The CAFO Bill: More of the Same, America

Peter Zeihan Missed A Few Things…

Peter Zeihan, the jaw-droppingly arrogant man who looks like a stoned yoga instructor has received a fair bit of attention from his staggering commitment to non-sense as well as holding a CIA Shill position on every talking point. USA is on top of the world because we're bigger, faster, and better. He is often extremely critical of foreign nations, particularly in the agriculture sphere while remaining the position that the United States is without harm.


I am extremely skeptical of everything that comes out of his mouth–but perhaps he is right–the United States are an agricultural powerhouse and will continue to be so. However, like all of what I write about here, I like to highlight the difference between the United States government and the citizens of the country as two separately entities.


Divide and Conquer

The so-called CAFO Bill

“To place a moratorium on large concentrated animal feeding operations, to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921, to require country of origin labeling on beef, pork, and dairy products, and for other purposes”

In a complex way of legal jargon, the CAFO bill is put forward to force that farmers abide by arbitrary policies on their farms dictated by congressmen.

Law makers criticize small farmers for their alleged environmental effects, public health impacts, and animal abuse. “Given that Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) often operate outside of environmental regulations, the next farm bill provides a critical opportunity to increase CAFO regulation and mitigate their environmental, ethical, and economic implications”

The shift towards large-scale industrial animal farming has transformed the landscape of American farming over the past few decades. The policy-makers further claim that CAFOs have out-competed smaller, family-owned farms, decreasing the number of livestock farmers in the US by 80%. However, this “looking after the small farmer” language is an illusion. The CAFO definiction is not limited to the big corporations, and rather it applies to all livestock farmers within a broad domain.

The name of the game here is to regulate everybody (both big and small) out of existence whereby only the super big fish are allowed to swim. It is only these super big fish who can afford the insane regulation requirements. Naturally, this has received pushback from policymakers on both sides.

Inside the Bill: They’re Attempting To Grant Immunity To Pesticide Companies

From a concerned citizen, “I just came out of this subcommittee hearing on HSB 737, which would give pesticide companies immunity for citizens trying to file lawsuits against them for damages.” Power to the people? Laughable.

“This bill just passed the subcommittee, and it will take away farmers’ rights to pursue legal action after damages are caused to their families and themselves. The basic argument presented by Bayer and other chemical companies is that the law lawsuits that are being brought up by them about the damages caused by their products is going to put them out of business.” So in other words, we don’t want to die out, so you will, farmers.

While the pro-regulatory folks like Ro Khanna, Cory Booker & Elizabeth Warren want to govern all, others have highlighted it’s impracticality. Oppositions are noteworthy in Wisconsin which is home to at least 300 of these “CAFO” establishments, generating billions of dollars every year. The requirement for more space for farm animals has made producers afraid of the potential economic harms that stricter regulations could bring.

It’s worth asking:

Who Owns Your Meal?

And it’s worth mentioning that this centralization of food producers has focused the main food production in the United States to only 4 companies. Half of whom are headquartered abroad in Brazil and China–& both of those currently possess communist governments antagonistic towards the United States with trade agreements between themselves. This is critical not only for the Superbowl BBQ next year, but for National Security!

Closing

Whether we’re talking about everyday consumer discretions, consumer staples, medicines, medical treatment, education or food, the name of the game goes something like this: Regulate with policy by every angle legally possible to crunch out the small producer whereby the larger, more favourable statist corporation can seize control. The net result is more and more centralization, and the fascist state grows more and more powerful. This is another instance whereby it’s increasingly difficult to freely conduct business in the United States without having ample sources of capital to withstand these regulatory forces or friends in all the right places. Again I reiterate, it’s time to start thinking of the citizens of the United States to be completely distinct from the state of the United States which serves it’s own purpose, goals and desires–often, at the citizens expense.

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