.5, with an incredible 8°C rise in temperature by the end of the century. This prominent paper has been cited more than 1,100 times in other studies and, noted Piekle, the 10 percent GDP loss would become the top line conclusion of the U.S. National Climate Assessment the very next year.

“Publishing papers in the ac-

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ademic literature based on the flawed ‘Risky Business’ methods was a formula that would be repeated time and time again. Like the introduction of a virus, the misleading reinterpretation of climate scenarios expanded throughout climate science,” states Pielke. The work begun by Bloomberg-Steyer-Paulson was subsequently taken up by a group called Climate Impact Lab, a collaboration of ‘Risky Business’ leaders and several universities. According to Pielke, Climate Impact Lab has thrived on using RCP8.5 to generate a steady series of media-friendly studies projecting extreme climate impacts. Among them are stories suggesting rising sea levels could swamp major cities and displace

continued from page 1

Merrit Linke, a Grand County commissioner and vice chair of the stockgrowers association, has concerns about the efficacy of range riders, who are used in other states with wolves.

In a phone call Sunday, he said the Stockgrowers “are willing to give it a try, but what we’re hearing from other states is that it’s really ineffective, because wolves kill at night. Unless you’re there 24/7, how can you see them? Then, logistically, where would you put this range rider? Grand County is 1,846 square miles and in a 5- or 6-mile radius circle there are probably 3,000 or 4,000 head of cattle.”

Jeff Flood, a wildlife conflict specialist for Stevens and Ferry counties northwest of Spokane who sits on the board of the Cattle Producers of Washington, which funds a range riding program, shared Linke’s sentiment. He said the wolf population in Washington has grown from a few that wandered in from Canada and Idaho in 2009 to 270 at last count. Washington spent $1.6 million on wolf conflict management in 2022.

Northern Colorado ranchers have been lobbying the governor and state agencies to step in and kill the wolves that have been preying on their cattle. Jeff Davis, Parks and Wildlife director, declined, saying killing wolves would be at odds with the voter-directed goals of wolf reintroduction. A bill introduced March 27 to the House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources committee requesting $1.2 million to help rural communities with conflict prevention and coexistence strategies was also shot down, leaving ranchers to continue fending for themselves in some ways.

Flood said wolves are smarter than any nonlethal deterrent, such as fox lights, radio activated dark boxes, fladry or turbo fladry. “And if they have no negative stimulant from a human, a blinking light or a flag isn’t going to do very much good for very long,” he added.

“Range riders is sold as a program that keeps wolves from killing cattle,” Flood said. “But I don’t believe that to be true. I mean, it does sometimes break up some of these interactions, but if I’m a range rider and I’m successful at running wolves off John Smith’s ranch but they fall over on George Whoever’s ranch and kill his calves, did I really save anything in this process?”

Range riders do solve the problem of a few people trying to find wolves in places where “cattle are scattered to the four winds,” he added. “It allows more people on the landscape to find these issues in a timely fashion to where we can say, yes, wolves did this or no they didn’t.”

The only way to stop wolves from killing cattle, he said, is to “stop it before it gets started.”

“Hopefully, a range rider can go out and say, yeah, these cattle are really spooky. I see a lot of wolf signs,” Flood said. “Maybe I found a calf or two that are bit up but aren’t dead yet. We need to get in here and address this issue.”

But range riding won’t be successful “unless you have an equal partner in it, and an equal partner, in my mind, would be your state agency sharing information with the range rider (such as) where wolves are and their collar data,” he said. “Otherwise how will the range riders know where to go to spend the least amount of money and be successful?”

Flood said funding for range rider programs will be a big issue going forward. In Washington, funding is earmarked through the agriculture department. He said $180,000 supports eight riders covering 2,200 head of cattle for a year.

Olga Robak, communications director for the department of agriculture, said the legislature has allocated $580,936 for three full-time employees for the Colorado wolf conflict resolution program, including a program manager.

Flood said one way the state can be a good partner to ranchers is by letting them pick their own range riders.

Linke said that’s what the Middle Park stockgrowers are doing.

But Flood added the only way to assure wolves won’t continue to prey on cattle like they have in Grand County is to kill them.

“You know as humans, we’ve got to manage wolves,” he said. “It just is what it is.”

almost 200 million people, while a rise in climate related deaths will surpass all infectious disease. All backed, of course, by ‘scientists say.’ Pielke concludes that there is no hidden conspiracy – “all of this is taking place in plain sight.” The political advocacy was “absolute genius” – a well-funded effort to fundamentally change how climate science was reported in the media, and ultimately how political discussion and policy options are shaped.

“This effort has been phenomenally successful,” says Pielke – or as we might put it, complete Dale-ification of most climate and Net Zero debate has been achieved.

Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.

The Chinese Threat to Local Communities is Real

BY TOM DEWEESE / AMERICAN POLICY CENTER

Do the citizens of a community have a right to take action to oppose the establishment of businesses that will negatively affect their way of life – especially if it’s a foreign source? And why are elected representatives ignoring the very people who put them in office to protect their rights? These are questions that need to be asked as every city, town, and rural area face a growing threat.

For the past several decades the communist regime in China has been driving toward world supremacy, both economically and militarily. The regime’s main target has been, and is, the United States of America. The latest tactic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is to use the threat of Climate change to gain control of our American economy, our food supply, and our energy system.

“ China now owns roughly 384,000 acres in the U.S.“

To accomplish that feat, China has grabbed hold of the wind and solar industries, using its political influence, media contacts, and NGO allies to pressure Congress and state and city governments to impose wind and solar projects. On top

of that, China is buying up thousands of acres of American farmland along with establishing factories to build the tools needed for the wind and solar scheme. According to a 2021 report from the Department of Agriculture, China now owns roughly 384,000 acres in the U.S. All of this gives China influence over every inch of America. And in many state legislatures and city councils elected representatives are just letting it happen. It’s vital to make this fact clear – China is a communist dictatorship. There is no free market and there are no private corporations. All are controlled by the government — all for the growth and power of the communist dictatorship.

“ Losing our power source and the ability to feed ourselves makes us a very weak adversary against them.” Their webpage openly states that it “performs the responsibilities mandated by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.”

China is allied and works in partnership with the WEF to empower the Great Reset over OUR nation – not theirs. As China opens more and more coal mines for its own energy future, it is now on the march across this nation – pushing wind and solar as our only power sources. And while helping to destroy us – China gets rich from it.

Across America, vital farmland is being buried under millions of acres of solar panels and massive wind towers. Nothing else can grow on that land – including the food we need! Do not believe for a moment that these wind and solar farms are actually a saving grace to the environment — or that they are going to supply you with the electric power you need.

Wind and solar produce next to nothing in the way of energy. Once all other sources of power from oil, gas and nuclear are eliminated – at best these will produce about 4 percent of the power we need. And here’s a shocking new detail. When you have thousands of acres of solar panels lined up side-by-side, the materials they are made of actually cause warming!!! All in the name of stopping climate change!

Now add the fact that to produce the wind turbines and the solar panels it will take enormous amounts of oil, minerals, and energy to produce them. Almost all are controlled and supplied by China. Meanwhile, those turbine blades are not degradable, and they rarely last more than six years before falling apart. It’s the same with the solar panels. As you are being forced to recycle — imagine how fast millions of discarded wind turbine blades and solar panels will fill up landfills across the country – because they are NOT recyclable or degradable!

Biden has been leading a big drive to build offshore wind farms along most of the shoreline in this nation. Evidence is now beginning to come in that

these wind towers are affecting sea life. Whales have begun washing ashore as their habitats are feeling the results of the towers turning above them. And fishermen are reporting that their industry is being damaged as sea life moves away from the towers that are affecting their habitats.

