Lawmakers in the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/north-carolina" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North Carolina</a> House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation on Wednesday to prevent state-controlled enterprises from <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> and other adversarial nations from owning land intended for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/farming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agriculture</a> or property near <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/military" target="_blank" rel="noopener">military</a> bases.
The bill, entitled the North Carolina Farmland and Military Protection Act, asserts that state officials have an <a href="https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/PDF/H463v3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interest</a> to guard farmland from “the potential of adversarial foreign government control” in order to ensure a “safe, abundant, and affordable supply of food” for residents of the state and the nation. Entities in which more than half of shares are <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-15/subtitle-A/part-7/subpart-A/section-7.4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">controlled</a> by China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, or Venezuela would also not be permitted to purchase or lease any land within 25 miles of a military installation or any agricultural land.
“As someone who grew up on a family farm, preserving North Carolina’s farmland is a top priority,” North Carolina State Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, a Republican and the primary bill sponsor for the North Carolina Farmland and Military Protection Act, said in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VoteBalkcom/posts/pfbid023bddBB618Vxvi3ubrZHsGPAtoQgNqMvaYjG3mP13iiKyAxoeziMJrQkB127sCbZXl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>. “Our state’s agricultural land is one of our most important assets and it is common sense that we protect it from foreign governments that do not have America’s best interests in mind.”
North Carolina presently has more than 518,000 acres of farmland held by foreign entities, according to a <a href="https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/EPAS/PDF/2020_afida_annual_report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Department of Agriculture, an amount which increased by nearly 11,000 acres between 2019 and 2020. Chinese entities own slightly less than 1% of acres held by foreigners in the United States; investors from Canada meanwhile own roughly 32% of agricultural and non-agricultural land held by foreigners while citizens of other allies, such as the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, represent 31% of land held by foreigners.
Officials have nevertheless cited national security risks from recent Chinese purchases of agricultural land. Lawmakers in South Dakota, who also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/south-dakota-to-restrict-purchases-of-farmland-by-china-and-other-nations-who-hate-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moved</a> last year to prevent Chinese entities from purchasing land in the state, are particularly concerned about the acquisition of farmland near Ellsworth Air Force Base. The purchase of land near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, where some of the nation’s secure drone technology is located, last year by Chinese food company Fufeng Group likewise raised <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pompeo-warns-communist-chinese-entities-buying-farmland-near-u-s-military-bases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concerns</a> of potential espionage.
The North Carolina Farmland and Military Protection Act mentioned military facilities such as Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base as locations where entities controlled by adversarial nations cannot purchase property.
Chinese entities composed 6% of foreign residential real estate purchases in the United States between April 2021 and March 2022, according to an <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2022-international-transactions-in-us-residential-real-estate-07-18-2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the National Association of Realtors. Some 3% of residential properties acquired by Chinese buyers were in North Carolina.
The move from North Carolina lawmakers comes as tensions between the United States and China worsen over several recent espionage efforts from the communist nation, including a spy balloon that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinese-spy-balloon-collected-intelligence-from-sensitive-military-sites-sent-back-to-beijing-in-real-time-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">traversed</a> the continental United States and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tiktoks-parent-company-in-china-planned-to-use-platform-to-track-locations-of-specific-americans-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> of social media platform TikTok collecting data on American citizens.
Members of Congress recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republican-senators-call-on-biden-to-sanction-chinese-tech-firms-that-assist-communist-party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pressed</a> senior Biden administration officials to sanction cloud services offered by Huawei and Alibaba, while some officials are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/defense-officials-worry-about-new-chinese-espionage-threat-report-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concerned</a> that sensors mounted on seaport cranes manufactured by ZPMC could grant Chinese authorities access to data regarding items shipped for military operations.

North Carolina Goat Farm

North Carolina Lawmakers Unanimously Move To Stop Chinese Entities From Buying Up Farmland

North Carolina Lawmakers Unanimously Approve Bill To Block Certain Chinese Farm Investments

Agriculture

China

Farmers

Military

National Security

North Carolina

More than 18,000 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/farming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cows</a> were killed on Monday in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fire</a> at South Fork Dairy Farm in Dimmitt, <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/texas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas</a>.
Authorities received several calls that employees were trapped in a milking facility, with at least one worker sent to the hospital in critical condition after he was rescued by first responders, according to a <a href="https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/thousands-of-dairy-cows-likely-killed-worker-injured-in-explosion-at-texas-farm/3234590/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera said that a fire from an explosion spread to a building where cattle are held before they are brought to the milking area, according to a <a href="https://www.newschannel10.com/2023/04/11/reports-upwards-18000-cattle-lost-explosion-dimmitt-dairy-farm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from KFDA, with all of the cows except for a small percentage dying in the disaster. The blaze likely spread through the insulation of the building.
“Your count probably is close to that,” Rivera said with respect to the estimated number of remaining livestock. “There’s some that survived, there’s some that are probably injured to the point where they’ll have to be destroyed.”
Officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality assisted workers with disposing of the cattle carcasses. The Animal Welfare Institute said the fire was the deadliest with respect to cattle deaths since the organization started to monitor barn fires one decade ago.
Residents in Dimmitt, a town southwest of Amarillo with less than 5,000 residents, told local media that smoke from the fire was visible for miles. “It was lowkey crazy to hear about because we were just chilling and then we just heard a boom,” Renzo Sullivan said in an <a href="https://www.newschannel10.com/2023/04/12/it-was-crazy-dimmitt-community-shocked-by-massive-dairy-farm-explosion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with KDFA. “Then we look in the distance and there’s just a big cloud.”
“It was crazy because it’s like something like that happening here is like kind of unheard of, you know. So it was just like it was a mind-blowing thing to hear,” Sullivan continued. “It is kind of painful because it’s like that’s kind of what we do here, and that’s how we get our money for like the city and all that. So that’s just a major drop for us.”
Other residents said they were surprised to see the plumes of smoke and were concerned for the economy of Dimmitt. “We look up, we’re inside and we go out and look through the window, and we just see clouds. It was like an explosion,” Maleki Laurent commented. “It was crazy. And there was big, massive black air and it looked like fog in the street. And it was all burnt,” Kennedy Cleraman added.
The disaster in the small town comes after several similar reports of industrial and agricultural accidents across the nation in recent months. The incidents include a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-massive-five-acre-fire-breaks-out-at-florida-warehouse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blaze</a> at a nursery supply company in Kissimmee, Florida; a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/train-carrying-hazardous-materials-derailed-in-texas-days-after-ohio-incident" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crash</a> between a train and semi-truck which resulted in a chemical spill near Splendora, Texas; and a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/definitely-toxic-massive-fire-at-indiana-plastic-recycling-facility-forces-thousands-to-evacuate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fire</a> at a recycling plant in Richmond, Indiana.
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Another train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was triggered two months ago when a malfunctioning axle caused the vehicle to derail and leak volatile chemicals, impacting the air and water supply of the small rust belt community. Local and state authorities evacuated all residents within one mile of the crash and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/evacuation-ordered-ohio-governor-warns-major-explosion-could-send-shrapnel-a-mile-from-derailed-train" target="_blank" rel="noopener">started</a> a controlled burn of the chemicals to decrease the risk of an explosion. Vinyl chloride, a carcinogen that can contaminate water supplies, was released from five train cars in the form of massive plumes of dark smoke visible throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Researchers from Texas A&amp;M University and Carnegie Mellon University found in February that nine chemicals present on the train had higher <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/east-palestine-residents-could-see-long-term-health-risks-from-highly-toxic-chemicals-analysis-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concentrations</a> than normal in the town’s air and water supplies, posing the risk of long-term health complications to residents despite the assurances of state and federal public health officials.

