Free Republic

Indian Country, just like the rest of America, has a choice to make in this election. One party wants to roll back excess regulation, shrink the administrative state, and promote personal agency and individual responsibility; the other side wants big government to dictate nearly every aspect of American life — from the car you can drive to how you can use your own land. In my view, as a member of the Cherokee Nation, our Native values of tribal sovereignty and self-determination are best aligned with President Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party. I have spent my entire life...

(CNSNews.com)-- The School Nutrition Association (SNA), which represents 55,000 school nutritionists nationwide, is pointing to data published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to draw awareness to the fact that “after 30 years of steady growth in the National School Lunch Program, student participation is abruptly down in 49 states."The nutritionists attribute the drop to new nutrition standards that were instituted by USDA in 2012.Total national participation in the School Lunch Program peaked in 2010 and 2011 at 31.8 million, according to USDA. In 2012, it was 31.7 million. But in 2013, it dropped by 1 million participants, to 30.7...

It’s butter stupidity! Costco was forced to recall nearly 80,000 pounds of butter because the label failed to mention that the kitchen staple contains milk — and many social media users are rolling their eyes at the dairy dilemma. The FDA sent out an initial recall for 79,200 pounds of Kirkland Signature butter due to the undeclared allergen in October. Packages for both the salted and unsalted Kirkland Signature Sweet Cream Butter list cream as an ingredient, but do not include an allergy warning that the butter “Contains Milk.” The bizarre recall has left many internet users scratching their heads....

Rumors are swirling that Representative Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) is under consideration to be secretary of agriculture in the incoming Trump administration. A committed libertarian such as Massie would be a good person to lead perhaps our most socialistic government department. Trump’s first agriculture secretary, former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue, was a more status quo pick. Massie, or someone like him, would be a positive sign that Trump intends to keep his promise to shake up the federal bureaucracy and reduce the power that Washington, D.C., holds in American life.

The largest employer in Perry, Iowa, has shut down, and the decision to do so has significantly impacted the entire town. The Tyson Foods meat processing plant is not modern enough, and upgrades to the facility would bring a hefty bill. Therefore, it has closed up shop, CBS News reported Monday. “The Tyson plant employed about 25% of Perry’s working-age residents before it shuttered, according to city and county officials. Accounting for workers’ families and businesses directly related to the plant, about 60% of the town is affected by the closure,” the outlet said.

Iowa has culled approximately 1.3 million chickens after being unable to find a market for the birds following the sudden closure of Midwest poultry processor Pure Prairie Poultry, which left many farmers stranded with the prospect of lost income. Last year, Pure Prairie had been awarded a $38.7 million loan guarantee and a nearly $7 million grant from the USDA to reopen and expand the Iowa processing plant.

Cows in California have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and are now in quarantine, according to the state's Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). California hosts a fifth of the nation's dairy cows, and it is the number one producer of milk, butter, and ice cream, and the number two producer of cheese and yogurt in the US. The current infections of HPAI among cattle in the US started in March, when a 'mysterious' illness broke out among dairy cows in Texas...These cows were the first in the world to officially test positive for the bird flu...

You might have assumed that a bioengineered virus, funded by the U.S. government, escaping from a CCP lab and triggering a years-long worldwide economic meltdown would be enough to cut off the gravy train to Chinese research institutions for gain-of-function research.But that would be entirely too reasonable of a remedial action.Instead, U.S. government agencies are still, in 2024, funneling cash to government-run Chinese labs for exactly the kind of tinkering that caused COVID-19 — and they’re lying about it, under oath, so far with no consequences.In March, in a congressional hearing, Congressman Ben Cline asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom...

The USDA is preparing policy to implement the Sustains Act, determining who will own “environmental services,” which include the air we breathe, photosynthesis, pollination, and the health benefits of open space. This step is critical for proponents of the United Nations’ sustainable development agenda to achieve, as it will provide the path to transfer America’s real assets from private citizens to federal and international interests. The earlier attempt to accomplish this was stopped when the Natural Asset Company scam was soundly defeated in January. Nevertheless, the Biden-Harris Administration is preparing to determine ownership of natural processes on private lands as...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking for public input on how best to implement the SUSTAINS Act, which authorizes USDA to accept private contributions to channel through several existing USDA conservation programs. The public should submit comments to the Request for Information via the Federal Register by September 16, 2024. “Agriculture is at the forefront of the nation’s effort to conserve our natural resources, and we want to hear from people on the ground how to implement this legislation to maximize its benefits, promote equity and assist all producers,” said USDA’s Natural Resources...