All of this goes with the destruction of the landscape and beautiful views that are being destroyed as these giant wind towers block the views.

Of course the turbines – filled with oil – often explode and spew oil into the water, causing real environmental damage. Dare I mention what will happen to those towers in some really powerful hurricanes!?

And just for the record, CO2 is NOT a pollutant causing climate change. It is desperately needed by the trees and all other plants to thrive. History shows that when CO2 is higher – the land is greener. True science is revealing that the earth is entering a CO2 starvation. We need an average of 1,400 Parts Per Million (PPM) of CO2 to keep plants growing, but today, according to the U.S. Navy, we are at about 400 ppm. Disaster is on the horizon.

The carbon capture pipelines that are being spread across the nation are the most idiotic, and dangerous environmental program of all time. Eliminate CO2 from the atmosphere and you will succeed in turning Earth’s environment into that like Mars – bare of anything growing.

There is no indication of a human-caused warming taking place – perhaps except for these wrong-headed environmental policies. The air was much warmer in the 1930s than today. Climate change is the greatest hoax in human history.

In terms of saving the environment and providing us with electrical power – wind and solar are a joke. And China is laughing the hardest! Can you see the diabolical genius of the communist Chinese plan to force all of this on America? Losing our power source and the ability to feed ourselves makes us a very weak adversary against them.

And while China is pressuring us to be “environmentally correct” that communist nation is getting rich and powerful — because THEY are supplying the wind and solar machinery. Across our nation, companies owned or controlled by the Chinese communist government are moving into communities, and many local governments are being tricked into believing these companies will bring in lots of new money for the community.

In a rural township in Michigan, plans are in place to build an electric vehicle battery plant, owned by a Chinese Communist party-linked company. The company is called Grotion,

Inc. It’s a subsidiary of Grotion High Tech, which is owned by the Chinese Government.

The township had hastily approved a water line needed for the plant. But here’s the good news. People in Green Charter Township were so upset over the possibility of this Chinese-controlled plant that they voted out almost the entire incumbent township supervisors and elected a new board.

The new Supervisors’ first step was to rescind the water permit. One of the new supervisors told the media, “As township supervisor, my number one concern is protecting the interests of the people of Green Charter Township, and we will vigorously defend our township’s position on this. We might be a small community, but we refuse to be bullied.”

Of course Grotion Inc has sued for breach of contract, but the Township intends to fight.

In Wisconsin, a wind company backed by an entity of the Chinese Communist Party is behind several wind projects in 16 communities. The company is called EDP Renewables. It pretends to be an American company, but its principal shareholder is Energias de Portugal, whose largest shareholder is the Chinese State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Their webpage openly states that it “performs the responsibilities mandated by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.”

In both of these cases, state governments, including governors, are failing to support these communities and represent their citizens. In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed HB5120 to take power over green energy projects from the local community government and give it to the Michigan Public Service Commission. Essentially, this bill has removed local control over land use. Again, state regulations are being used to eliminate local control, allowing the Chinese an open road for their scheme.

In Ohio, the small rural community of Pataskala is now threatened with the establishment of a massive solar panel assembly plant. It will employ over 800 people to assemble solar panels with all materials coming from China. Why is this a problem? Well, the lead company in the project, called Illuminate USA, isn’t really a company. It’s a shell designed to get around any future US regulations that would prevent a foreign company from owning property. 49% of Illuminate USA is owned by LONGI, a partner with Invenergy – a Chinese corporation.

A state organization called JobsOhio, which provided an undisclosed amount of incentives to locate the assembly plant in Pataskala, declared that Illuminate USA will be one of the largest solar assembly plants in the nation. It’s all a shill designed to pretend these solar panels are “American Made.” Of course, the mayor and city council of Pataskala just see dollar signs and are allowing this plant to move forward. According to a Wall Street Journal calculation, Illuminate USA could qualify for $350 million year in federal tax credits. It’s no surprise that, as Invenergy has hired a lobbyist to walk the halls of the Ohio Legislature, elected representatives have taken little interest in the issue.

Residents of Pataskala have risen up, protesting the plant. They have packed city council meetings, spread the word in the media, displayed yard signs, and held a large town hall meeting attended by over 200 people. They’ve done everything possible to get the attention of the mayor and city council to represent them and stop the plant. All they get is the mayor calling them “Radicals.”

Incredibly, the Mayor of Pataskala actually suggested that these residents and their efforts to oppose the Chinese influence in their community are receiving “dark money” to pay for their efforts! First, those activists haven’t spent a great deal of money. They have created yard signs, which they sell to pay for them. Some have donated small amounts of money for the effort. There is no massive expenditure – just concerned residents using word of mouth to spread the word. “Dark money” is a tool of the radical, rich, and powerful leftists. In all of my years as a conservative activist I have never seen a dime of dark money go to anyone promoting our ideals.

However, he organized attacks in the media have been relentless against the activists. The Columbus Dispatch, once a reputable news source ran an editorial titled “Actually no, The Chinese Communist Party hasn’t invaded Pataskala. But xenophobia has.”

The editorial went on to say… “there is no evidence the company has villainous plans for the city or its residents.”

ing of the Congressional Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, held in January 2024, FBI Director Christopher Wray was asked about how CCP-affiliated businesses are used for espionage, and how those resources are used to harm America. In his testimony Wray acknowledged there is an almost non-existent line between “the Chinese government and its private sector.”

Wray went on to say, “Buying land, buying businesses, and so forth, while may be legal, can still raise national security concerns because it provides a vehicle for the CCP to, if they want to leverage that access, to conduct surveillance or other operations that determine our national security, and we’ve seen time and time again, where they have used that access, leveraged that access, to do that.” Please note, Christopher Wray cannot be labeled a right-wing xenophobe!

“ All Americans have a perfect right to challenge and question elected officials who are helping to promote them.”

The Dispatch describes LONGI as simply a “privately owned Chinese solar panel technology company.” Nothing to worry about here! Go home residents and be happy your elected representatives are looking out for you!

Well, not so fast. Perhaps if Columbus Dispatch and other media actually had real reporters who investigated their stories instead of indoctrinated global village idiots, they might have found this item. In a hear-

This is not just an issue of free trade and commerce with a foreign-based company. America is under attack by an enemy that has openly expressed its goal to bury us, and testimony before congress backs that up. Local, state, and federal officials who allow it are guilty of nothing less than selling our towns to Beijing! They are not representing the people who elected them to protect our liberties. A dotting news media is little more than propaganda tool that needs to be directly confronted and challenged to prove its misleading and incorrect reporting.

The fact is, the citizens of Pataskala, Ohio, Green Charter Township, Michigan, and the folks in the Wisconsin and many other states are right to be concerned about these Chinese companies and the threat they pose to their way of life. All Americans have a perfect right to challenge and question elected officials who are helping to promote them. ▫

Taxpayer-Funded Nevada “Ranch” Threatens Neighbors & Food Production

SOURCE: PROTECT THE HARVEST

It is a long-standing tenet of agricultural communities: Neighbors will either help make or break an adjacent farm or ranch. Most American farmers and ranchers trust their neighbors to be honest, help watch out for their interests, and lend a hand when needed. Sadly, some cannot count on neighbors to be supportive or helpful. Bad neighbors are difficult enough when they are individuals or private entities. When they’re government agencies with unlimited taxpayer dollars to draw upon, engaging in unethical and even unlawful practices, and aided with the apparent cooperation of additional government agencies, the dynamic changes to one of unending threats and challenges.

For nearly 20 years, eastern Nevada ranchers have been forced to contend with, and compete against, the seemingly untouchable taxpayer-funded governmental juggernaut that is the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). Even before it became an official entity in 1991, in 1989 SNWA revealed its plan to pump 58 billion gallons of water annually from Lincoln and White Pine Counties to the city of Las Vegas via a pipeline. Many believe those two counties were only the first to be targeted since, once installed, the pipeline could easily be extended to other water sources. The proposed pipeline would have been 300 miles long and cost more than $15 billion.