View of flames of red-orange fire and motion clouds of black smoke covered sky

18,000 Cows Killed In Texas Dairy Farm Explosion

Thousands Of Cows Killed In Dairy Farm Explosion

Disasters

Fire

Texas

A fight is brewing once again over feral cattle living in the wilderness of New Mexico’s Gila National Forest.
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is planning to kill potentially dozens of wild cattle in the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gila/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5039821" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sprawling</a> Gila Wilderness of over half a million acres. The USFS <a href="https://apnews.com/article/deer-new-mexico-business-climate-and-environment-animals-da88efdc900cda817d7a3c206ada4f8b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closed</a> the Gila to visitors on Monday, and beginning Thursday, it plans to hunt cattle in the rugged Gila terrain by helicopter for four days.
The USFS has conducted an operation like this before; last year the federal government sent a team to hunt cattle via helicopter. The operation killed 65 wild cattle, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/feral-cattle-gila-national-forest.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">riling</a> local landowners, ranching interests, and state lawmakers. The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, which represents ranchers across the state, unsuccessfully sued last year to stop the culling before it took place. In December, the New Mexico Livestock Board denounced the operation as an act of animal cruelty.
“We know that those animals don’t need to be in there,” NMCGA President Loren Patterson <a href="https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/officials-announce-plan-to-kill-feral-cows-in-gila-national-forest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last month. “We also believe that this aerial gunning program, just like last year, will just be a population control, but doesn’t solve the problems associated with those feral cattle. We want those animals removed in a humane way.”
Cattle carcasses found after last year’s operation were sometimes found with broken limbs, or their entrails hanging out. A few carcasses were found in the national forest’s rivers, raising concerns about water quality. The government removed the carcasses from the river after they were reported.
<div id="attachment_503862" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-503862" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-503862 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Dead-in-river-back-side-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Dead-in-river-back-side-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Dead-in-river-back-side-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Dead-in-river-back-side-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Dead-in-river-back-side-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Dead-in-river-back-side-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Dead-in-river-back-side-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Dead-in-river-back-side-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Photo courtesy Rachel Gabel, The Fence Post Magazine.</div>
The Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are under pressure from environmental groups to remove the cattle from the Gila National Forest. The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and other activist groups say the livestock damage habitats of animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. The environmentalists have pushed the federal government through legal challenges to adopt more aggressive plans to remove the feral cattle.
Over more than two decades, the federal government held nine roundups and removed a total of 211 cattle from the Gila. The USFS estimates that 50 to 150 feral cattle remain in the wilderness area, and ranching interests maintain that the remaining cattle should be removed through herding, not bullets.
The gathering operations are dangerous and pose a risk to the people and animals involved, according to the Forest Service. The difficulty and ineffectiveness in herding cattle in the Gila in part prompted the government to opt for aerial shoots after a 2020 <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administrations-failure-to-protect-endangered-species-from-livestock-on-arizona-new-mexico-waterways-2020-01-13/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> by the CBD.
“The remote location, the steep, difficult terrain, vast territory, and access restricted to foot or horse due to the designated Wilderness status are limiting factors, along with the wild, uncooperative nature of the feral cattle themselves,” USFS spokesman Ivan Knudsen told The Daily Wire in an email.
“The Gila Wilderness feral cattle do not behave like domesticated cattle, but tend to scatter more like deer; and when captured, tend to thrash and flail, which makes roundup and capture difficult and dangerous for the contracted cowboys, their horses and dogs. Approximately half of the cattle captured using ground-based roundups die or must be euthanized due to stress or self-inflicted injury during capture,” Knudsen said.
Sarah Falen, who runs Wild West Advocacy and has been working with opponents of the USFS shooting operations, said that much of the government’s problem in herding the cattle is its choice of contractors. Falen told The Daily Wire that the government hired contractors who specialized in gathering feral horses, not cattle. In addition, the roundups were held sporadically, allowing the feral cattle to breed and replace much of their numbers lost to herding.
While the roundups are time intensive, ranchers and critics say the operations are preferable to sniping cattle from a helicopter – for the welfare of the livestock and a host of other reasons that concern ranchers in the surrounding area.
One of the foremost concerns is habituating the Mexican gray wolves that hunt and scavenge the Gila to the taste of cattle. In a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/627074358/USFS-Decision-Memo">decision memo</a> posted last week, the USFS recognized such concerns but said it “does not have any evidence that wolf scavenging on the cattle carcasses has any known effect on the wolf depredation rates on livestock.”
Falen pointed to a USFWS finding that said two Mexican gray wolves were seen last year feeding on the carcasses of the dead cattle. The Forest Service cited the USFWS in its memo: “Last year, after the Forest Service lethally removed feral cattle in the Gila Wilderness Area, two wolves were attracted to the carcasses, stayed in the area for several months, then moved back into their normal areas without preying on live cattle.”
Mexican gray wolves, a species protected under the Endangered Species Act, threaten livestock in some areas the wolves’ territory runs across ranch land, and ranchers’ concerns about the predators are increasing as the federal government rebuilds wolf populations. In Arizona, the state is <a href="https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-ranchers-to-be-paid-for-removing-livestock-carcasses">paying</a> ranchers to remove carcasses of dead livestock beyond the reach of wolves in the Gila to limit the potential for conflict. In 2018, the USFS <a href="https://www.wlj.net/top_headlines/rancher-loses-grazing-permit-after-wolf-kill/article_14f6c60c-9ec3-11eb-a473-d384807b89b9.html">revoked</a> the grazing permit from a New Mexico rancher who killed a Mexican gray wolf in the Apache National Forest, located northwest of the Gila.
Ranchers “have problems with [wolves] all the time,” Falen told The Daily Wire. “I actually work on a Mexican wolf project and some of the ranchers in that area say that in some years, they think that almost as much as 50% of their calf crop is killed by wolves.”
The deaths can be difficult to tally, she said. The government often contests ranchers’ claims that wolves killed a calf. Officials assume that a calf found eaten by wolves may have died by other causes, and the wolves’ feeding took place later.
Ranchers are also concerned that a sniper may shoot a stray animal that belongs to a nearby ranch by mistake. The USFS has <a href="https://www.abqjournal.com/2562702/comment-period-closing-on-plan-to-get-rid-of-feral-cattle-in-the-gila.html">dismissed</a> those concerns, saying that only one branded cow has been removed from the Gila since removal operations began.
The feral cattle that now inhabit the Gila are the descendants of a herd once legally run on federal land under a grazing permit. Environmentalists have continued to emphasize the threat the agricultural industry poses to sensitive habitats where endangered species congregate and live.
The federal government has emphasized the dangers the feral cattle pose to endangered species, as well. In its decision memo, the USFS posted several pictures of what it said was sensitive habitat destroyed by feral cattle.
“The presence of feral cattle within the Gila Wilderness has resulted in resource damage, especially to riparian areas where cattle congregate during warmer drier months,” the USFS memo says. “In recent years, Forest staff have documented occurrences of resource impacts from feral cattle, such as severe over grazing.”
<div id="attachment_503865" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-503865" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-503865 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/USFS-overgrazing-1024x515.png" alt="" width="1024" height="515" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/USFS-overgrazing-1024x515.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/USFS-overgrazing-300x151.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/USFS-overgrazing-768x386.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/USFS-overgrazing.png 1218w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service.</div>
Falen said the photos showed damage that could have been from cattle, but also could have been from elk or deer. The government, by blaming at most 150 animals for habitat damage in a 560,000-acre wilderness, is exaggerating the toll the wild cattle are taking on the area, she said.

