Consumers are feeling the effects of rising beef prices every time they walk into the grocery store. What many don&#8217;t realize is that those prices are the result of pressures that have been building on American farmers for decades.
Today, the U.S. cattle herd is at its lowest level in roughly 75 years. It may sound like a simple supply-and-demand problem, but after more than 50 years in the cattle business, I can tell you it&#8217;s more complicated than that.
The cattle shortage we are experiencing today did not happen overnight. Years of rising operating costs, growing competition from imports, and industry consolidation have forced many ranchers to reduce their herd sizes or leave the business altogether. And while there are efforts underway to rebuild the nation&#8217;s cattle herd, it will take time. And the rebuild is not a certainty. A cow&#8217;s gestation period is nine months — then it takes another two years for that calf to reach slaughter. A herd rebuild is measured in years, not months.
But the cattle shortage itself is only part of the story.
Many consumers have little knowledge of where their beef actually comes from. Current labeling rules can allow imported beef to be processed domestically and marketed in ways that leave consumers with the impression it was entirely produced in the United States. At the same time, the modern American beef supply chain has become increasingly dependent on imported lean beef, which is frequently blended with domestic beef before reaching consumers.
As a result, consumers often have no clear way of knowing where the beef they purchase originated or how much of it was raised by American ranchers. The lack of transparency makes it difficult for consumers to make informed purchasing decisions and intentionally support domestic producers.
At the same time, four major meatpacking companies process the vast majority (about 80%) of America&#8217;s beef. This concentration has reduced competition, weakened the bargaining position of American ranchers, and placed significant influence over pricing and supply chains in the hands of a small number of companies.
When consumers see higher beef prices, they should understand that many ranchers are not the ones setting these prices. Most are simply trying to stay in business, while remaining largely at the mercy of a highly concentrated meatpacking industry.
I know this because I lived it.
For decades, my family&#8217;s farm in Bluffton, Georgia — White Oak Pastures — operated within the conventional industrial model that has come to dominate American agriculture. Over time, I began to see how an emphasis on scale, efficiency, and consolidation created unintended consequences for everyone involved.
That experience taught me an important lesson: there are factors beyond efficiency, such as how we steward the land, animal welfare, and resilience in the food supply chain.
If we continue down our current path, we risk fewer independent ranchers, fewer young people entering agriculture, and greater dependence on increasingly outsourced beef production.
One important step we can take today is Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL), which would provide consumers with greater transparency about where their meat originates, and allow them to make more informed purchasing decisions — and to specifically support American farmers. But labeling alone is not enough in the long run.
If we want affordable beef, a secure food supply, and a stronger agricultural future, we need policies that support independent producers, strengthen rural economies, and preserve America&#8217;s ability to produce its own food.
The current cattle shortage should be viewed as more than a temporary spike in beef prices — it is a warning sign.
For decades, shrinking cattle inventories, rising production costs, industry consolidation, and growing dependence on global supply chains have quietly reshaped the beef industry. Today&#8217;s higher prices are simply making those underlying pressures more visible to consumers.
Food security does not begin at the grocery store. It begins on farms and ranches across America. If we want affordable food tomorrow, we must ensure American farmers and ranchers can remain in business today.
***
Will Harris is the owner of White Oak Pastures and is a fourth-generation cattle rancher.