To lay the proverbial groundwork to build the pipeline, it was necessary for SNWA to buy ranches and the associated water rights. Beginning in 2006, SNWA bought seven ranches encompassing nearly 25,000 acres of deeded land and grazing rights on nearly one million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. SNWA also filed for water rights from numerous sources on rangelands, some of which weren’t on their permitted grazing areas. SNWA paid approximately 10 times more for the ranches than their market value at that time, costing taxpayers $79 million.

Following a lengthy legal battle, in 2020, a court decision shut down the pipeline project due to its devastating environmental impact on the affected areas. The pipeline’s resulting cultural and economic damage to the region would have been incalculable.

However, SNWA hedged its bets. Due to the nature of Nevada’s “use it or lose it” water laws, SNWA started playing “rancher” to retain their water rights, and formed Great Basin Ranch. SNWA went so far as to call themselves “stewards of the ranching lifestyle,” and registered a livestock brand with the Nevada Department of Agriculture. The brand is a symbolic “falling water G.”

Expansive and Expensive

Home to approximately 5,000 sheep and 2,500 cattle, the expansive and expensive Great Basin Ranch is 132 miles long from northern boundary to southern boundary. SNWA has made enemies on both ends. Despite having all the trappings of a legitimate ranching operation, and deploying a carefully craft-

ed public relations campaign, SNWA has fallen far short of the ethics and integrity that are hallmarks of true ranchers.

To his detriment, Hank Vogler has been one of the most active and vocal opponents of SNWA’s proposed pipeline project. He was once quoted as saying:

“It flabbergasts me that for unlimited growth, we’re willing to sacrifice the 16 rural counties of Nevada. They’ve decided it’s better to destroy half of Nevada or better to make golf courses and swimming pools available to tourists in Las Vegas. Everyone in the state of Nevada is going to pay for this folly. It’s beyond laughing. This is scandalous.”

In 2006, SNWA purchased what was originally the R.B. Robison ranch. Vogler and Robison had been partners and shared certain mixed-species BLM grazing allotments. In 2004, prior to SNWA’s purchase of the base property and attached grazing rights, Vogler had purchased the sheep animal unit months (AUMs) on an allotment that his sheep once shared with Robison cattle.

“It’s My Job to Put You Out of Business”

A three-year monitoring study was supposed to have been initiated by the BLM in 2002 to officially allocate the number of sheep and cattle AUMS for the allotted land. The study was never completed, and it is unlikely to be completed. Vogler attributes this to the dereliction of the BLM’s mission in the area. For 20 years, Vogler has worked to get the relevant paperwork submitted and reviewed by BLM, but he’s been told it would be a “career ender” for any BLM employee who dared to address it. One of the water sources that SNWA filed on is in this allotment.

Immediately after SNWA’s purchase of the ranch, Vogler became a target and the situation turned ugly. Had SNWA been a good neighbor, it would have shared the allotment as Robison and Vogler had in the past. Vogler’s ranch and BLM allotments border the northern end of SNWA’s holdings. Vogler, and his employees, have endured harassment, vandalism and physical violence. At one point, Vogler was directly told by former Great Basin Ranch manager, Merlin Flake, “It’s my job to put you out of business.”

The sheep AUMs Vogler rightfully bought and paid for seem to have been intentionally shelved or conveniently lost in the BLM bureaucracy. Vogler has been blocked from presenting his case with the full history of the allotment, most of which is best suited for sheep due to the steep terrain and types of vegetation. Now, for having his sheep on the allotment he has legally and sustainably utilized since 1990, he has been slapped with “willful trespass” fines. He might have paid them, but was advised not to because doing so would appear to be an admission of guilt. The BLM came back with compounded fines, which were based on incorrect dates and inaccurate animal numbers, according to Vogler. His efforts to rectify the situation have been stonewalled.

“The administrative law judge basically punted. He did not even look at our points. Three

hundred thousand dollars later, we have appealed to the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA),” Vogler said. The IBLA is “supposed to do the right thing,” but they may or may not give the case standing. The next step is federal court. In early April 2024, Vogler received notice of a motion to dismiss his case.

Shameless Encroachment on Forage & Water Rights

On the southern end of Great Basin Ranch, SNWA has done its own willful trespassing, in blatant disrespect for their neighbors and flagrant violation of an official 1963 BLM usage agreement for the Dry Lake Valley Use Area (DLVUA). The agreement had worked well for the 11 involved ranchers for nearly 50 years, until one of them sold out to SNWA.

Kena Gloeckner’s family has been ranching in the area for over a century. In a Range Magazine article, she was quoted as saying:

“From the first year (SNWA) purchased the ranches and began running their sheep in common with our cattle, we have been bullied and harassed. They have a team of attorneys and an insurmountable number of support staff to forward any kind of narrative that supports their agenda to the BLM, politicians, and judges. It’s almost impossible for the common rancher to compete against them.”

Notably, SNWA attorneys are taxpayer-funded.

Gloeckner stated that upon discovery of 2,000 SNWA sheep in her ranch’s usage area and water source, she was told by GBR manager, Bernard Petersen:

“Honey, if you believe my sheep need to stay beyond some imaginary line, you are dreaming. My sheep can graze anywhere they want between Highway 318 and Highway 93, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.”

“All ranchers have an unwritten code of ethics,” Gloeckner said. “One of those beliefs is that if it’s not yours, don’t touch it. But we’ve had problem after problem.” Gloeckner and other ranchers teamed up to hire Karen Budd-Falen, who is regarded as one of the best private property rights attorneys in the nation, especially regarding Western ranching issues. The group has spent thousands fighting SNWA’s encroachment on their water rights and forage, with no end in sight.

Death by A Thousand Cuts

Years prior, when the pipeline project was still being considered, Vogler expressed the same sentiment: “I can’t afford to hire a $500-an-hour fire-breathing dragon to fight against the SNWA’s 25 fire-breathing dragons, so they will take me down with a thousand paper cuts.”

And indeed, that seems to be the intention. Gloeckner believes, as do many, that the SNWA is simply biding its time, playing rancher at enormous taxpayer expense, all the while chipping away at legitimate generational ranches to put them out of business so there would be no senior water rights holders left to fight against a potential future pipeline.

Ironically, in a 2015 Las Vegas Sun article, SNWA board member Bob Coffin was quoted

as saying: “We can’t just helicopter up and dump money in and make them love us. We just have to treat them fairly.”

Wrongful Possession?

Aside from SNWA’s bullying tactics, there is a legitimate case against the legality of their usage of BLM grazing permits. State agencies are not technically allowed to utilize federally managed grazing permits, even if an agency owns the base property to which grazing permits are attached. If an agency owns a base property and leases it to an individual, the individual can then apply to utilize attached grazing permits. Even so, there have been instances of another state agency, the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), leasing to SNWA. It’s believed by many of those familiar with the situation that the late U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) facilitated the crossing of many traditional, long-standing, proverbial lines.

The Taylor Grazing Act was enacted in 1934 to organize and regulate livestock grazing on unclaimed lands in the western United States. This Act established that land could no longer be claimed under the Homestead Act, created grazing districts, apportioned grazing allowances, and led to the formation of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to manage the use of lands commonly referred to as public lands. It is important to note that the term “public lands” isn’t entirely accurate; while the land is owned by the public and managed by federal agencies, the land’s resources, such as minerals, timber, and grass are owned by private entities, in a concept known as split estate.

