Free Republic

The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

Before you put a food item into your cart or basket at the grocery store, you likely look for a “best by” date (or something of the like) to make sure you’ll be able to use it before it goes bad. But did you know that an expiration date and other food date labels are not the same? Here’s what you need to know — from what each label means to which foods to avoid after their expiration date. Expiration date vs. date labels: What’s the difference? According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), an expiration date is typically only...

The vast majority of America’s meat supply comes from four major companies, leaving little room in the market for smaller farms to compete. JBS Foods, National Beef Packing Co., Tyson Foods, and Cargill combined hold 85% of the market, leading to the closing of thousands of family farms. “Any time something is consolidated … you’re going to deal with more issues, like cleanliness, with health issues for animals, because now you’re cramming them into smaller spaces. You’re just worrying about quantity over quality,” says Brooke Ence, co-founder of From The Farm. Growing up in a family of farmers and ranchers,...

Words to the wise. I pulled out two brand new sealed boxes of canning jar lids today. Both had black mold on them. Both the same brand. A brand with the same name as a round object used in sports.

Food prices are climbing, but soon will soar — inflation is ensured due to recent massive spending. As Americans are pushed to consume artificial meat as a solution to the alleged environmental impact of cow farts, the government seeks to expand its techno-monitoring, in the name of “health and safety,” by requiring the RFID chipping of all livestock. The argument is that animal tracking will protect the public from an animal disease outbreak.This pretense to control all food production for health and safety is reminiscent of the argument that gain-of-function research used to create the COVID-19 virus was motivated not...

“The goal of Socialism is Communism.” - Valdimir Lenin All we had to do was sit back and wait. Kamala Harris's a first quasi-solid policy proposal was plagiarized directly from Donald Trump. It was Trump's proposal to end taxes on tips. Then Harris decided that she thought of it. Now we have her first real policy and it's everything you'd expect from her. She needed a villain - it's the food industry- and she has decided on a plan to slay the demon. She will lower your food costs by making food disappear. Vice President Harris on Friday will outline...

From the vantage of the American supermarket aisle, the modern food system looks like a kind of miracle. Everything has been carefully cultivated for taste and convenience — even those foods billed as organic or heirloom — and produce regarded as exotic luxuries just a few generations ago now seems more like staples, available on demand: avocados, mangoes, out-of-season blueberries imported from Uruguay.But the supermarket is also increasingly a diorama of the fragility of a system — disrupted in recent years by the pandemic, conflict and, increasingly, climate change. What comes next? Almost certainly, more disruptions and more hazards, enough...

Google will shutter Mineral, its agricultural technology operation...Mineral was launched as a separate business in January, 2023, after five years of development by X, Alphabet’s innovation lab. With a mission to help scale sustainable agriculture., the Mineral team’s work included robots designed to inspect every plant in a field and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI to help companies tackle the challenges of food waste, forecasting and the collection of high-quality data. Mineral CEO Elliott Grant wrote, “Our mission has always been to make a meaningful, positive difference to the global food system - which we knew...

Imagine a not-so-distant future where you own nothing and have no privacy. It’s a cashless society where everyone must use digital currency and possess a digital ID while living under the rule of a global government. It may sound like something straight out of George Orwell’s chilling novel, 1984. Yet today, some very powerful global players, led by the World Economic Forum and with the enthusiastic backing of some Western leaders, major corporations and the UN, are promoting this radical transformation of society. They call it “The Great Reset.” How does it affect Christians? What role does the United States...

The Enemies of Food FreedomIn every war, there is necessarily an enemy force, and the war on our food supply is no exception. My previous article addressed the ongoing attacks on farmers across the globe. In today’s article, we will look at some of the culprits behind this agenda. For anyone who delved into the entities behind the tyrannical Covid policies, many names on the list below will seem quite familiar.Bayer/MonsantoBayer merged with Monsanto in 2018, combining the companies responsible for Agent Orange and pioneering chemical warfare. In 1999, Monsanto’s CEO Robert Shapiro bragged that the company planned to control...

Globalist social engineering took another step forward in New York City as Mayor Eric Adams (D) rolled out his new emissions goal that led one expert to conclude, “They’re coming for your food. Often boasting of his own “plant-based centered life,” Adams has continued to champion his lifestyle choices as the path forward for residents of the Big Apple. Last week, that included his announcement with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection that the city would be aiming to cut food-based emissions by 33 percent by the year 2030 by keeping a greenhouse gas inventory. Joining “Fox News Tonight,” Marc...