Average Price Per Pound Of Ground Beef Passes The Minimum Wage Benchmark

What A Cattle Rancher Knows About Beef Prices That Consumers Don’t

Agriculture

Beef

Beef prices

Cattle industry

DW Opinion

Farmers

Meatpacking

Chinese purchasers have been buying up American farmland at an alarming rate.
In 1980, Chinese buyers owned 2,000 acres of American farmland, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6394719129112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Department of Agriculture. Now, they own 300,000 acres.
&#8220;The consolidation of our farmland, the foreign adversarial ownership of farmland, especially from China and other places has really been creeping up on our country,&#8221; Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins recently <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6394719129112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News.
The House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI), along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, plans to introduce the Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites from Foreign Adversaries Act on Thursday. The bill seeks to close the &#8220;dangerous loopholes&#8221; that have allowed foreign adversaries, like China, to make such purchases near critical infrastructure and military bases.
“Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries like China to buy up American farmland near our most sensitive military and critical infrastructure sites,” Moolenaar said.
The proposal mandates that any purchases involving farmland, ports, telecommunications infrastructure, and locations in proximity to military installations and intelligence facilities undergo a mandatory review. It also gives the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is headed by the Department of the Treasury, the ability to provide oversight of such land purchases if they involve enemy nations such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
CFIUS <a href="https://knoxradio.com/2022/12/13/fufeng-looks-forward-to-building-gf-plant-after-cfius-says-it-has-no-jurisdiction/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> in 2022 that a Chinese food manufacturer&#8217;s purchase of farmland in Grand Forks, North Dakota, which was situated near Grand Forks Air Force Base and Cavalier Space Force Station, wasn&#8217;t a &#8220;covered transaction&#8221; in its jurisdiction.
If passed, the latest bill would ensure CFIUS would have oversight in such cases.
Adam Savit, director for China policy at the America First Policy Institute, said threats to the food supply have become a &#8220;national security&#8221; issue, adding that &#8220;the federal government needs the jurisdiction and the tools to stop these transactions before they happen, not to negotiate mitigation agreements after the fact. States have led on this issue for years, and federal law should reinforce their efforts.&#8221;
“Legislation is needed to close these loopholes and protect critical American infrastructure and American communities, and the provisions of this bill do just that,” Savit, a former senior adviser for national security at the Department of Agriculture, added.
The bill will be cosponsored by Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), Julia Brownley (D-CA), Neal Dunn (R-FL), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Zach Nunn (R-IA), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Pat Harrigan (R-NC), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), and Mike Thompson (D-CA).