Section 315b of the Taylor Grazing Act states:

“Grazing permits shall be issue only to citizens of the United States or to those who have filed the necessary declarations of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws, and to groups, associations, or corporations authorized to conduct business under the laws of the State in which the grazing district is located. Preference shall be given in the issuance of grazing permits to those within or near a district who are landowners engaged in the livestock business, bona fide occupants or settlers, or owners of water or water rights.”

While there may seem to be loopholes that allow for SNWA to lawfully utilize BLM grazing permits, as recently as 2017, official decisions by the solicitor general of the BLM indicate otherwise. Although a ruling was made in an altogether different case, the statement plainly reads: “…a state government agency is not listed as eligible to hold a grazing permit with the BLM.”

The United States Forest Service (USFS) states outright that no federal, state, or county agency may hold a grazing permit.

SNWA maintains that the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) concluded that SNWA can indeed hold and utilize grazing permits, citing the dismissal of an N4 Grazing Board appeal in June of 2022. Vogler is a member of the N4 Grazing Board.

No Reasonable Explanation

Simeon Herskovits is an attorney for the Great Basin Water Network, a cooperative organization that fought tooth and nail to prevent the SNWA pipeline from being built. The Network includes both ranchers and en-

vironmental activists. “There’s no real reasonable explanation for them continuing to play the game of ranch ownership and management up here in White Pine County,” Herskovits was quoted as saying in an October 2022 Las Vegas 8 News Now article. “They are still somehow angling in the future for a toehold or a foothold to allow them to take rural water.”

Vogler agrees that SNWA is waiting for an “emergency” situation to emerge that would necessitate pipeline construction. Recent projections estimate that the water wouldn’t be needed in Las Vegas until 2035, and even if SNWA were to be allowed to build a pipeline in the future, construction would take at least a decade. Another possible reason is that SNWA wants to tie up loose ends is that possession of all AUMs associated with their ranch would make a tidier package in case SNWA ever needs to divest the ranches.

“They made a hell of a mistake with taxpayer money,” Vogler believes. SNWA’s gargantuan financial blunder didn’t end with the overpriced purchase of the ranches. In 2015, a former accountant filed a lawsuit against SNWA, alleging that he was forced to create fallacious reports for several years, showing small annual profits rather than the actual significant financial losses of Great Basin Ranch.

“From the moment they were purchased, said ranches have been unprofitable, contrary to representations by defendants to the board of directors, ratepayers, and the media,” the former accountant stated.

Embarrassing Boondoggle Could Eliminate Sustainable Food Source

What happens if, in the future, SNWA is successful in securing pipeline approval to satisfy the endless thirst of Las Vegas? Some believe SNWA will abandon its embarrassing boondoggle in so-called ranching stewardship, and cast the functional agriculture of Great Basin Ranch aside like a broken toy.

With water being pumped to Las Vegas from limited aquifers, Great Basin Ranch would quite literally dry up, as would ranches around it, thereby effectively eliminating millions of acres of land from food production. The ever-increasing worldwide need for food requires continued efficient and sustainable production from every available source.

Grazing lands are a uniquely renewable food production resource. With proper management, livestock utilize the native forage and actually enable it to grow stronger the following year, meanwhile converting raw forage into delicious and nutritious protein. The vast majority of grazed lands are non-arable, yet support numerous uses benefiting all Americans.

True Stewardship is a Calling

True ranchers and farmers in America pride themselves on feeding Americans sustainably, as do many other nations. It’s a calling to serve, one that is much more than a mere bullet point on a resume. Hank Vogler has joked about having “a double recessive mutant gene” that has compelled him to build his life via agriculture. Let’s hope Nevada’s farming and ranching families can continue to do what they do best, and a costly water pipeline that does more harm than good never becomes a reality.

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Farm Groups Call on Administration to Dismiss USDA Appointee with ties to the Chinese Communist Party

SOURCE: COMPETITIVE MARKETS ACTION

The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM), and Competitive Markets Action (CMA), have called on President Joe Biden and U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Secretary (USDA), Tom Vilsack, to dismiss USDA’s Pork Checkoff Board Member Stewart Leeth, the chief sustainability officer at Smithfield Foods, a company wholly owned by the Chinese group, and whose purchase in 2013 was financed directly by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The groups’ call for Leeth’s removal comes on the heels of the House Committee on Agriculture’s hearing entitled “The Danger China Poses to American Agriculture” that was held in April by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, R-PA. It also comes in the wake of countless lobbying firms delisting Chinese clients as lawmakers have weighed blacklisting firms lobbying for the Chinese. Yet the Biden Administration, and Secretary Vilsack have failed to sever its long controversial ties with Chinese-owned Smithfield’s executive.

“The Biden Administration and Secretary Tom Vilsack should immediately remove Stewart Leeth from the Pork Checkoff Board that has longworked against American producers who pay into the till,” said Greg Gunthorp of Gunthorp Farms, a lifelong pork producer in Indiana and supporter of Competitive Markets Action. “Chinese-owned Smithfield and their minions that continue to infiltrate American agriculture production are one of the greatest threats facing our food safety and security and we must not allow China to prevail in their quest.”

“If the Biden Administration and Secretary Vilsack continue to push China’s Smithfield agenda in a government program that American producers are forced to pay into and keep Leeth on the board, we’ll swiftly see the last remaining independent pork producers in the U.S. fold up shop,” said Taylor Haynes, president of the Orga-

nization for Competitive Markets. “It doesn’t get any swampier than the situation we see with Leeth sitting on the Pork Checkoff Board and our government should quickly execute his removal.”

According to the Smithfield Times, Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods, a proponent of the EATS Act, H.R. 4417/S. 2019, continues to advocate for the enactment of the legislation that would devastate family farmers across rural America and could put what few independent hog farmers are left in the U.S. out of business. And according to federal lobbying reports, Holland and Knight, one of the largest lobbying firms in Washington, D.C., has been paid nearly $1 million representing the Chinese conglomerate over the past year.

It is believed China’s Smithfield continues to be a very serious and dangerous threat to the American farmers and ranchers and U.S. food production as the company continues to back and lobby for this bill. This dangerous legislation, led by Senator Roger Marshall, R-KS, and Representative Ashley Hinson, R-IA, would nullify more than 1,000 state laws that protect American family farmers from a Chinese influence.

The EATS Act, and other legislation like it is being pushed by House Chairman Thompson, but is opposed by more than 2,000 diverse opponents with millions of members that include Moms For America, Farm Action, Competitive Markets Action, the Organization of Competitive Markets, FreedomWorks, the American Grassfed Association, Alabama Contract Poultry Growers Association, Kansas Cattlemen’s Association, and three of the nation’s top American-owned pork producers: Heritage Foods, Niman Ranch, and Clemens Food Group/Hatfield Meats, who was featured in Forbes for their ethical pork production.

In addition to the EATS Act, another issue being debated in Congress is the USDA’s scandal-ridden Commodity Checkoff Programs that fund the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). Groups like OCM,

CMA, and many of those that oppose EATS support legislation introduced by Senators Mike Lee, R-UT, Rand Paul, R-KY, Cory Booker, D-NJ, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, in the Senate and Representatives Nancy Mace, R-SC, and Dina Titus, D-NV, in the House: H.R. 1249/S. 557, the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act that would reform the checkoff programs by bringing transparency and requiring the programs be audited for compliance; by prohibiting disparagement of one product over another and picking winners and losers in the marketplace; and by prohibiting checkoffs from contracting with lobbying entities like NCBA who lobbied against Country-of-Origin Labeling, and the NPPC who has fought against state ballot measures like California’s Prop 12 that benefit American producers who practice more regenerative and sustainable agriculture.