New Mexico Sign

Federal Helicopter Teams Set To Gun Down Wild Cattle In New Mexico. Ranchers Are Furious.

Federal Government

New Mexico

Readers Pass

U.S.

A statute allowing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/food" target="_blank" rel="noopener">food</a> producers to incorporate <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/insects" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cricket</a> powder into flour-based products will go into effect on Tuesday in the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/european-union" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Union</a>.
The decision follows a review launched three years ago by the European Food Safety Authority regarding the use of partially defatted house cricket powder; the agency found that mass market consumption of the material is “safe under the proposed conditions” of use levels.
Cricket powder will now be permitted in a number of food products, such as multigrain bread, crackers, cereal bars, biscuits, beer-like beverages, chocolates, sauces, whey powder, soups, and other items “intended for the general population,” according to the new <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32023R0005&amp;from=EN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">regulation</a>. Cricket One, a company that <a href="https://www.cricketone.asia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserts</a> that the insects are “nutritionally more efficient” and serve as a more reliable “source of alternative protein” than livestock, submitted the original application.
The regulation also referenced “limited published evidence on food allergy related to insects in general” and connected Acheta domesticus, the species of house cricket in question, to several “anaphylaxis events.” The European Food Safety Authority concluded that “consumption of this novel food may trigger sensitisation” to the insect’s proteins and recommended further study.
Because evidence linking cricket powder to allergic reactions is “inconclusive,” the European Commission decided that no specific labeling requirements should be included in the EU list of authorized novel foods, according to the regulation.
The New York Allergy and Sinus Centers has nevertheless <a href="https://www.nyallergy.com/cricket-allergy/#:~:text=Several%20allergic%20reactions%20to%20crickets,also%20a%20relation%20to%20cockroaches." target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that “several allergic reactions to crickets” have been reported in the past two years. Individuals allergic to shellfish such as shrimp, crabs, and lobsters “may develop an allergy to crickets” because the species share many of the same proteins. “While crickets are considered safe and healthy to eat, for those who are allergic, they pose a serious threat,” the group said. “When ingested, crickets can cause anaphylaxis and other serious reactions.”
Proposals for the increased consumption of crickets and other insects occur as many policymakers voice concern about the impact of meat production on climate change. Amanda Little, a professor at Vanderbilt University, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vanderbilt-professor-says-bugs-including-fly-larvae-must-be-a-bigger-part-of-the-human-food-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserted</a> that the acceptance of insect consumption in the EU would not “translate to bugs in your burgers and mealworms in your macaroni,” but rather allow them to become a feedstock for other protein sources.
The World Economic Forum has frequently raised the possibility of finding alternative food sources to decrease carbon emissions.
“Insects are a credible and efficient alternative protein source requiring fewer resources than conventional breeding,” said one <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/why-we-need-to-give-insects-the-role-they-deserve-in-our-food-systems/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> from the organization. “Studies suggest that for the same amount of protein produced, insects, mealworms in particular, require much less land than other sources of animal proteins. A study on crickets suggests they are twice as efficient in converting feed to meat as chicken.”
Another <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/how-insects-positively-impact-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> from the World Economic Forum claimed that the “demand for protein will exceed our ability to procure it” by 2050, even though similar claims from environmentalists have been repeatedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bizarre-paganism-ben-shapiro-reacts-to-60-minutes-hosting-climate-alarmist-with-decades-of-failed-predictions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disproven</a> over the past several decades.
&#8220;For our long-term survival, we&#8217;re going to need to increase our food output and decrease our carbon emissions at the same time,&#8221; the group said. &#8220;The answer requires real innovation about food production and what we think about food.&#8221;

Cricket powder insect for eating as food items made of cooked insect meat in bowl and wood spoon on white background it is good source of protein edible for future. Entomophagy concept.

European Union Approves Cricket Powder As Component Of Flour-Based Foods Despite ‘Inconclusive’ Allergy Data

European Union Approves Cricket Powder As Component Of Flour-Based Foods

European Union

Food

Health

Insects

World

Governor <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/greg-abbott" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Greg Abbott</a> (R-TX) vowed to back legislation prohibiting <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese</a>, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean citizens and entities from purchasing land in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/texas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas</a>.
The <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=SB147" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a>, submitted two months ago by Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, states that citizens, corporations, and government agencies of the four nations “may not purchase or otherwise acquire title to real property” in the state. Abbott <a href="https://twitter.com/gregabbott_tx/status/1614686215676084226?s=46&amp;t=5pnr5c_q-1wYl27TgiOaWw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> on Sunday that he would endorse the legislation, which has not yet been voted upon by lawmakers.
“The past several years have seen more Texans alarmed by the increased acquisition of land by primarily Chinese interests,” Kolkhorst remarked in a <a href="https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/new-bill-would-ban-certain-foreign-entities-from-purchasing-land-in-texas/article_d1604e42-94eb-11ed-a16d-57b52d89086c.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> provided to the Center Square. “The growing ownership of Texas land by some foreign entities is highly disturbing and raises red flags for many Texans. By comparison, as an American, go try to buy land near a Chinese military base and see how it works out for you. It would never happen there and it shouldn&#8217;t happen here. Passing this law delivers some basic safeguards to ensure Texans remain in control of Texas land.&#8221;
The potential ban on certain overseas entities from owning land in Texas follows legislation <a href="https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB2116/id/2408342/Texas-2021-SB2116-Enrolled.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> two years ago which barred contracts with foreign companies related to critical infrastructure such as cybersecurity systems and electric grids.
Texas currently has the largest amount of foreign-held agricultural land of any other state, according to a <a href="https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/EPAS/PDF/2020_afida_annual_report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Department of Agriculture. The more than 4.7 million acres of agricultural land held by foreigners constituted 3.1% of the total land area in the Lone Star State. Between 2019 and 2020, the amount of land controlled by foreigners increased by 6%.
Chinese entities own slightly less than 1% of foreign-held acres in the United States. Canadian investors own roughly 32% of agricultural and non-agricultural land, while citizens of other allies, such as the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, represent 31% of land holdings by foreigners.
Officials have frequently cited national security risks arising from the Chinese purchase of agricultural land. Lawmakers in South Dakota, who also recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/south-dakota-to-restrict-purchases-of-farmland-by-china-and-other-nations-who-hate-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moved</a> to prevent Chinese entities from purchasing land in the state, are particularly concerned about the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pompeo-warns-communist-chinese-entities-buying-farmland-near-u-s-military-bases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquisition</a> of farmland near Ellsworth Air Force Base. The purchase of 300 acres near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, where some of the nation’s secure drone technology is located, last year by Chinese food company Fufeng Group raised concerns of espionage among authorities.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/desantis-vows-to-bar-chinese-communist-party-operatives-from-buying-up-florida-property" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promised</a> to prevent Chinese entities from purchasing land in the Sunshine State.
The Biden administration opened an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-quietly-probes-chinese-tech-firm-for-possibly-harvesting-data-from-military-bases-missile-silos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation</a> into Chinese telecommunications conglomerate Huawei last year over concerns that cell towers utilizing the company’s devices are transmitting data on military bases and missile silos to the communist nation. A final rule <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-makes-historic-move-to-block-certain-chinese-tech-after-national-security-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> two months ago by the Federal Communications Commission will block Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, and Dahua from importing certain technology considered a threat to national security.
Beyond commercial and agricultural property, Chinese entities composed 6% of foreign residential real estate purchases between April 2021 and March 2022, according to an <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2022-international-transactions-in-us-residential-real-estate-07-18-2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the National Association of Realtors. As much as 8% of residential properties acquired by foreigners were in Texas.