IMG_2583

EXCLUSIVE: Bipartisan Bill Aims To Keep China From Buying Up American Farmland

China

Congress

According to the Wall Street Journal, the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/justice-department-is-criminally-investigating-beef-companies-1f91a3c6">investigating</a> whether meatpackers engaged in criminal antitrust conduct. Last November, as consumer beef prices continued climbing, President Trump called upon the DOJ to investigate the practices of meatpackers.
Beef is among America’s most important protein sources, and understanding how beef makes its way to the grocery store reveals why consumers at the end of the beef supply chain and farmers and ranchers at its beginning are highly susceptible to foul play.
Think of the beef supply chain as a sand-filled hourglass. The sand-filled top represents the start of the beef supply chain, with the sand itself representing hundreds of thousands of widely dispersed, independent, family-scale cattle farmers and ranchers scattered across America. Now cattle grow slowly, and from the time they are born until they reach their optimal slaughter weight takes upwards of two years.
As the cattle grow, they flow downstream in the hourglass and are eventually transported from their distant, wide-open grassy birthplaces to large pens called feedlots, where they are congregated. Most feedlots are in the central and southern plains regions of the United States, and when cattle arrive, they are fed a highly concentrated diet that fattens them to slaughter weight.
<div id="attachment_1082193" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1082193" class="size-large wp-image-1082193" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1230785175-864x576.jpg" alt="A heifer and her calf in a field at the Barthle Brothers Ranch in Dade City, Florida, U.S. on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 12.0 million head on January 1, 2021. The inventory was slightly above January 1, 2020, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported. Photographer: Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1230785175-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1230785175-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1230785175-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1230785175.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
When fed to their optimal weight, these slaughter-ready cattle are offered for sale to the beef packers at the choke point of the hourglass, as here there are just four dominant beef packers who purchase and control 80% of the 25 million or so slaughter cattle entering the choke point each year. Of course, these same dominant packers also control 80% of the resultant beef that passes on through the choke point, which they then sell to grocery stores scattered across America for ultimate purchase by consumers.
It is at this highly concentrated and centralized choke point — the point at which the dominant beef packers purchase cattle from the feedlots and convert them into consumable beef — that foul play can cause harm to the cattle farmers and ranchers above the pinch point and consumers below.
For example, if the concentrated beef packers unlawfully collude by agreeing to reduce the number of cattle they will collectively slaughter, cattle will back up in the supply chain above the choke point, effectively reducing demand for cattle and lowering their prices paid to cattle farmers and ranchers. Because slaughtering fewer cattle will result in less beef, reducing the number of cattle the beef packers will collectively slaughter will reduce the available beef supply below the choke point, causing beef prices to increase.
Now it could be argued that colluding to lower cattle prices could result in lower consumer beef prices if the dominant beef packers were to pass their cost savings on to retailers, and ultimately consumers. But history shows otherwise.
Going back for more than four decades, the spread between the prices that farmers and ranchers receive for their cattle and the retail prices that consumers pay for beef has grown increasingly wider. This suggests that firms standing between America’s cattle ranchers and America’s consumers are somehow capturing artificially high profits along the beef supply chain.
How these supra-competitive profits are being extracted from the beef supply chain and by whom is likely a central focus of the DOJ’s ongoing antitrust investigation.
<div id="attachment_1082197" style="width: 932px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1082197" class="size-large wp-image-1082197" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270117676-922x576.jpg" alt="LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 06: Beef ribeye steaks are displayed at a grocery store on April 06, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Amid persistently high food inflation, the price of a pound of ground beef has risen to between roughly $6.49 and $8.96, often exceeding the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, as supply shortages, drought, and disease affecting cattle herds drive costs higher while wages remain unchanged since 2009. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)" width="922" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270117676-922x576.jpg 922w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270117676-300x188.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270117676-768x480.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270117676.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 922px) 100vw, 922px" />Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</div>
During the past six years, several private class action antitrust lawsuits have been filed against the four largest beef packers operating in the United States – Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Company, alleging they had colluded to suppress cattle prices while simultaneously inflating beef prices. These civil antitrust lawsuits have alleged harm to virtually every segment of the beef supply chain, from cattle farmers and ranchers who sold cattle to the beef packers to consumers, distributors, and retailers who directly or indirectly purchased beef from the dominant beef packers. These private civil actions are still working their way through the court system and have so far resulted in settlements of over $170 million.
In at least one of these civil lawsuits, it is alleged that the dominant packers unlawfully colluded to suppress cattle prices from mid-2015 through early 2020. During that period, retail beef prices trended markedly upward while cattle prices trended downward, an anomaly signaling market failure in the beef supply chain, particularly since the only source of beef is cattle.
The question of whether beef packers engaged in unlawful antitrust conduct will be answered upon the completion of the numerous civil lawsuits pending against them and the result of the DOJ investigation. The outcome of the DOJ investigation alone will determine if principals representing the beef packers also engaged in criminal antitrust conduct.
* * *
Bill Bullard is the CEO of R-CALF USA in Billings, Montana.

Bloomberg Best Of The Year 2025

Who’s Taking The Prime Cut Of America’s Beef Prices?