Further on EATS, 10 U.S. House Republicans, led by House Freedom Caucus (HFC) champion Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-FL, sent a letter that included HFC chairman Bob Good, R-VA, to Thompson and Ranking Member David Scott, D-GA, against the nullification of Prop 12 that followed a similar October 2023 letter to Thompson and Scott signed by 16 House Republicans and led by front-liner Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-NY.

To date, 226 bipartisan Members of Congress have vocalized their opposition to the nullification of Prop 12 by Thompson R-PA, Representative Ashley Hinson, R-IA, and Senator Roger Marshall, R-KS, who continue to champion the assault. 171 bipartisan Members of the House sent a letter to Thompson and Scott in August of 2023 and 31 U.S. Senators sent a similar letter to Senate Agriculture Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, and Ranking Member John Boozman, R-AR, last August.

Since the EATS Act was introduced in 2023, the only public opposition Prop 12 has seen from a Democrat in federal office is from USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, D-IA, who has a long record of backing Chinese agriculture interests.

Wolf Management Might Be Keeping Woodland Caribou from Going Extinct in Canada, Study Suggests

Certain subpopulations of woodland caribou are endangered and federally protected in both the United States and Canada

BY TRAVIS HALL

| PUBLISHED APR 24, 2024 3:30 PM EDT

Agovernment-sponsored wolf-reduction program is playing a major role in the rebound of endangered woodland caribou populations in Canada, according to a recently published study in the journal of Ecological Applications. Authored by 32 researchers from Canada, the United States, and New Zealand, the study found that wildlife managers in British Columbia and Alberta were able to increase the numbers of struggling populations of woodland caribou by more than 50 percent by targeting and removing wolves and by providing cows and calves with supplemental feed inside fully-enclosed penning sites.

“Southern mountain caribou abundance declined by 51 percent between 1991 and 2023, and 37 percent of subpopulations were functionally extirpated,” the study’s abstract reads. “Wolf reduction was the only recovery action that consistently increased population growth when applied in isolation, and combinations of wolf reductions with maternal penning or supplemental feeding provided rapid growth.”

Woodland caribou recovery is one of the toughest conservation challenges in North America because the unique ungulates require large tracts of uninterrupted boreal forest to survive. Until relatively recently, both northern Montana and the northern Idaho panhandle had populations of woodland caribou, but the animals have since been extirpated from that part of their native range. They’re still being pushed to the brink in Canada by large-scale logging and mining and “will continue to be extirpated well before habitat conservation and restoration can become effective unless predation is reduced,” the study states.

“If we don’t shoot wolves, given the state of the habitat that industry and government have allowed, we will lose caribou,” B.C.-based researcher Dr. Clayton Lamb, the lead author on the study, told the Canadian Broadcast Company.

According to the CBC, wildlife managers have killed close to 2,000 wolves since 2015 in the highly targeted habitat where the most threatened woodland caribou subpopulations reside. The program has cost the Canadian government a total of $10 million. The wolves are killed by skilled marksman shooting from helicopters, and the program is expected to continue through at least 2026.

Canadian Hunters Support the Program

The CBC article cites local opposition from people who are against killing any number of wolves in order to save endangered caribou, but a Canadian hunter and podcaster who’s followed the program closely for several years tells Field & Stream that most hunting-focused conservationists support the program. “The B.C. Wildlife Federation is hugely supportive of the program because it’s science-based,” said Mark Hall, host of the Blood Origins Canada podcast. “There are a lot of smaller fish and game clubs that support it as well. People who understand the dynamics going on here between wolves and caribou are definitely in support of it.”

Hall, who has hosted the study’s lead author on his podcast multiple times, says the high-density wolf populations in the embattled caribou’s habitat are more of a human-caused ripple effect than a natural condition. “Back in the 1950s and 1960s, they were heavily logging this caribou old-growth habitat,” he said. “That made great moose habitat in the clear cuts. But with increased moose populations and more roads going into the logging cuts, the wolf population exploded. Those numbers were never that high before because wolves are not an old-growth dependent animal.”

Since woodland caribou didn’t evolve alongside high concentrations of wolves, the large carnivore’s heavy presence in their habitat has become a severely limiting factor for sustained population growth, pushing them closer and closer to extinction, Hall says. And while a combination of targeted wolf culling and supplemental feeding for mother caribou and their young is keeping the species from winking out altogether, it’s not an ideal solution for the long--term.

“In order for these herds to grow into the future and get back to the numbers they once were, they have to have old growth habitat. But they’re continuing to log that old growth habitat now, which means these herds aren’t going to be able to recover to their former selves,” Hall says.

“If they simply stopped logging the habitat, they could continue the wolf control program until the herds got large enough where they’re self-sustaining. Then they could stop the wolf control program, once the caribou-wolf dynamic gets back to where it was thousands of years ago.”

‘Net Neutrality’ Faces a Stiff Judicial Test

The revived rule likely violates the major questions doctrine.

BY BRIAN A. RANKIN / WALL STREET JOURNAL GUEST OPINION

The Federal Communications Commission voted along partisan lines to reclassify broadband internet access service as a common carrier telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act on May 1. The agency is abandoning a light-touch regulatory approach that spurred innovation and investment in its effort to revive Obama era rules enforcing net neutrality.

An appeal of the FCC’s order is almost certain and is likely to succeed under the major-questions doctrine given that the Supreme Court struck down similarly unauthorized use of agency authority in its 2022 ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency. The doctrine holds it is the people’s representatives in Congress who authorize administrative

agency power. For questions of vast economic and political significance, an agency must have clear congressional authorization for any regulatory power it asserts.

There seems little question that the FCC’s asserted power concerns a question of major economic and political significance. Hundreds of millions of Americans rely on broadband internet. It’s a technology that touches nearly every aspect of our lives and the economy. Broadband regulation has enormous consequences and declaring providers common carriers is a massive change.

Under Title II, the FCC has expansive authority over almost every aspect of a common carrier’s business, including rate regulation, terms of service, and determining returns on capital investment. It’s hard to imagine how the FCC could put out a more economically consequential decision or a more substantial expansion of its regulatory authority.

That expansion also appears to go beyond any clear congressional authorization. When Justice Brett Kavanaugh served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals he found in a persuasive dissent regarding the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality order that “what [the Communications Act] does not clearly do is treat Internet service as a telecom-

munications service and thereby authorize the FCC to regulate Internet service providers as common carriers. At most, the Act is ambiguous about whether Internet service is an information service or a telecommunications service.”

The Supreme Court has said that congressional authorization must be clear under the major-questions doctrine. Ambiguity doesn’t suffice.

Additionally, Congress has never passed a statute declaring broadband internet access a telecommunications service, even though bills to do so have been introduced. This further indicates a lack of congressional authorization.

Most cases take years to reach the Supreme Court and it’s possible that a shuffling of the political and regulatory deck after the 2024 election could render litigation moot. But even if the FCC’s rule makes it to the court, it doesn’t look likely to survive.

Enterprise Institute. ▫

EPA Asks Judge for PreTrial Ruling in WOTUS Case

BY CHRIS MOORE / MEATINGPLACE.COM

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed for summary judgment regarding a lawsuit brought on by several states that objected to the agency’s Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) amended rules.

The agency said the plaintiffs, made up of 26 states, lack subject matter jurisdiction, meaning the court does not have the legal power or jurisdiction to adjudicate the subject matter of the dispute.

The EPA amended its WOTUS rules after the U.S. Supreme Court limited the scope of the Clean Water Act in the Sackett v. EPA case. A North Dakota federal judge, who granted a preliminary injunction in 24 states (at the time), issued a stay on the case until the Administration was able to revise its WOTUS rules, which were published at the end of August. The states argued that the federal government overreached its statutory jurisdiction, violated the Administrative Procedure Act, and infringed on constitutional rights.