A recall of Boar's Head deli meat products has been widely expanded over concerns that they may be linked to a fatal listeria outbreak in the U.S., federal officials said Tuesday. Another 3,500 tons of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products sold under the Boar's Head and Old Country brands have been added to the initial recall, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. This is in addition to approximately 103 tons of Boar's Head products that were recalled last week. The recall now includes a total of 71 products that were produced between May 10 and July 29, the USDA said....

Feeding Our Future, the Minnesota food charity sponsor whose offices have been raided by the FBI over allegations of massive fraud that some estimates have placed in the hundreds of millions of dollars, claimed that it wants to make "the world a better place for all". 10 members of FOF's staff boast of speaking Somali, others of Arabic and related languages often spoken by Muslim minorities, but only 3 speak Spanish and only 1 knows Chinese. The organization's Manager of Operations, Food Program Coordinators Manager, Food Program Support Manager, and multiple administrators, all appear to be Somali. The contact page...

A non-profit organization called “Feeding our Future (FOF)” was stopped in its tracks this week by the FBI after using millions of federal dollars meant for child nutrition to instead buy “numerous vehicles” and 14 properties, according to the Bureau. FBI Special Agent Travis Wilmer wrote in an affidavit this week: “The companies and their owners received tens of millions of dollars in federal funds for use in providing nutritious meals to underprivileged children and adults. Almost none of this money was used to feed children. Instead, the participants in the scheme misappropriated the money and used it to purchase...

NEW YORK — In May 2019, a senior official at the USDA was told by his then-chief-of-staff that Sen. Bob Menendez would call his personal cell phone in around an hour. The agriculture official, Ted McKinney, had been trying to get Egyptian officials to reverse their decision to grant a new company a monopoly certifying halal meat exported to that country. That decision, he recalled from the witness stand of Menendez’s corruption trial Friday, was “very unusual” and could hurt American beef interests. McKinney said that he would “never forget the words” Menendez told him during the brief call: “Stop...

Dairy cows cannot be moved between states without testing for the highly pathogenic avian influenza, U.S. officials announced on April 24. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a federal order that says “prior to interstate movement, dairy cattle are required to receive a negative test for Influenza A virus.” A strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza A, H5N1, has been spreading across the country since first being detected in cows in March. The influenza is commonly known as the bird flu. At this point, no beef cattle are known to have been infected with the virus. The order,...

“When natural disasters strike, they don’t discriminate based on race and sex. Neither should the Department of Agriculture,” request for federal injunction says. A group of white farmers in Texas is asking a federal judge to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from using race, gender or other “socially disadvantaged” traits to determine who gets disaster and pandemic farm aid and how much, arguing the agency’s current administration of eight emergency funding programs is unconstitutionally discriminatory. “When natural disasters strike, they don’t discriminate based on race and sex. Neither should the Department of Agriculture,” the group of farmers wrote in...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working with a left-wing advocacy group to boost voter turnout as part of President Joe Biden’s executive order directing federal agencies to get involved in elections. The USDA worked directly with Demos, a New York-based group that helped draft Biden’s Executive Order 14019, according to records obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.) Biden signed his order on agencies and voter registration in March 2021. On Aug. 9, 2021, Demos’ Adam Lioz emailed USDA officials, many in the office of Secretary Tom Vilsack, under the subject line:...

The Biden administration plans to use American tax dollars to convince people across the United States that “eating more bugs” will not only help “save the planet” but also a cost-efficient alternative to meat, falling in line with the World Economic Forum (WEF) ‘Great Reset’ agenda. The new push for a “meatless future” came after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began pouring hundreds of thousands of tax dollars into researching trash-fed crickets as an alternative to “unsustainable” protein production.

The US government is spending $1million of American taxpayer money to fund gain-of-function experiments on dangerous bird flu viruses in collaboration with Chinese scientists. The research involves infecting ducks and geese with different strains to make them more transmissible and infectious, and study the viruses' potential to 'jump into mammalian hosts,' according to the research documents. It is being funded through the US Department of Agriculture and will take place at sites in Georgia, Beijing and Edinburgh in Scotland. It comes despite such research being restricted in 2022 and growing concerns that dubious Chinese research may have started the Covid...

USDA continues its unbelievable level of corruption with regard to rural internet. Check out some of the awards. Several companies are getting millions and millions in corporate welfare. Most of these set ups could be done for less than one percent of what the idiots that run this government are paying.