Texas Governor Abbott Holds Fentanyl Crisis Roundtable And Press Conference

Bill Banning Texas Land Purchases By Certain Adversarial Nations Gains Support Of Abbott

Communist China

General

Greg Abbott

Iran

North Korea

Russia

Everyday food products will be hard to come by in 30 years because of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate change</a>, according to a chef who worked in the Obama White House.
At a recent dinner event to promote regenerative agriculture, Sam Kass, who also served as White House senior policy adviser for nutrition, listed rice, coffee, wine, and chocolate as examples of popular food items that could become scarce in the decades to come.
&#8220;A number of foods that we hold very dear to our hearts and largely take for granted are under a real threat,&#8221; Kass said, <a href="https://people.com/food/former-white-house-chef-sam-kass-says-products-like-coffee-rice-will-be-largely-unavailable-in-30-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to PEOPLE magazine</a>. &#8220;And you&#8217;re seeing in the future, we&#8217;re on track for a lot of those to become quite scarce and some really to be largely unavailable to most people and others just significantly increased in cost.&#8221;
Kass teamed up last week with food brand Knorr to hold a &#8220;$500 Dinner,&#8221; an event in New York City meant to highlight dinner table staples that are in jeopardy without the widespread adoption of regenerative agriculture practices, which according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, focus on a &#8220;<a href="https://www.cbf.org/blogs/save-the-bay/2021/08/what-is-regenerative-agriculture-and-why-is-it-re-emerging-now.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">holistic approach</a>&#8221; in farming to foster sustainable food systems and environmental health.
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The dinner event celebrated World Soil Day, which took place on December 5. <a href="https://www.hola.com/us/food/20221205340015/white-house-chef-sam-kass-reveals-the-scary-future-of-food/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HOLA! USA reported</a> attendees were served dishes that mixed rice with seafood and truffles. Such a meal would cost $72 now, but $566 in 2050, when &#8220;the ingredients we rely on become even more scarce,&#8221; Kass said.
Kass is <a href="https://acre.vc/#team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">now a partner</a> at Acre Venture Partners, a firm that says it invests in &#8220;companies creating fundamental change in food and agriculture in order to address large scale problems in human and environmental health.&#8221; In 2017, the World Economic Forum <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-under-40-changing-world-2017-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">selected him</a> as one of its Young Global Leaders.
At the dinner, Kass said he wanted to make rice a centerpiece of the dinner because it is very popular around the word and is also a significant emitter of greenhouse gases, per PEOPLE.
&#8220;Food and agriculture is the number two driver of greenhouse gas emissions globally and uses about 70% of the world&#8217;s waters. It&#8217;s the number one driver of deforestation, land use change. It&#8217;s really at the center of a lot of these environmental issues,&#8221; Kass said.
Kass also said: &#8220;Food and agriculture is the only real opportunity that we have to sequester enough carbon on the scale that science is telling us, within the time horizon that the science is saying we have, and that&#8217;s really unique to food and agriculture.&#8221;

Barack Obama with Sam Kass

Obama White House Chef Warns Rice, Chocolate, And Coffee Will Nearly Disappear in 30 Years