Affordable

Donald Trump

Economy

Food prices

grocery prices

meat

Price Gouging

President Donald Trump announced a $12 billion bailout for American farmers on Monday afternoon as many farmers have taken a blow due to the president’s tariffs.
Most of the $12 billion aid package will go toward one-time payments for farmers, especially soybean farmers, whose industry has taken a massive hit from Trump’s steep tariffs on China, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-08/trump-set-to-unveil-12-billion-aid-for-farmers-hit-by-trade-war">reported</a>. Up to $11 billion will be provided to farmers under the Department of Agriculture’s new Farmer Bridge Assistance program. Trump was joined by soybean, corn, cotton, sorghum, rice, cattle, wheat, and potato farmers at the White House for the announcement.
Trump <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1998115240983019905">said</a> that the $12 billion for American farmers will come from the &#8220;hundreds of billions of dollars&#8221; the United States has collected in tariff revenue. The United States has brought in around $260 billion in tariff revenue this year alone.
Trump blasted former President Joe Biden&#8217;s economic policies that he said hurt American farmers, adding that under the Trump administration, farmers would be &#8220;put first.&#8221;
&#8220;Farm bankruptcies under Joe Biden went up 55%. That&#8217;s not good,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;But now we&#8217;re once again in a position where a president is able to put farmers first. Unfortunately, I&#8217;m the only president that does that.&#8221;
Trump’s financial aid will help a farming industry that relies heavily on exports to foreign nations. Around 25% of soybeans grown in the United States are exported to China, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-to-unveil-12-billion-bailout-for-farmers-064eb1de?mod=hp_lead_pos4">The Wall Street Journal</a>.
After Trump rolled out his tariffs on China earlier this year, the communist country completely cut off its imports of American soybeans until it reached a deal with the Trump administration in late October. Soybean, wheat, and corn farmers have already lost an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/us/politics/farmers-aid-trade-war.html#:~:text=Trump%20cares%20about%20farmers%20and,that%20took%20years%20to%20win.">estimated</a> $13 billion due to the president’s trade war, according to a farm group study.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/15/trump-economy-farmers-bailout">hinted</a> at the administration’s farm bailout in early October, calling the plan “clever and generous.” The farm aid rollout was delayed due to the record-long government shutdown that lasted from October 1 to November 12.
After the United States and China struck a deal to lower tariffs, China pledged to purchase 12 million tons of American soybeans by the end of the year. Since the end of October, China has purchased just over two million tons, according to Bloomberg. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday that China is so far complying with its agreement.
“With China, it’s always we verify, and we monitor, and we watch the commitments. The commitments are quite specific,” Greer said during an appearance on “The Sunday Briefing” on Fox News. “So all of these things that we’ve agreed to with the Chinese recently are very concrete, we can monitor them with some ease, and so far, we’re seeing that they’re in compliance.”
Farmers have argued that they need government help to pay off debt and plan for next year’s crops. They make up a large part of Trump’s base and have continued to back the president. In the 2024 election, Trump’s support among farming communities <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/11/13/trump-election-farming-counties-trade-war/">increased</a> nationwide compared to 2020 and 2016. Trump won 78% of the vote from farming counties in 2024, two points better than he fared in 2020 and five points better than in 2016.
During his first term, the president allocated $28 billion to farmers affected by his administration’s tariffs on China.