In November, the same states filed an amended complaint. Attorneys for the states criticized the new rule for its ambiguity, lack of justification and adverse impact on state sovereignty and landowners. The states asked the court to deem the rule unlawful, vacate it or issue another injunction against its enforcement.

The EPA asked the court to toss the case last week. Lawyers for the EPA said the court will assess whether the Amended Regulations comply with the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires agency actions to be rational and not arbitrary or capricious. The filing also said that plaintiffs and business intervenors must show that no set of circumstances exists under which the regulations would be valid.

Montana Can’t Have Healthy Forests Without A Healthy Timber Industry

BY DAWN TERRILL, DUANE SIMONS & ROMAN

ZYLAWY ARE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS IN MINERAL COUNTY, MONTANA

The recent closures of Pyramid Mountain Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products in Missoula County is a warning for Montana and a symptom of broader challenges threatening the region’s forest and wood products sector that is pivotal for thousands of private sector jobs and crucial for federal efforts to improve forest health, mitigate wildfire risks, and cater to the escalating demand for carbon-friendly wood products.

Montana’s timber industry, an integral component of the state’s identity and economy, faces a multitude of challenges - from workforce shortages and affordable housing crises to the whims of volatile markets. However the underlying issue driving mill closures across the west is a declining supply of raw material to manufacturers, a critical concern given that Montana’s wood products manufacturers are surrounded by federally owned forests.

The principle of supply and demand governs log prices. Currently, the milling demand in Montana, spurred by the public’s demand for wood products, surpasses the available and projected log supply. This imbalance poses a stark choice: either increase the regional log supply to align with demand or face further mill closures and a further erosion of the workforce.

lf we don’t meet the de-

mand for wood products with Montana-made wood, that consumer demand will be met elsewhere, potentially in regions with lesser regard for our social and environmental values. The opposition from anti-forestry groups, which often hinders Forest Service projects essential for reducing wildfire risks and improving forest health, deserve public scrutiny. Their actions risk dismantling the very infrastructure crucial for conservation efforts on public lands.

Once forest sector infrastructure disappears, it will be more expensive and prohibitive to do the conservation work that needs to be done.

Without a Montana timber industry, the only result is larger and more severe wildfires, more forest insects and disease, reduced public access to public lands, continued losses of wildlife, and more homes and properties destroyed. For our communities, the result is higher unemployment, fewer economic opportunities and reduced local government revenues to sustain public safety and other public services.

Since 1990, Montana has lost over 30 primary wood manufacturers that once supported thousands of family wage jobs in our timber communities. As mills shutter and curtail operations, the looming threat over millions of acres of federal land becomes more pronounced, with heightened risks of catastrophic wildfires and disease. These lands desperately need science-based, active management and restoration, reliant on a robust Montana forest sector infrastructure.

Recognizing this urgency, Congress allocated 56 billion to the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management through legislative measures to expedite forest health treatments. Despite these significant investments, the expected uptick in log supply to support local infrastructure and workforce has yet to materialize. The downward trend in saw timber volume in Forest Service Region 1- down more than 22 percent since 2019- is alarming and counterproductive to the overarching goal of fostering resilient forest ecosystems and communities.

This crisis calls for a stronger alignment between federal actions and local industry needs. lt’s imperative for Congress to ensure that forest management initiatives bolster log supplies, thereby sustaining and nurturing the forest infrastructure and workforce essential for managing our public lands.

Montana’s forest sector dilemma reflects a broader national challenge. To sustain the many benefits our forests provide — ecological, economic, cultural and social — a balanced, sustainable approach to forest management is essential. It’s a call to action for all stakeholders to forge a path that sustains our forests and the communities that depend on them, ensuring a resilient future for Montana’s forest sector and its invaluable contributions to our state and nation.

Source: Healthy Forests Healthy Communities

Mr. Rankin is an adjunct fellow at the Competitive

2nd Annual Ranch Verse Promises A Round-Up of Top Western Talent August 3

The National Ranching Heritage Center announces the performers and special guests headlining this popular celebration of Western storytelling, poetry and song.

Acclaimed Western artists Waddie Mitchell, Brigid and Johnny Reedy, Gail Steiger and Ed Ashurst will join cowboy songster Andy Hedges for a special day of Western storytelling, song and poetry at the 2nd annual Ranch Verse. Back for a second year by popular demand, Ranch Verse will be held Saturday, Aug. 3 in Lubbock, Texas. Daytime programs at the National Ranching Heritage Center and an evening concert at the Cactus Theater will artfully illustrate the heritage of cowboy country.

“Ranch Verse is a rich tapestry of Western culture, offering a diverse program including

working cowboy stories, cowboy poetry, Western music, and discussions of the ranching way of life,” shared host Andy Hedges, who produces Ranch Verse alongside the National Ranching Heritage Center. “Attendees from the first Ranch Verse in 2023 overwhelmingly encouraged us to make this an annual tradition. We are honored to return for year two with this outstanding talent lineup.”

Among the artists are Brigid and Johnny Reedy, a brother-sister duo from Southwestern Montana bringing their unique style of music—ranging from Cowboy tunes to Western Swing, Rhythm, and Blues—to the Ranch Verse stage throughout the event.

Buckaroo poet and working cowboy Waddie Mitchell of Elko, Nevada, will entertain during both the daytime and evening programming through

his true-to-life storytelling, set to the rhyme and rhythm of Cowboy poetry.

Prescott, Arizona’s Gail Steiger is a cowboy, songwriter, filmmaker & poet. His afternoon program will share captivating images, videos, stories and songs from the grandfather, Gail I. Gardner, whose boots he follows.

Ranch Verse will also host a special live audience recording for the popular Cowboy Crossroads podcast. Andy Hedges will interview Ed Ashurst, a Rodeo, New Mexico, working cowboy and author who was the 2019 recipient of the Ranching Heritage Association Working Cowboy Award.

Leading this exceptional round-up of Western talent is Andy Hedges, an acclaimed Western songster, poet and storyteller who recently performed at Carnegie Hall. His album, Roll On, Cowboys, has become an instant classic and includes performances from Ranch Verse artists Waddie Mitchell and Johnny and Brigid Reedy. All four artists will come to-

gether for the evening concert.

“The mission of the National Ranching Heritage Center is to preserve and interpret the history of ranching,” said Hedges. “Cowboy poetry and music offer a unique avenue for ranching folks to tell their own story in their own words, so it is exciting to share this artform at the National Ranching Heritage Center with these artists.”

Daytime festivities full of song, poetry and storytelling are free and open to the public from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock. The evening concert will be held at

Lubbock’s historic Cactus Theater from 7:30-10 p.m. Tickets for the evening performance are available through Cactus Theater. The complete event schedule, along with artist bios and ticketing link, can be found at on the National Ranching Heritage Center’s website, ranchingheritage.org/ranchverse.

Making it possible to bring this talented lineup to Ranch Verse are the Ranching Heritage Association and the Helen DeVitt Jones Adult & Secondary Education endowment at the National Ranching Heritage Center. ▫

Are Wolves Following Moose into Nevada? State Reports First Wolf Pack Sighting in 100 Years

BY DAC COLLINS / OUTDOOR LIFE

Biologists found what appeared to be wolf tracks heading in the direction of the Idaho border. Photograph by

Ashton Hooker / NPS

A wolf pack was seen in Nevada this month for the first time in more than a century, according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife. Officials say a helicopter crew contracted by the agency spotted the three “suspected” wolves on March 17 during a moose survey near Merritt Mountain, which lies north of Elko in the same region where an estimated 100 moose now live and a new moose season is scheduled for this fall[DH1] . Although state officials are still working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to confirm the sighting, all signs point to the wolves drifting into the state from Idaho.