Environment

Farming

Obama Administration

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/drought" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lack of water</a> availability for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/farming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agriculture</a> has created a crisis that could continue for years to come and lead to a food supply shortage across the United States. The lack of water not only impacts the communities and environment of California, but has national security and global market implications.
Bob Amarel grows prunes in Yuba City, California, and is also on the Farm Credit West board. Amarel is based in California so he noted that many of his perceptions come from what has happened there. He discussed the sheer quantity of food that is grown in the agricultural region of the state, and the problems that come with cutting water to those regions.
“First of all, you&#8217;ll see less food,” he said, and he wouldn’t be surprised if there were international suppliers providing food to Americans.
“You&#8217;re going to start seeing the shelves being filled with made in China, or grown in China, grown in Mexico, more so than you are today,” he said. “You&#8217;re going to end up getting crop produce, but it&#8217;s not going to be anywhere close to the quality and safety that we produce as U.S. producers.”
Ryan Jacobsen is the CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau and is the descendant of two farm families going back generations. He is also on the Fresno Irrigation District Board of Directors.
Jacobsen noted that farmers haven’t felt the inflationary rise in prices as much as some consumers, but looking to the future, he said people will experience a shortage of many materials from California, which could lead to price hikes on some of them.
David Guy, the executive director of the Northern California Water Association, said that Costco is concerned about where it will source its food since it tries to use local products.
“We&#8217;re hearing from them that they&#8217;re just really nervous about where their food is going to come from,” he said, adding that this includes fruits, nuts, and meat.
“2022 was devastating. It just was devastating. It was devastating for everybody,” he said, adding that 600 square miles of Sacramento Valley land was fallowed, or left unplanted, this year. “Just brown dry, nothing grown there.”
He said they need the regulatory environment to let water be used to grow products on the land. “If they don&#8217;t, we&#8217;re just going to all suffer again like we did this year. It was devastating this year in the Sacramento Valley, on the west side of the Sacramento Valley &#8230; we just didn&#8217;t grow anything hardly,” he said.
Relationships between growers and international markets are also at risk. Guy pointed out that when a grower doesn’t have items to provide, buyers will look to get their products elsewhere.
The potential food supply crisis is also a national security and food safety concern.
JB Hamby is on the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors and he made the point that “there is no more basic need that Americans need than food,” thus moving food supplies to international sources “puts us in a very vulnerable position.”
“We need to ensure that Americans are fed by food produced in America. And the more we continue to offshore and outsource our food supply puts us in an increasingly vulnerable and weak position if we want to maintain full reliability of food in our grocery stores,” he said.
Around two-thirds of the water that goes into California from the Colorado River is pushed towards agriculture, with the Imperial Irrigation District in Imperial County using a massive amount of it, CalMatters <a href="https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/11/feds-demand-colorado-river-water-cutbacks/">reported</a>.
Hamby said many major farming areas that grow winter produce for the United States get almost all of their water from the Colorado River, but if Americans want to have full availability of products at the grocery stores, there needs to be irrigation to those crops, specifically during that season.
“What we&#8217;re facing right now is a significant situation on the Colorado River, where there&#8217;s more demands on the system than there is water flowing in the Colorado River,” he said.
He said Americans should start to look at where their broccoli or romaine lettuce comes from when they go to the grocery stores during the late fall and coming seasons.
&#8220;Most likely, over the next few months, almost all of that is going to be grown with Colorado River water. And so if we want to continue to have grocery store shelves that we can depend on to give us the food that we need, we need to ensure that we have water flowing to farms, particularly on the Colorado River,&#8221; he noted.
He said the short-term solution will be “some painful reductions across the board, across all sectors. … There&#8217;s going to need to be a collective effort and collective action on the part of all users across the Colorado River basin to reduce consumption.”
“However, in the long term, that&#8217;s not really a viable solution, and we need to look at some additional measures to encourage some augmentation or new supplies of water to chart our future over the next century,” he added.
Water storage is also a much-needed solution to the crisis.
Amarel said more water storage needs to be created like it was in the 1960s because the water storage plan was made decades ago when the population hadn’t even reached 15 million people.
“Since then, we have grown to 40 million with not a single storage site being built,” he said. “All of those folks need to eat, and they want quality, affordable food every day. How do you do that when the food production base continues to shrink?”
Jacobsen discussed the importance of storage, as well. He says that due to climate change, the Sierra Nevada snowpack could be impacted and is projected to get the same or nearly the same precipitation levels as it has in the past, but it will be more from rainfall than snowpack. The reservoirs in California were constructed to be used for snowpack, so he argued there is more infrastructure needed.
Amarel pointed out the many conservation efforts that have been made in the agriculture industry, namely the transition in his operation to water-saving irrigation. However, he pointed out, this practice still needs enough water storage to be effective.
“We&#8217;re saving on the top side and basically not putting money in the bank under the soil. The only way you can make that up is you got to make it up with surface water, which means you got to have adequate storage,&#8221; he said.
Farmers are inherently concerned about and careful with the environment. Guy said the drought not only impacted farmers, but entire communities, suppliers, as well as had a devastating effect on the environment.
“The garter snakes,” he explained, giving an example. “There’s 225 species that live in rice land, in a rice field that just have nowhere to live this year so it was really harsh on the environment and we were doing this all for the benefit of salmon and the salmon didn&#8217;t do well this year.”
He hopes policymakers will learn from the impacts of this year and not only implement strategies that help salmon, but that send water to the land to help the communities and living creatures that need it.
Guy also said wells are beginning to dry up, which normally means communities use groundwater. This year, however, a lot of communities don’t have groundwater access.
“These are disadvantaged communities that are getting hit not only with the economic impact from the lack of farming, but also because of lack of surface water and groundwater,&#8221; he said.
The Biden administration has <a href="https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/17387-judge-clears-biden-delta-plan-to-replace-trumps-biological-opinions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taken</a> steps to get rid of the Trump administration’s biological opinions that impact protections for endangered fish. Jacobsen said the biological opinions&#8217; review was initiated during the Obama administration, and finished in the Trump administration, and were more data-driven.
Jacobsen said the current situation does not look for “win-win” solutions that help the environment and serve the municipal and agricultural users who depend on the water system, but he believes this is possible.
“I’m really, from my perspective, just looking for more leadership that can see that there needs to be a different path or a different way than what we&#8217;ve done the last decade, because our current system is just completely broken,” he pressed.

Farmland in Arizona and California

‘2022 Was Devastating’: California’s Water Crisis And Its Impact On America’s Food Supply

‘2022 Was Devastating’: California's Water Crisis And Its Impact On America's Food Supply

California

drought

Agriculture in the United States is shifting, and could move even more in the coming years towards a new type of farming — with robotic, fully autonomous machines.
Agricultural AI can be used in various ways and for different tasks. According to <a href="https://intellias.com/artificial-intelligence-in-agriculture/#:~:text=AI%20can%20provide%20farmers%20with,minimizing%20the%20use%20of%20resources" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Intellias</a>, artificial intelligence can carry out everyday farming jobs, as well as difficult ones. It can also collect and sort through information digitally, find solutions and then carry them out when working with other tools. This type of technology is also able to give farmers information on their product, showing zones that are in need of water, fertilizer, or pesticide application. 
Agricultural expert Dmytro Lenniy is a senior delivery manager and AgriTech practice leader who helps agricultural technology businesses. He told The Daily Wire over email that “AI’s advancement of agriculture revolves around three overarching areas: forecasting, disease detection, and automation.” 