Trump Farm Bailout

Trump Provides Billions In Relief To Farmers Impacted By Tariffs

Executive

Politics

Tariffs

Leftist activists and politicians claim that the Trump administration&#8217;s Thursday raids targeting cannabis farms in Southern California are proof that the president&#8217;s immigration enforcement operation is &#8220;self-sabotage,&#8221; ripping workers away from critical American food supply chains.
Federal agents conducted raids at two cannabis farms in Ventura County, where they were met by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/violent-leftists-attack-federal-agents-during-immigration-raids-at-california-pot-farms?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Violent+Leftists+Attack+Federal+Agents+During+Immigration+Raids+At+California+Pot+Farms">violent leftists</a> — some of whom attacked the agents by pelting their vehicles with rocks — and one man appeared to fire a handgun at authorities. After the attacks, some on the Left vilified the feds for detaining suspected illegal immigrants working on the marijuana farms, arguing that the workers are &#8220;the backbone of our food chain.&#8221;
&#8220;ICE just swarmed Ventura County fields, hauling away the very farm workers who keep America’s produce aisles stocked,&#8221; wrote leftist political commentator Brian Allen. &#8220;We’re arresting assets; treating the backbone of our food chain like a threat. That’s not &#8216;border security.&#8217; That’s self-sabotage in uniform.&#8221;
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🚨BREAKING: ICE just swarmed Ventura County fields, hauling away the very farm workers who keep America’s produce aisles stocked. 
We’re arresting assets; treating the backbone of our food chain like a threat. That’s not “border security.” That’s self-sabotage in uniform. <a href="https://t.co/GgZvnXbVsd">pic.twitter.com/GgZvnXbVsd</a>
&mdash; Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) <a href="https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/1943436496926847452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who represents parts of Los Angeles, reposted Allen on X, claiming that federal agents are targeting migrants picking strawberries.
&#8220;How many MS-13 gang members are waking up at 3 a.m. to pick strawberries? O’yeah, zero!&#8221; Gomez <a href="https://x.com/RepJimmyGomez/status/1943523801578508320">said</a>. &#8220;Trump said he’d go after &#8216;bad hombres,&#8217; but he’s targeting the immigrant farm workers who feed America. Either he lied — or he can’t tell the difference.&#8221;
Leftist social media influencer Harry Sisson, who gained a large following after making videos in support of former President Joe Biden&#8217;s 2024 campaign, <a href="https://x.com/harryjsisson/status/1943444361649492019">accused</a> the Trump administration of &#8220;arresting farmers.&#8221;
&#8220;My god… Trump’s goons are throwing tear gas at people and arresting farmers in California during an immigration raid. Trump has turned this country into a military state,&#8221; Sisson said. &#8220;This is what happens when a wannabe dictator gets elected.&#8221;
The White House ripped leftists for claiming that the Trump administration was threatening the food supply by going after suspected illegal immigrants working at cannabis farms.
&#8220;Marijuana is not the &#8216;backbone of our food chain,'&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/ATJackson47/status/1943488036324409469">wrote</a> White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson.
&#8220;It’s a marijuana facility. What will we do without illegals to pick our weed? Moron,&#8221; the official &#8220;Rapid Response&#8221; account for the White House <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1943493659271307398">said</a> in response to Allen&#8217;s post.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted President Donald Trump following the Thursday raids.
“Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields,” Newsom wrote. “Trump calls me ‘Newscum’ — but he’s the real scum.”
According to Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, agents at one of the Ventura County cannabis farm raids found 10 children at the marijuana facility, eight of whom were not accompanied by an adult. The farm is &#8220;now under investigation for child labor violations,&#8221; Scott said.
Multiple protesters who were &#8220;impeding&#8221; federal agents were arrested, according to Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. A news helicopter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WKRvYmtWOE&amp;t=159s">video</a> showed the moments when leftists slung rocks at federal vehicles, smashing the windows, as the agents attempted to leave the farm with detainees. Another video captured the moment a man appeared to open fire on federal agents. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the suspected gunman.
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FBI has issued a $50,000 award for information leading to the conviction of an Unknown Subject who appeared to fire a pistol at Federal Law Enforcement Officers near Camarillo. The shooting occurred on 7/10/25 at approximately 2:26pm on Laguna Rd between Wood Rd and Las Posas Rd.… <a href="https://t.co/XG94sTQEVR">pic.twitter.com/XG94sTQEVR</a>
— U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) <a href="https://twitter.com/USAttyEssayli/status/1943522825194868753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
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US-POLITICS-IMMIGRATION-ICE-PROTEST