“During search efforts to confirm the sighting last week, biologists discovered tracks in the area,” NDOW explained Wednesday. “The freshest tracks appeared to be a set that led in the direction of the Idaho border, where they were lost in broken snow conditions.”

The agency added that biologists measured those tracks and found them to be consistent with gray wolves. They also installed trail cameras and collected scat and hair samples for DNA testing. Those test results are expected within the next few days.

“We are doing all we can to gather information regarding this sighting and will keep the public updated as we learn more information,” NDOW director Alan Jenne said. “Nevada is not a historic habitat for wolves, and we’ve had very few confirmed sightings in the state. Wolves are not known to reside in the state of Nevada, but we know that they may occasionally cross state lines for brief periods.”

The last time this occurred was in 2017, when a lone gray wolf was spotted west of the Black Rock Desert not far from the California border. Before that, there hadn’t been a confirmed sighting in the state since 1922, according to the Nevada Current.

Western wolf populations have rebounded in a big way since the species was reintroduced in the 90s, however, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if the wolves were moving into the area from other states. Nevada is literally surrounded by wolves, with all five neighboring states harboring at least some of the animals.

A subscription to the Livestock Market Digest makes a perfect Christmas gift for friends, family and business associates!

Utah has the smallest number of wolves among the five states, with an estimated 20 gray wolves currently living in the northeast corner near the borders of Idaho and Wyoming. Next is California, which is home to an estimated 45 gray wolves and seven named packs. Arizona is home to a different species, the Mexican gray wolf, but their numbers have been growing for eight years in a row now, with the most recent survey showing 144 individuals. (Because of where the wolves were seen in Nevada’s northeast corner and the federal regulations establishing separate recovery zones for the two species, it’s almost certain that the wolves spotted in Nevada earlier this month were gray wolves and not Mexican gray wolves.)

The largest source populations for Nevada’s wolves lie to the north in Oregon and Idaho. These states currently hold around 178 and 1,337 gray wolves, respectively. ▫

(Clockwise from top left)

Andy Hedges, Gail Steiger, Brigid & Johnny Reedy, Ed Ashurst, & Waddie Mitchell

The 75th Brangus Celebration: Honoring Heritage and Innovation

The Brangus community is gearing up to commemorate a significant milestone in its storied history: the 75th Brangus Celebration. This landmark event will not only honor the breed’s rich heritage but also highlight its remarkable journey of innovation and resilience over the past seven decades.

The Brangus breed, renowned for its superior adaptability and performance in various climates, has played a pivotal role in shaping the beef cattle industry since its inception. As we mark the 75th anniversary of this iconic breed, it’s imperative to reflect on the key moments that have defined its legacy:

1949: The creation of the American Brangus Breeders Association (ABBA) and birth of the Brangus breed, a cross between Brahman and Angus cattle, revolutionized the industry by combining the best traits of both breeds. This innovative blend created a superior breed known for its heat tolerance, adaptability, and high-quality carcass traits.

1950s-1960s: The official renaming of the ABBA to the International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA) in 1958 marked a significant milestone in the breed’s history, providing a unified platform for breeders to promote and advance the

Governor Desantis Signs US-First Cultivated Meat Ban

BY MELISSA SUE SORRELLS / MEATINGPLACE.COM

Florida will soon be the first state in America where cultivated meat cannot be manufactured or commercialized as Governor Ron DeSantis signed a wide-ranging bill (SB 1084) that includes the cultivated meat ban on April 30, 2024.

“What we’re protecting here is the industry against acts of man, against an ideological agenda that wants to finger agriculture as the problem, that views things like raising cattle as destroying our climate,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Hardee County.

The new law takes effect July 1. Though it strictly bans and penalizes the manufacture, transport, commercialization and sale of cultivated meat, it does allow pure scientific research into cultivated meat.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Florida Senators Jay Collins and Dale Carlton, the president-elect of the Florida Cattleman Association, also spoke during the press conference, celebrating the new law.

The bill initially passed the Senate on Feb. 29 in a 29-10 vote, then passed the House on March 6 in an 86-27 vote. The bill was transmitted to the Governor on April 30, giving him 15 days to sign or veto the bill. DeSantis signed it within 24 hours of receipt. ▫

Brangus breed globally. The Brangus breed gained widespread recognition and popularity among ranchers across the United States, thanks to its exceptional performance in beef production and its ability to thrive in diverse environments.

1970s-1980s: During this period, the breed continued to evolve, with breeders focusing on enhancing its genetics and refining its characteristics. After 25 years of growth and improvement, for the first time in history, Brangus cattle were on display at the National Western Stock Show in Denver and the grand opening of the IBBA building was held on April 19, 1986, in San Antonio, Texas.

1990s-2000s: The Brangus breed continued to gain momentum internationally, expanding its presence to new markets and solidifying its reputation as a premier beef cattle breed. Technological advancements in genetics and reproductive technologies further propelled the breed’s growth and development, IBBA moved forward with the development of carcass EPDs by collecting percent intramuscular fat and fat thickness data, ensuring its continued relevance in a rapidly evolving industry. In 1998, The Brangus EPD database went online.

2010-present: The Bran-

gus Journal celebrated 50 years and the Brangus breed has remained at the forefront of innovation, embracing cutting-edge technologies and sustainable practices to meet the evolving demands of consumers and producers alike. From genomic testing to precision breeding techniques, Brangus breeders have continued to push the boundaries of excellence, ensuring the breed’s enduring legacy for future generations.

As we celebrate the 75th Brangus Celebration, we pay tribute to the visionaries, breeders, and enthusiasts who have contributed to the breed’s success and longevity. This milestone serves as a testament to the resilience, adaptability, and enduring legacy of the Brangus breed.

The 75th Brangus Celebration, August 8 through 10 in Fort Worth, Texas promises to be a momentous occasion, featuring a series of events and activities that will showcase the breed’s heritage, excellence, and future potential. From a ranch tour at nearby GKB Brangus and educational seminars to social gatherings and networking opportunities, attendees can expect an unforgettable experience that honors the past while embracing the future of the Brangus breed. ▫

Bertz New Exec. Director

The American Gelbvieh Association (AGA) Board of Directors unanimously voted to hire Harold Bertz of Mayview, Missouri, as the Association’s next Executive Director. Bertz recently served as the chief operating officer of the American Royal in Kansas City, Missouri. He previously worked for the Red Angus Association of America for nearly 10 years focusing on growing the acceptance of Red Angus cattle with commercial cow/calf producers and feedyards.

“Harold brings with him great leadership, marketing expertise and understanding of the cattle industry, along with a clear vision of where Gelbvieh and Balancer® cattle fit the industry,” said Lori Maude, President of the AGA Board of Directors. “We are excited to have Harold leading the association and setting a solid path forward for the breed in a quickly changing beef industry.”

“I am honored and excited to serve this great breed and its members,” said Harold Bertz, American Gelbvieh Association Executive Director. “The Association has a rich history, innovative members constantly striving to improve Gelbvieh and Balancer cattle, and a talented, vibrant staff. With these key elements, I have unlimited enthusiasm and optimism for our future.”

The Bertz family farm near Mayview has been in the family for seven generations, He and his wife, Melisa, are also involved with her family’s farm near Parker, Kansas. They have two grown children that are active in the beef industry.

Bertz began his new role with the American Gelbvieh Association on May 6, 2024. ▫

Livestock Marketing Association Announces 2024 Scholarship Recipients

Nine students have been selected to receive $2,500 scholarships from the Livestock Marketing Association, or LMA, Scholarship Program.

The LMA Scholarship Program, now in its second year, was expanded to support more students with aspirations of using their careers to support the livestock and livestock marketing industry. Applicants must be sponsored by an LMA member livestock marketing business and answer essay questions on issues of importance to the industry.