The ability to predict certain conditions can also help farmers use the best means of growing and be as effective as possible.
Bowery Farming <a href="https://boweryfarming.com/artificial-intelligence/">notes</a> the prevalence of AI in everyday life, and points out that it is one of the major assets that helps them solve issues.
AI in farming can also help supplement work when there are not as many people entering the farming business, or looking to provide manual labor to farms. 
The United States has struggled to overcome a farmworker shortage that has happened in part due to immigration laws and less people wanting to go into the agricultural sector, according to <a href="https://agamerica.com/blog/farm-labor-shortage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AgAmerica Lending</a>.
Almost half of <a href="https://agamerica.com/blog/2021-agricultural-outlook-for-us-agriculture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">farmworkers</a> are illegal immigrants, and just 4% of immigrants who work on farms have become U.S. citizens. The shortage has led to farmers <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/farmers-pushing-immigration-reform-counter-labor-shortages-escalating-rcna45741" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backing</a> legislation that would stymie immigration reform. 
The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1603" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Farm Workforce Modernization Act</a> has been passed in the House of Representatives and is pending in the U.S. Senate. It includes provisions concerning alien farmworkers that would update the ways people can temporarily work in the U.S. on farms. Some worker organizations are against the bill, though, citing issues regarding inclusion of all immigrants and power inequality between farm operators and migrant workers.
A Texas A&amp;M University <a href="https://www.tamiu.edu/coas/documents/tamiu-abic.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from this year was commissioned by the American Business Coalition, which pushes for immigration changes. It discovered that more migrant and H-2A employees was connected to less inflation, associated with higher wages and lower unemployment. 
Although AI in agriculture could fix many issues, there are also various risks to such technological development. The image of a robot working on a farm and becoming sentient is a Hollywood-esque idea that may come to mind. The concept might seem to be fictional, but it doesn’t mean there are no privacy, security, and legal concerns that are associated with such technology. 
Data processing could be a risk, as well. &#8220;The biggest risk when using AI is the possibility of incorrect recommendations or forecasting,&#8221; Lenniy told The Daily Wire. The systems must be specially programmed to be in tune with the region in which they are operating. Another major concern of using AI is maintaining the safety of a client’s private data, Lenniy noted.
The risk of cyberattacks on the food chain could increase, especially if farmers are working with a few “machine-learning programs,” per a recent <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-022-00440-4.epdf?sharing_token=Ar58hegfiZ9_SWByDd0An9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MWFepXeZ7UIRwLudsvzXukGTXmldGdPHOZ1xLqh-O0zjDOYjk_G0WWJP91-Le8v8EbypGimrOYIFd1AKUHSjwpgLAe-Pn2p0qObJIONmbOaZn5RBiSfucIZUfRqKXxXPPdGY1my5fqvct3yXSIdryWVegYslmPYNdFkAJ6pfJpsJYeaT01_k4NGh0lSfn43c8=&amp;tracking_referrer=www.washingtonpost.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> in Nature. 
“Under these conditions, farmers will bring substantial croplands, pastures and hayfields under the influence of a few common [machine-learning] platforms, consequently creating centralized points of failure, where deliberate attacks could cause disproportionate harm,” the report noted. The journal pointed out that AI should be responsibly implemented, and history has shown that “a focus on increased productivity carries potential risks, including intensifying inequality and ecological degradation.”
While it can help farmers determine how best to plant and harvest, this type of development could also raise concerns if government attempts to get involved.
Already, New Zealand is attempting to tax farmers based on their livestock emissions, such as the burps and urine that come from animals. Farmers have pushed back extensively on the proposed tax, saying it will be disastrous for farmers and essentially lead to farms shutting down in an economy that is heavily driven by agriculture.
John Deere is one company that has jumped into the AI agriculture game, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/02/how-deere-plans-to-build-a-world-of-fully-autonomous-farming-by-2030.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hoping</a> to be entirely autonomous by 2030.
The company showed off its 8R farming tractor at the Consumer Electronics Show last January, which propels John Deere towards its goal by acting fully autonomous. After almost twenty years of funding and strategizing technology, the tractor is the final result, according to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/02/how-deere-plans-to-build-a-world-of-fully-autonomous-farming-by-2030.html">CNBC</a>.
The Autonomous 8R Tractor was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvFoRk4JsPc&amp;ab_channel=JohnDeere" target="_blank" rel="noopener">portrayed</a> in a video by John Deere, in which a farmer explained how he can check the self-driving tractor on an app on his phone. The video showed a tractor driving itself in a field.
Doug Nimz, a fourth generation farmer from Minnesota, pointed out that labor is difficult to acquire on farms, and many hours of labor are needed for brief periods of time.
&#8220;Autonomy will help because we will be able to put a tractor out in the field and let it run for 24 hours a day because it&#8217;s not manned,&#8221; Nimz said. &#8220;But it also helps us with the weather because we can run so hard when soil conditions are fit.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Autonomous 8R Tractor | John Deere Precision Ag" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QvFoRk4JsPc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Jorge Heraud, vice president of automation and autonomy for Deere in Moline, Illinois, told CNBC, “This comes from our realization that technology is going to drive value creation and increase productivity, profitability and sustainability for farmers.”
The move towards AI has its ecological benefits, as well. Microsoft is <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/project-farmvibes/">working</a> on developing technology that would add to sustainability by allowing farmers to track their farm&#8217;s estimated emissions, assist them “with climate adaptation by predicting weather variations” and “determine the right management practices that can be profitable and help improve soil health.”
The technology is <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/microsoft-open-sources-its-farm-of-the-future-toolkit/">called</a> Project FarmVibes. 
“Project FarmVibes is allowing us to build the farm of the future,” Andrew Nelson, a farmer letting Microsoft Research use his land for the project, said. “We’re showcasing the impact technology and AI can have in agriculture. For me, Project FarmVibes is saving a lot in time, it’s saving a lot in costs and it’s helping us control any issues we have on the farm.”
Lenniy said the agricultural industry is heading in the direction of digitization, and AI is a main part of that shift. Farming operations that aren’t using AI will inevitably be behind those that do.
“That’s because the advanced knowledge will enable farmers to streamline their processes, increase efficiency and shorten supply chains. Simultaneously it will benefit food distribution, providing the public with a more steady supply of produce and increasing food security,” Lenniy said.
Lenniy pointed out that there is a shortage of experts who are familiar with all of the agricultural trends. It’s difficult for people to keep up with all of the shifting trends, so AI can help replace the “constant studying” and provide solutions.
Access to water is also a major issue and is something that the use of AI could help improve. AI can provide data about weather forecasts, so that farmers can use less water than they otherwise would need to without that information, Lenniy added. The predictions can also let farmers use less pesticides on crops.
The agricultural industry is changing and the use of artificial intelligence is ultimately something that could provide more solutions to the issues the industry is facing, but the risks and challenges of such technology should not be ignored.

US-TECHNOLOGY-SCIENCE-LIFESTYLE-COMPUTERS-ELECTRONICS

‘Let It Run 24-Hours A Day’: How Artificial Intelligence And Automated Tractors Will Change The Face of Farming

[HOLD FOR GW/READERS PASS]