Leftists Insist Raids On California Weed Farms Will Disrupt Food Supply Chain

California

Democrats

Farming

Gavin Newsom

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Leftism

Marijuana

Protesters

Trump Administration

Federal agents with a search warrant for suspected immigration and labor violations at cannabis farms in Ventura County, California, were met by hundreds of protesters on Thursday, including one man who appeared to fire a gun at them.
The feds conducted immigration raids at two Glass House Farms, a state-licensed marijuana facility that is allegedly employing illegal immigrants, including children, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/immigration-operation-california-cannabis-farms-leads-clash-federal-agents-protesters">Fox News</a>. After getting word of the immigration operations at a cannabis farm in Camarillo, approximately 60 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, around 500 protesters arrived to confront federal authorities, The Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-10/federal-immigration-sweep-ventura-county-farms">reported</a>. The other farm is located in Carpinteria, about 35 miles up the coast, where a smaller group of protesters gathered.
The standoff quickly turned violent as federal agents attempted to disperse the crowd with smoke canisters, and news helicopter video captured the moment when one man appeared to fire a handgun at authorities.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Protester appears to fire weapon at federal immigration agents near Camarillo" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HycOV4i0nzs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
As agents were leaving the farm with detainees, a group of protesters pelted their vehicles with rocks, smashing windows. Following the confrontation, four people were taken to the hospital, and three people were treated at the scene, FOX Los Angeles <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/camarillo-ventura-county-farm-ice-raid">reported</a>. It&#8217;s unclear if any federal authorities were among the injured.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Protesters throw objects at a federal convoy leaving a farm in Camarillo" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5WKRvYmtWOE?start=159&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;Federal agents are executing a search warrant at this marijuana farm,&#8221; said Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. &#8220;Agents have already arrested multiple individuals for impeding this operation and will continue to make arrests. Don’t interfere. You will be arrested and charged with a federal offense.&#8221;
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Federal agents are executing a search warrant at this marijuana farm. Agents have already arrested multiple individuals for impeding this operation and will continue to make arrests. Don’t interfere. You will be arrested and charged with a federal offense. <a href="https://t.co/KMwZ5WToOc">https://t.co/KMwZ5WToOc</a>
— U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) <a href="https://twitter.com/USAttyEssayli/status/1943476954189172893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
In a later post on social media, Essayli said that the &#8220;FBI has issued a $50,000 award for information leading to the conviction of an Unknown Subject who appeared to fire a pistol at Federal Law Enforcement Officers near Camarillo.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
FBI has issued a $50,000 award for information leading to the conviction of an Unknown Subject who appeared to fire a pistol at Federal Law Enforcement Officers near Camarillo. The shooting occurred on 7/10/25 at approximately 2:26pm on Laguna Rd between Wood Rd and Las Posas Rd.… <a href="https://t.co/XG94sTQEVR">pic.twitter.com/XG94sTQEVR</a>
— U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) <a href="https://twitter.com/USAttyEssayli/status/1943522825194868753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Video of the immigration raid posted by California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared to show workers and protesters running away as federal agents fired tear gas into the crowd.
&#8220;Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields,&#8221; Newsom wrote. &#8220;Trump calls me &#8216;Newscum&#8217; — but he’s the real scum.&#8221;
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott responded to Newsom&#8217;s post on X, writing, &#8220;Here’s some breaking news: 10 juveniles were found at this marijuana facility &#8211; all illegal aliens, 8 of them unaccompanied. It’s now under investigation for child labor violations. This is Newsom’s California.&#8221;
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Here’s some breaking news: 10 juveniles were found at this marijuana facility &#8211; all illegal aliens, 8 of them unaccompanied. It’s now under investigation for child labor violations.
This is Newsom’s California. <a href="https://t.co/Z1XoRMtBSN">https://t.co/Z1XoRMtBSN</a>
— CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott (@CBPCommissioner) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBPCommissioner/status/1943511972441391376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Other California Democrats also condemned the raid at the cannabis farm. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA), who represents the district where one of the raided farms is located, called the operation &#8220;disproportionate&#8221; and &#8220;overkill,&#8221; warning that the federal government&#8217;s &#8220;tactics&#8221; would lead to more violence.
“These tactics are creating an incendiary, hostile environment the way they are being deployed, which could lead to, regrettably, violence in the future,” he <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-10/federal-immigration-sweep-ventura-county-farms">said</a>.
Thursday&#8217;s attack on immigration agents comes as federal authorities face mounting threats. Earlier this week, a gunman in tactical gear <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-gunman-in-tactical-gear-killed-after-opening-fire-on-border-patrol-agents">opened fire</a> on Border Patrol agents in McAllen, Texas, wounding two police officers and a Border Patrol employee before he was killed. Ten people were also <a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/10-suspects-charged-july-4-attack-texas-ice-detention-facility">arrested</a> this week after they attacked an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, shooting and wounding a law enforcement officer.
The Trump administration has blasted Democrats for using &#8220;dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric&#8221; aimed at ICE agents. Some Democrats have compared ICE&#8217;s operations to the Gestapo.
“ICE agents put their lives on the line every day to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our communities,” <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/1942974206880207099">said</a> White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. “They are making America safer, and Democrats are shamelessly attacking them for it.”