Mainstream media has been covering bird flu incessantly for weeks. It has been compared to COVID-19 and even the Bubonic plague with talking head “doctors” practically declaring it to be the next pandemic. Whether their concern is real or part of an election year operation is debatable, but what has become crystal clear is that Americans are viewing the sudden bird flu attention from government agencies as a reason to stock up on long-term storage beef. “The beef industry is undeniably under attack,” said JD Rucker, CEO of Prepper All-Naturals. “Whatever risk, if any, that bird flu poses to cattle...

Timothy Bundren must have heard wrong. The sun wasn’t up yet. He was still groggy from starting his morning routine of walking through chicken barns. His phone rang and his contact with the global meat company headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, just two hours south of his farm, started telling him he would no longer be raising chickens. Bundren, 52, didn’t believe him at first. Just hours later, he was supposed to meet with the bank about another loan to buy the farm down the road. Bundren waited an hour and then called the man back. The news didn’t change, but...

Gardeners can buy a new seed, a genetically modified tomato the FDA barely looked at and GMO proponents hope will win Americans over to more modified foods. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As spring gardening approaches, a new contender has entered the fray—the genetically modified (GM) Purple Tomato. Unlike its GM predecessors, the GM Purple Tomato is not destined solely for the fields of commercial agriculture—it has made its debut in the backyards of home gardeners across the United States. With claims of heightened antioxidant levels and potential health benefits, this novel creation has stirred both excitement and controversy among consumers and scientists alike....

The largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. said Tuesday it had temporarily halted production at a Texas plant after bird flu was found in chickens, and officials said the virus had also been detected at a poultry facility in Michigan. In Texas, Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. said in a statement that approximately 1.6 million laying hens and 337,000 pullets, about 3.6% of its total flock, were destroyed after the infection, avian influenza, was found at the facility in Parmer County, Texas. The plant is on the Texas-New Mexico border in the Texas Panhandle about 85 miles southwest...

A constitutional battle is shaping up over whether the U.S. government can force the owners and top employees of small businesses to send their addresses and photo IDs to federal financial crime investigators. The Biden administration has appealed a decision by a federal judge in Alabama, who ruled this month the Corporate Transparency Act exceeded the powers granted to Congress by the Constitution. The government says the information collected from small businesses will ferret out shell companies and help law and intelligence officers foil human smugglers, drug traffickers and terrorists. The appeal has a good chance because courts rarely strike...

New York City shelters are overwhelmed with migrants... But for companies like Tyson Foods Inc., struggling to fill unpopular jobs with a U.S. unemployment rate of 3.9%, this new population presents an alluring opportunity. The food processing company wants to hire 52,000 asylum seekers for factory jobs, offering a starting wage of $16.50 per hour along with benefits. The company understands and is aware that these are jobs that many find unpleasant, such as washing meat, placing the cuts into trays, final inspections for bones and packing meat, but believe this will help the refugees to start a life in...

Producing enough food for a growing world population is an urgent global challenge. And it’s complicated by the fact that climate change is warming the Earth and making farming harder in many places. Food production is a big contributor to climate change, so it’s critically important to be able to measure greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector accurately. In a new study, we show that the food system generates about 35% of total global man-made greenhouse gas emissions

WND reported just days ago on a video that showed empty stores in France, where a climate agenda threatened the production processes for farmers, and they more or less staged a strike.And just recently, in Germany, farmers blocked highways in protest over costly and unnecessary agriculture policies.Now, however, there's a new campaign against farmers, in which the United Nations works with banks to debank the food producers, closing their accounts and not allowing them to operate their businesses.The report is from NewsAddicts, which explained officials from 12 U.S. states have sounded an alarm after finding out the "unelected globalist United...

Farmers not sufficiently 'woke' can have accounts shut down without notice.. Farmers are under attack in multiple food-producing nations now... empty stores in France, where a climate agenda threatened the production processes for farmers, and they more or less staged a strike. ... And just recently, in Germany, farmers blocked highways in protest over costly and unnecessary agriculture policies. Now, however, there's a new campaign against farmers, in which the United Nations works with banks to debank the food producers, closing their accounts and not allowing them to operate their businesses. ... officials from 12 U.S. states have sounded an...