Artificial Intelligence

As the agricultural industry around the world gets smaller, young farmers in the United States are rising to the task, even as they face hostile regulations and challenges.
The number of people <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/the-reason-we-are-running-out-of-farmers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">working</a> in the global agricultural industry has decreased over the past several decades — <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS">from 44% in 1991 to 27% in 2019</a>, according to the International Labor Organization.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that <a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2020/young-producers.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">between</a> 2012 and 2017, the number of young producers rose by 11%, and the total amount of producers in the United States went up by 7%.
“According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, 27% of farmers were categorized as new and beginning producers, with 10 years or less of experience in agriculture,&#8221; Sarah Campbell, USDA Farm Service Agency National Beginning Farmer &amp; Rancher Program Coordinator, told the Daily Wire over email. &#8220;The 2022 Census of Agriculture is underway and we&#8217;re looking forward to those results to help us monitor the number of new farmers, especially in light of the global pandemic and rising farmland prices.”
According to the 2022 National Young Farmer <a href="https://www.youngfarmers.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/NationalSurveyReport2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a>, the average age of farmers is around 60 years-old, and almost half of the agricultural land in the United States is about to switch ownership over the next twenty years.
Jeff Mitchell, a professor with the Department of Plant Sciences in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis, told The Daily Wire that things are being done to help people pursue a career in farming.
In California, farmers say they see agricultural interest in the younger generation, but it all depends on several factors, including whether a person has a family history of farming.
Cannon Michael of Bowles Farming Company told The Daily Wire that “context is important &#8211; farms and regions are so very different it is hard to generalize on [whether the younger generation of farmers is more or less willing to enter into the business of agriculture].”
Dennis Jizmejian is a fifth-generation California family farmer on his father’s side. He says, “[i]]nterest is hard to tell. Obviously we live in a very farm-rich community. I would think there would be a lot more interested if it was easier to get into. It&#8217;s just really hard to get in and get started. It really is.”
Jizmejian said the amount of money needed to get started, “especially in California, is pretty crazy,” and there aren’t very many young people who have that kind of money. 
“The data I have seen is that the farming population for the most part is aging more not less — so the younger generation are not flooding into the business. Around me I see examples where younger generations are taking over and entering and then I see plenty of farms where the land is being sold due to lack of family engagement and high prices,” Michael said. 
The survey found that the biggest challenge for young farmers today is discovering land to buy that they can afford, with 59% of young farmers saying that finding an affordable property to purchase is “very or extremely challenging.” More than half of the participants — 54% — said they need additional &#8220;access to land&#8221; right now. 
The second leading challenge was access to money to expand their business, as many farmers deal with healthcare prices, production costs, housing, and student loan debt. The survey also took into account the challenges of different demographics, but across all races, young farmers in the survey said housing, land, and water were major issues over the last year.
Farmers are naturally eco-friendly, and the profession draws people to it for this reason. In the survey, 83% of young farmers said, “one of their farm’s primary purposes for existing is engaging in conservation or regeneration.”
It’s something that might push more people into the farming business. The Biden administration <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2022/09/22/historic-investment-partnerships-climate-smart-commodities-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently</a> put $2.8 billion towards certain projects as part of its “Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity.”
“There is strong and growing interest in the private sector and among consumers for food that is grown in a climate-friendly way,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
Joel Currier, a Colorado rancher, told The Daily Wire that the younger generation &#8220;is more willing to enter the business of agriculture. Even if they are not interested in taking over the family farm or ranch, they end up working in another aspect of the agriculture industry.&#8221;
As far as challenges go, Currier also said that one of the most considerable hardships young farmers have to face is the massive beginning costs of starting out in the industry.
&#8220;For farmers and ranchers like me that are working on taking over a family business we can be faced with estate taxes and inheritance taxes. In some cases, these taxes can be so large the only option we have to come up with enough money to pay the taxes is to sell the farm or ranch,&#8221; he added.
Bill Diedrich, a farmer in the Central Valley of California and Jizmejian’s father, told The Daily Wire that “one of the large predeterminers” of someone continuing in farming is a love of the outdoors. He said some people might “dabble” in agriculture if they are interested in the economic side but do not love “dirt and machines.” In this case, “during the downswings, the fire to farm may fade.”
Diedrich added that “water, capital, market conditions, regulations, energy affecting inputs, all are determinates to their success.” He also said it’s a much harder road to get into farming without family money or gifts than in 1980 when he was beginning.
Trent Diedrich works at the Diedrich family farm, as well as Jizmejian. He said that initially, getting into agriculture is a substantial financial feat and is challenging to do, and even friends of his that would like to get into agriculture can’t do so due to the financial aspect.
He said that water is a significant issue making it hard for farmers, as well as the high cost to farm and decreasing prices for commodities. 
Daniel Sumner, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, at UC Davis, said younger family members are eager to take over family farms, but consolidation is also a factor. Young people are entering the agricultural business at a lower rate than in decades past because of this consolidation, he noted.
“[W]ith consolidation there are fewer farm operators in each generation and more hired managers, who may not invest their financial capital but rather invest their human capital. Some families have none of the next generation willing or able to farm… [w]hat usually happens is that a nearby farm neighbors or the cousin down the road consolidates that operation into a unified business,” he said. 
Sumner also said the number of female farmers has continued to rise. He said this is partially a “recognition that women have always been active participants in management of farms,” but there are also more opportunities for women in farming roles. 
The survey found 63.5% of respondents identified as “female, nonbinary, or a gender other than cisgender male.”
“That allows farming to draw on much more talent and suggests another generation of talent. We have seen female leadership in farm organizations, industries and farms for more than a generation, but now it has become routine and that is really excellent for the productivity of agriculture,” Sumner added. 
Different regions face distinct issues. Water is the main issue for California farmers, and Jizmejian said it is “drastically affecting” them. “Water availability is number one priority. [If] there’s ground you can find, you can farm. But some of it doesn&#8217;t have water or it&#8217;s very limited. It&#8217;s year to year,” he added.
He said the economic atmosphere is “not favorable,” as fuel, fertilizer, and labor costs have increased. “The regulatory environment in California is not on our side at all. It&#8217;s just death by a thousand cuts right now.”
Sarah Woolf is part of a third-generation farming family and also has a water consulting business specifically for agriculture.
&#8220;I would say [agriculture in California is] extremely challenging, specifically around water. We simply do not have enough water in California to support the cities, the environment, and the agricultural production that we&#8217;ve historically done,” she said. “And so all of those factions are being constricted and agriculture is probably going to take the biggest hit.”
She believes it’s “very difficult” to buy a farm and begin farming.
“In California agriculture is often demonized and vilified so I see a hesitancy and some younger people to want to get into an industry that is not well understood and not well respected in some circles,” Cannon Michael added.
Trent Diedrich said he jumped at the chance to work at his family’s farm, but he’s “heard stories of people younger than me selling everything they got and getting into other lines of work because the outlook is bleak,” adding it is on a case-by-case basis.
“It looks difficult, the long-term outlook of [agriculture] in the Central Valley is. It’s difficult to project what it&#8217;s going to be like in ten years, given the rate of change in the last five,” he said.
Still, the desire to farm is engrained in some people&#8217;s blood.
&#8220;If you grow up on a family farm you grow up used to a certain way of life,&#8221; Currier, the rancher from Colorado, said, noting that many of his family members who are beginning their families and live in the city &#8220;hope to return home to the ranch later in life with their kids.&#8221;

