Free Republic

President Trump on Wednesday signed an order in California to re-engineer the state’s water plans, completing a campaign promise to funnel water from the north to a thirsty agriculture industry and growing population further south. The ceremonial order comes after the Department of the Interior late last year reversed its opinion on scientific findings that for a decade extended endangered species protections to various types of fish — a review that had been spurred by the order from Trump. Trump said the changes to the “outdated scientific research and biological opinions” would now help direct “as much water as possible,...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt. for circulating a 2016 video of Bloomberg’s comments on farming in which he said, “You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn.”. Bloomberg’s campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said that the comments were “completely out of context.” The problem is that the rest of Bloomberg’s comments don’t help him. Take his comparison to the information economy. “Now comes the information economy and the information economy is fundamentally different because it’s built around replacing people with technology...

It’s no wonder he chose to skip the Iowa caucus, given that former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg apparently thinks farmers and manufacturers all across America lack “gray matter." In a clip just now circulating online, Bloomberg, while speaking at Oxford’s Said Business School back in 2016, explained that "anybody [can] be a farmer," but that it takes "a lot more gray matter" to "think and analyze" enough to work in the tech field. “I could teach anybody – even people in this room, no offense intended – to be a farmer,” Bloomberg explained. “It's a process. You dig a hole,...

Democratic president candidate Michael Bloomberg drew mockery from both sides of the ideological spectrum after a viral clip of him showed the billionaire media tycoon belittling farming at a 2016 business school talk and contrasting it with the “gray matter” necessary to work in the modern information economy. Bloomberg’s 2016 comments during a sit-down discussion at Oxford’s Said Business School gained attention after a Twitter account with the handle, Pete Mentes, posted a one-minute snippet of the former New York City mayor — who has never farmed — claiming “I could teach anybody in this room” to be a farmer....

More than 3,000 farmers and residents of four Chihuahua municipalities clashed with the National Guard on Tuesday over the federal government’s plan to divert water from a dam in the northern border state to the Rio Grande for the use of the United States. The newspaper Milenio reported that protesters from Camargo, La Cruz, Delicias and San Francisco de Conchos confronted the guardsmen with the aim of removing them from the La Boquilla Dam, located on the Conchos River about 200 kilometers south of Chihuahua city. The National Water Commission (Conagua) intends to open the sluices of the dam to...

Wisconsin lost 818 dairies in 2019 as farmers across the country suffer from Donald Trump's trade war with China. The state of Wisconsin, famous for its cheese, lost 10% of its dairy farms in 2019, Dairy Herd Management reported on Thursday. The loss of 818 dairies was the largest decline in Wisconsin history. Trouble for dairy farmers started in 2018, when Donald Trump engaged in a protracted trade war with China. In retaliation for increased tariffs from the United States, China placed tariffs on a number of U.S. agricultural exports. As a result, exports of U.S. dairy to China dropped...

SNIP “Five or 10 years from now, I don’t think we will be milking cows anymore, realistically," the 35-year-old farmer said. "Financially we are fine, but I have four young children who I don't spend nearly enough time with." Jereczek is trying to build a bridge to the future even as he crosses it. He has planted more than 1,000 hazelnut trees on 3 acres previously used to grow hay — a small piece of the farm that someday could pay off well if the perennial crop takes hold. Worldwide, Turkey and Italy dominate the hazelnut industry. Domestically, Oregon has...

"While House Republicans throw American workers under the bus for Big Ag today, Senate Rs are screwing US IT workers for Big Tech, GOP governors are lobbying for refugee increases & Trump signed exec order protecting Judaism as a new nationality. #AmericaLast is #winning"

Thousands of farmers drove their tractors into German cities on Tuesday, in protest at the government's new agricultural policies which they say will hurt their livelihoods and make them scapegoats for climate change.

United States President Trump may be embattled at home, where he faces an impeachment inquiry and high-stakes diplomatic crises, but right-wing activists are planning a pro-Trump rally this week anyway – in Pretoria. Willie Jordaan, the attorney who leads the Patriots for Minorities movement in South Africa, announced his plans on Monday to host a Trump 2020 support rally at the U.S. Embassy building this Thursday morning. Jordaan condemned the “ridiculous and unfounded” impeachment process in the politically tense U.S. and praised Trump for “keeping an eye on South Africa.” “We would like to thank you for your continued support...

The Trump administration unveiled a fuel proposal Friday that would buoy corn farmers and ethanol producers while alienating the nation’s oil industry. The proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would require oil refineries to blend more ethanol into gasoline, a minimum of 15 billion gallons of each year. The rollout marks the latest twist in a months-long feud between two groups viewed by President Trump as key supporters in his base: farmers and the oil and gas industry. “Once again the president has demonstrated he’s a champion for our nation’s farmers and for rural America,” a senior EPA official...