The 2024 LMA scholarship recipients are as follows:

■ Matt Bruns, North Platte, Nebraska, is a sophomore ag business and animal science major at Northeastern Junior College. He was sponsored by North Platte Stockyards.

■ Myranda Hansen, Norfolk, Nebraska, is a Norfolk Senior High School student with plans to study agriculture leadership, education and communications. She was sponsored by Columbus Sales Pavilion.

■ Payton Irick, Seminole, Oklahoma, studies agricultural communications and agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University. She was sponsored by Glenn Payne Order Buying.

■ Drew Mickey, Taylorville, Illinois, will study animal science at Kansas State University. He was sponsored by Greenville Livestock Auction.

■ Eric Quisenberry, Shattuck, Oklahoma, studies animal science at Oklahoma State University. He was sponsored by Beaver County Stockyards.

■ Brooke Reininger, St. Hedwig, Texas, is a senior at Marion High School with plans to study animal science. She was sponsored by Seguin Cattle Co.

■ Skye Schumaker, Stillwater, Oklahoma, will pursue a master’s degree in business administration at Oklahoma State University. She was sponsored by Carthage Livestock Sales.

■ Kaley Wagner, Smith Center, Kansas, will study animal science and industry as well as pre-veterinary medicine at Kansas State University. She was sponsored by Mankato Livestock Inc.

■ Ryleigh Whitaker, Cisco, Texas, will attend Texas A&M University to study animal science/ poultry science and agricultural communications and journalism. She was sponsored by Beeville Livestock Commission.

“The applications exceeded our expectations again this year,” LMA President Mark Barnett said. “Our industry has a bright future with young people like those that applied having an interest and desire to remain involved in agriculture.”

Meat Institute Updates Industry Animal Handling Guidelines,

BY TOM JOHNSTON / MEATINGPLACE.COM

The Meat Institute has updated its Animal Handling Guidelines and Animal Welfare Audit to include scores for each criterion allowing members to set goals. The group also released a new bison animal welfare audit.

The guidelines and audit were authored by the Meat Institute’s Animal Welfare Committee (AWC), working with Colorado State University Professor of Animal Behavior Dr. Temple Grandin. The audit was certified by the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization.

“The Meat Institute has a longstanding commitment to animal welfare. It is especially important to track and improve animal handling for the well-being of the animals and the safety of workers,” said Julie Anna Potts, president and CEO of the Meat Institute. “Through these updated guidelines, and as part of the Protein PACT, Meat Institute companies continue to advance high standards of animal care.”

Read the new animal handling guidelines, additional resources, and all of the audit forms at https://www.meatinstitute.org/Animal_Welfare/ Guidelines_and_Audits

The Meat Institute will highlight the updated guidelines and audit changes at Animal Care and Handling Conference next week in Kansas City, Mo., and will publish stunning and body condition scoring guidance to help meat and poultry companies improve animal welfare.

The Meat Institute’s audit, first developed by the AWC and Grandin in 1997, helps packers and processors identify problems and drive continuous improvement by measuring objective criterai like animal vocalizations, falls, prod use to move animals, and effective stunning. ▫

Application Now Open for TSCRA Leadership Development Foundation Working Grant Program

The Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) Leadership Development Foundation, a 501(c) (3) organization committed to future generations of land and livestock stewards and leaders, announced today the opening of the first-ever application window for the TSCRA Leadership Development Foundation Working Grant Program. The program will distribute financial capital to business owners with a demonstrated interest in the beef value chain.

The program is open to entrepreneurs in Texas and Oklahoma including cow-calf operations, stockers, feeders, packing plants, large animal veterinary clinics and other segments of the beef value chain.

“Entering into any sector of the beef industry today is difficult, and I truly believe we all face disadvantages and challenges,” said TSCRA Leadership Development Foundation Chair Carl Ray Polk. “One of the greatest barriers is access to capital, and the TSCRA Leader-

ship Development Foundation is proud to have a platform to address this challenge directly.”

The TSCRA Leadership Development Foundation Working Grant Program was designed to support individuals establishing, operating or growing a beef business.

“By investing in these entrepreneurs, we truly are investing in the future of our nation’s food supply and natural resources that are both in the hands of these stewards,” said Polk. “That’s the beauty of the program – each financial grant has far reaching impacts beyond the individual applicant.”

To be eligible for consideration for financial assistance, applicants must operate a business in an economically depressed or blighted area in Texas or Oklahoma and face disadvantages. Eligible applicants must also demonstrate the difficulty of obtaining conventional financing because of such disadvantages.

The online application will remain open until May 31 and grantees are expected to be announced no later than August 2024.

An Evening with Dr. Temple Grandin, Exclusive to WIA Members

Dr. Temple Grandin, renowned autism activist, animal behaviorist and distinguished professor at Colorado State University (CSU), will be on-site at the Members Only Night Out event on Monday, September 23, 2024, to kick off the 13th annual Women in Agribusiness (WIA) Summit, September 24-26, at the Hyatt Regency Denver.

Hosted on the CSU Spur campus, WIA members will enjoy a private screening of the not-yet-released documentary about Dr. Grandin, entitled “An Open Door.” Additionally, attendees will receive a signed copy of Dr. Grandin’s book, “Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions,” and enjoy a Q&A session with her, alongside the film’s producer John Barnhardt, and CSU President Amy Parsons.

Details about the TSCRA Leadership Development Working Grant Program including the application and eligibility req uirements can be found online at tscra.org/what-wedo/leadership-developmentfoundation ▫

Int’l

Brangus Breeders

Assoc. Seeks Applicants for Exec. VP

The Board of Directors of the International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA) has initiated a search for the position of Executive Vice President (EVP). Dr. Darrell L. Wilkes, the current IBBA EVP has announced his plans to retire.

IBBA is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas and serves members in the U.S. and several other countries. The association provides a complete suite of services typical of a full-service breed association.

Shiloh Hall, Brangus breeder from Oklahoma and current IBBA President, said “We are enjoying a strong upward trend in demand for Brangus and Ultrablack seedstock. We have experienced growth in membership and registrations.

“Our genetic trends are all strongly positive and our own research has proven that Brangus-sired feeder cattle can compete with the best cattle in the business in the feedlot and packing plant. We want this positive momentum to continue and seek applications from highly qualified candidates to lead IBBA’s professional staff and serve its members.”

Interested persons should visit the IBBA website www.gobrangus.com to review the job description and the application process.

“The WIA Summit had the privilege of having Temple as a keynote speaker in 2018 where she shared her extraordinary story and her efforts to advance the adoption of more transparent practices in the livestock sector,” said Carrie Vita, WIA event director. “This year, we are excited to partner with CSU to bring Temple back to the WIA audience, albeit in a much smaller, intimate gathering.”

Dr. Grandin, a pioneer in improving the handling and welfare of farm animals, is credited with creating a revolutionary cattle-handling system that transformed the U.S. meat industry in the 1990s. Also a prominent author and speaker on both autism and animal behavior, Dr. Grandin has appeared on a variety of radio and television outlets, such as NPR, 60 Minutes and BBC. Articles about Dr. Grandin have appeared in Time Magazine, Discover Magazine, Forbes and USA Today. HBO made an Emmy Award winning movie about her life, and she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Grandin’s achievements are even more remarkable knowing that she exhibited all the signs of severe autism as a child. Many hours of speech therapy and intensive teaching enabled her to learn speech. In her teenage years, she found inspiration in her high school science teacher and her aunt. Living on the latter’s ranch in Arizona motivated Dr. Grandin to study and pursue a career as a scientist and livestock equipment designer. She now holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and master’s and doctorate degrees in animal science.

This exclusive Women in Agribusiness evening event is just one of the benefits of WIA Membership – which seeks to build a