Young Farmers Step Up To Feed The Nation As Ag Business Shrinks

Colorado

States in the eastern region of the United States are plagued by spotted lanternflies, which came from China and could cost the nation dearly as their infestation targets agricultural staples such as apples and grapes and spell trouble for loggers.
States already in danger include Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia. The first report of a lanternfly in the U.S. was made in Pennsylvania in 2014.
Dan Kenny of the Department of Agriculture of Ohio, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11208917/How-fighting-plague-lanternflies-states-spend-HUNDREDS-MILLIONS.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> that the insect “is sneaky. It moves around on products, cars and even rail cars. There is just so much opportunity for it to spread naturally or hitchhike.”
“We’ve seen it in hops, we’ve seen it in some of the grain crops that are out there, soybean and what have you,” Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary of agriculture <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/science/lanternflies-pennsylvania-crops.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in 2018. “It’s able to feed on many, many different things.”
“It’s not just an agriculture problem, this is truly an across-the-board commerce problem, because we are trying not to move it,” he added. “This is everyday people, this is the trucking company, the U.P.S. driver, the delivery guy.”
The flies emerge in late April until October; any surviving insects freeze to death in the winter. They feed mainly on Ailanthus, the “tree of heaven.”
The lanternfly eats over 70 types of fruits, trees and plants. A 2019 study <a href="https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Plants_Land_Water/PlantIndustry/Entomology/spotted_lanternfly/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserted</a> that the insect could cost Pennsylvania $324 million annually and over 2,800 jobs.
Maryland’s Department of Agriculture <a href="https://mda.maryland.gov/plants-pests/Pages/spotted-lantern-fly.aspx">lists</a> plants including grapes, black walnut, red maple, silver maple, eastern white pine, weeping willow, black willow, black cherry, sycamore as targets of the lanternfly. Meanwhile multiple counties in New York have reported seeing the insect, which presents a major problem, as its wine and grape industry engenders $6.65 billion annually along with 71,000 jobs.
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection <a href="https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Forestry/Forest-Protection/Spotted-Lanternfly" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> 47% of all forest trees in their state might be under siege from the insect.
“The speed that these things can attack a grape vineyard is pretty dramatic,” Jayson Harper, professor of agricultural economics at Penn State, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spotted-lanternfly-homeowners-extermination-cost/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained.</a> “The problem with grapes are they are very expensive to establish, and you think they will grow for twenty, thirty, forty years. It&#8217;s not like corn where, ‘I had a bad crop this year, but I&#8217;ll plant again next year.’”
An <a href="https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/b0bae43d-c65f-4f88-bc9a-323f3189cd35/page/QUCkC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interactive map</a> from New York State Integrated Management that was supplied by state regulatory agencies shows the affected counties across the nation.

Spotted Lanternfly in Jersey City, New Jersey

‘Sneaky’: Spotted Lanternfly Spreading, Threatens Crops Across U.S.

Agricultural leaders in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/missouri" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Missouri</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kansas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kansas</a> are pressing their senators to greenlight legislation that could help them with the current labor shortage.
According to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/farmers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">farmers</a>, the midwest and Missouri are struggling with a labor shortage of workers in the agricultural sector, leading some top members of the industry to push senators to pass the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1603" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Farm Workforce Modernization Act</a>.
The bill would change the H-2A temporary worker program, and would reportedly make it easier to hire people from out of the country to work in U.S. farming throughout the year, per <a href="https://www.kbia.org/news/2022-09-08/missouri-and-kansas-agriculture-leaders-urge-u-s-senate-to-approve-changes-to-temporary-labor-visa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KBIA</a>. It would also expand the program to allow it to be used for agricultural labor that is not only “temporary or seasonal.” The House of Representatives passed the measure last year and the Senate is still discussing its contents.
The program is incredibly <a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2022/09/farm-workforce-modernization-act/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">popular</a>, even in its current form. The amount of H-2A visas increased from 16,000 to 89,000 from 1997 to 2014, according to <a href="https://agamerica.com/blog/the-impact-of-the-farm-labor-shortage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AgAmerica</a> Lending.
The current agricultural labor shortage could result in higher food costs for the area. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said that for the first time in U.S. history, the United States will bring in more farm items next year than it exports, according to <a href="https://fox4kc.com/news/groups-push-reforms-to-ease-farm-labor-shortages/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox4</a>.
Enrique Sanchez, the intermountain state director of American Business Immigration Coalition Action (ABIC-Action), said the labor shortages have been harming farmers, making it hard to get food into stores. He said if there is not as much food available, this can result in food costing more money. There are more pressing consequences, too.
&#8220;This is not just about cost. These are national security issues as well. Food security is national security. A nation that cannot feed itself is not a nation that is secure,&#8221; Sanchez said, according to KBIA.
He added that the possible alterations to the program would create more security for farmers and employees.
During a press conference, people spoke about how the regulations for the H-2A program are restrictive for the farm sector in Missouri and around the region.
Lyndsi Oestmann is the owner of Loma Vista nursery in Kansas, and is in the American Business Immigration Coalition, which is trying to get the legislation through the Senate. She said it’s difficult to get enough U.S. workers.
&#8220;The horticulture industry faces challenges obtaining sufficient domestic workers, and we consistently report shortages of seasonal and production workers,&#8221; she said.
Oestmann has also <a href="https://fox4kc.com/news/groups-push-reforms-to-ease-farm-labor-shortages/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that she is leaving large swaths of land uncultivated because she doesn’t have enough people to work it.
“It’s urgent that we get that passed so that farmers like me and other farmers in Kansas can get the labor that we need,” Oestmann said. “So we don’t have to worry day-to-day and week-to-week if we are going to have enough labor to get the job done that we need to get done.”

4387D29D-A608-4A1C-B2D0-D61E6CC91112_1_201_a

Agricultural Leaders Press Senators To Pass Legislation To Ease Farm Labor Shortage

Agricultural Leaders Press Senators To Pass Farm Workforce Modernization Act

Congress

Kansas

Missouri

Farmers and ranchers located near the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/oregon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oregon</a> state line in Northern <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> have been informed by the government to stop diverting water from a region dedicated to protecting fish.
On Friday, the State Water Resources Control Board sent a draft cease-and-desist order to the Shasta Water Association, informing the group they needed to stop collecting water from the Shasta River watershed, according to the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-08-23/ranchers-told-to-stop-diverting-water-in-drought-hit-area" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Angeles Times</a>. The group is an irrigation organization exempt from taxes and has around 80 members.
The Shasta Water Association has twenty days to ask for a hearing or the order will be complete, which could mean that the group has to pay fines of up to $10,000 per day, the state water agency said.
Ailene Voisin, a state water board information officer, told the outlet that the water diversions were still happening as of Tuesday of this week.
The state agency has decreased water use in the specific watershed since last year to allow water to keep pouring into the Shasta River, which is a tributary of the Klamath River. It is also a safe place for a specific vulnerable species of salmon that is federally protected.
The region has already suffered from other recent events as salmon and other fish died in the Klamath river. Scientists believe the event was caused by a flash flood that carried waste from a wildfire and affected the oxygen quality of the water, according to Craig Tucker, a consultant on natural resources for the Karuk Tribe, per the outlet. He noted that around 50,000 to 100,000 suckerfish are estimated to have perished, as well as salmon and other fish.
The Shasta River then fell to around half of the minimum emergency flow necessity for the fish, which is 50 cubic feet per second, according to the state water agency. On Tuesday, that number was down to 14 cubic feet per second.
Tucker said that ranchers seem to be taking water from the river or diverting water on or near their property in order to use the water for their agricultural fields and pastures. However, the tribal groups haven’t gone onto their land in order to look into this claim.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/drought" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drought</a> in the region has severely impacted agricultural output. In a letter to the water board on August 17, the agricultural group said it thought the exemptions permitted it to cut down its diversion of water by just 15%, and also stated it would begin using water for animals when the weather reaches high temperatures, and also to use for ponds in order to suppress fires.
“The curtailment has dried the Shasta Valley to the point of endangerment to health and life of the public and residents who live here, with apparent disregard to the livestock and pet health within this watershed,” the letter said.

2AB493E4-D748-4B14-B8A2-3A2520021EE6_1_201_a

California State Water Board Tells Ranchers To Stop Taking Water For Agriculture

California State Water Board Tells Northern California Ranchers To Stop Taking Water For Agriculture In Shasta River Watershed

Oregon

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