Farmers — tired of being blamed for climate change — drive tractor convoy to The Hague, causing record-breaking rush hour in the NetherlandsOctober 01, 2019A plow on the front of one tractor was spray-painted with the words, 'How dairy you'Farmers in the Netherlands are ticked off over claims that they should be held responsible for nitrogen oxide emissions, so much so that police said 2,200 joined a convoy of tractors storming The Hague in protest on Tuesday. Reuters reported that the agriculture activists caused "the worst morning commute in Dutch history."In the midst of the country's efforts to curb carbon...

HILLSBORO, Ohio — President Trump is seen in the news as perpetually on the verge of being toppled by the latest scandal of the week. But not here in Hillsboro or places like it. The latest round of accusations involving Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh led to calls for Kavanaugh’s impeachment in Washington but were largely dismissed here as more flimsy, partisan attacks. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s scornful testimony before Congress brought demands for a contempt citation from some but was mostly cheered here. The saga of Trump, Ukraine and the unknown “whistle­blower” leaves people here wondering...

House Democrats are proposing to block President Donald Trump’s aid to farmers amidst the country’s tariff fight with China, which could have a devastating impact on America’s farmers. The Washington Post revealed Thursday that it has reviewed a draft of a bill written by House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey (D-NY) that would block Trump’s ability to help farmers while the country fights China’s unfair trade practices. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said in a tweet Thursday that Democrats are trying to “squeeze” American farmers by blocking this aid. “Farming is hard enough work as it is. But now...

Anti-Trumpers agree: The president’s trade battle with China is hurting our economy and, in particular, America’s farmers. We are told that the tariff tiffs have caused a collapse in U.S. agricultural exports to China, and consequent heartbreak in our heartland. It isn’t true. As with most criticisms lodged against the Trump White House, this oft-repeated narrative is way overblown. Turns out, far from suffering what CNBC recently described as “a devastating year for farmers” the farmers of America overall are doing quite well. The Department of Agriculture recently forecast that net farm income will rise nearly 5 percent this year,...

The correct answer in economics begins with "It depends ..." Do U.S. consumers pay tariffs on products imported into the United States? Free traders repeat that a tariff is a tax and that consumers always pay it. Your child or grandchild will fail his Economics 101 mid-term without an understanding of the elasticity of demand and the elasticity of supply. The demand curve for a particular product can be elastic or inelastic. That is, demand can be sensitive to price or insensitive to price. You have heard of the supply and demand curves. But those curves are different for different...

The popular narrative goes that because President Trump launched a trade war against China, China has retaliated by tariffing agriculture products from red states that voted for Trump. False. You’ve all seen the headlines: “China is hitting the U.S. where it hurts: Soybeans,” and “China takes aim at America’s soybean farmers,” and “Soybean farmers are still paying for Trump’s trade war” (all from CNN).The popular narrative goes that because President Trump launched a trade war against China, China has retaliated by tariffing America’s chief export to China—agricultural products—which happen to mostly come from red states that voted for Trump. China...

Beneath a blazing mid-August sun at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines last week, liberal voters crowded around the Des Moines Register’s political soapbox to hear the Democratic presidential candidates speak. Meanwhile, on the other side of the fairground, farmers in the sheep, cattle and swine barns tended to their animals. A Trump poster hung from a rafter in the sheep barn and a Trump flag flew in front of a row of massive black cows in the cattle barn. Yet the farmers—who will play a key role in the 2020 presidential race in Iowa—didn’t talk much about politics...

I know that this headline is alarming, but it is actually a direct quote from a notice that was recently posted in a Kroger supermarket. And as you will see below, similar notices are being posted in the canned vegetable sections of Wal-Mart stores nationwide. I would encourage you to examine the evidence in this article very carefully and to come to your own conclusions about what is happening. At this moment, social media is buzzing with reports of shortages of canned vegetables all around the country. But so far, the mainstream media is being eerily quiet about all of...

Measuring an unseen, naturally exhaled substance against an ambiguous standard set by dozens of backbiting administrators is the progressives' way of implementing the world's most expensive, expansive snipe hunt. This sport has no rules, is spreading National media has been quick to cover Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s militaristic response to republican legislators who have cut senate sessions and left town. In an effort to save Oregon agriculture, transportation and natural resource industries from bearing the burden of a boundless cap and trade bill (Oregon HB 2020), 11 republican senators ditched the state capital to prevent a quorum in the chamber....