ICE Raid At Southern California Farm

Violent Leftists Attack Federal Agents During Immigration Raids At California Pot Farms

illegal immigrants

Illegals

President Donald Trump signaled on Thursday that &#8220;changes are coming&#8221; to his immigration policy, noting that farmers as well as hotel and leisure businesses have complained about his &#8220;very aggressive&#8221; crackdown on illegal immigrants.
In a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114670684664650262">post</a> on Truth Social, the president said that he&#8217;s heard from farmers and people in the hotel industry who are concerned about the administration&#8217;s immigration crackdown &#8220;taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.&#8221; Trump added that the United States must deport criminals while also protecting farmers.
&#8220;In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!&#8221; Trump added.
Later on Thursday, Trump <a href="https://x.com/Breaking911/status/1933211435032600896">told</a> reporters at the White House that a new order on certain immigration enforcement will be issued &#8220;pretty soon.&#8221;
&#8220;Farmers are being hurt badly. You know, they have very good workers who have worked for them for 20 years. They&#8217;re not citizens, but they&#8217;ve turned out to be great, and we&#8217;re going to have to do something about that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We can&#8217;t take farmers and take all their people and send them back &#8230; and you know what&#8217;s going to happen, what is happening, they get rid of some of their people &#8230; and they end up hiring the criminals that have come in, the murderers from prisons and everything else.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s shift comes as his administration has ramped up immigration enforcement operations in the Los Angeles area, including detaining suspected illegal immigrants on the street, at businesses, and on farms. ICE agents were spotted chasing down and detaining farm workers in Ventura County, California, earlier this week.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
ICE agents arrived at produce farms in Ventura County at 6am Tuesday and were seen chasing workers to detain them. Full story: <a href="https://t.co/7lofZTlbj8">https://t.co/7lofZTlbj8</a> <a href="https://t.co/Sh5WTud7lc">pic.twitter.com/Sh5WTud7lc</a>
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7/status/1932860010897264966?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The White House said on Wednesday that since last week, 330 suspected illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles area have been detained, 113 of whom had past criminal convictions.
As immigration agents carried out the president&#8217;s deportation agenda in California, anti-ICE protests and riots broke out in Los Angeles last weekend. Joining the demonstrations were members of Unite Here Local 11, a local labor union that represents workers in the hotel, food, and casino industries. The organization, which is part of a local leftist coalition that has pushed anti-police talking points and given tips for how to respond to ICE agents, condemned the law enforcement response to the riots.
Trump&#8217;s mass deportation operation has been celebrated by most Republicans and conservatives, but has concerned some farmers and business owners who work in industries that have relied on hiring illegal immigrant workers. In January, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau <a href="https://www.weau.com/2025/01/24/farmers-advocacy-groups-speak-concerns-over-workforce-president-trump-continues-with-plans-immigration-crackdowns/">urged</a> Trump to pursue a secure border without going after illegal immigrants who have worked on the state&#8217;s many dairy farms &#8220;for years.&#8221;
In April, Trump addressed some of these concerns during a Cabinet meeting, <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/1910382262610526486">saying</a>, “We are also going to work with farmers. If they have strong recommendations for their farms for certain people, we’re going to let them stay in for a while. &#8230; We have to take care of our farmers, our hotels and, you know, the various places where they need the people.”
The president added that employers could lobby the government for their illegal immigrant workers to be allowed to remain in the country.
“So a farmer will come in with a letter concerning certain people, saying they’re great, they’re working hard,” Trump said. “We’re going to slow it down a little bit for them, and then we’re going to ultimately bring them back. They’ll go out. They’re going to come back as legal workers.”
Trump&#8217;s post on Thursday was met with backlash among some conservatives who argued that it would be a step back from what the president initially promised to do on the campaign trail. Daily Wire host Matt Walsh <a href="https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1933168224507662529">wrote</a> on X, &#8220;Hell no. We can’t tolerate this.&#8221;
&#8220;Employers who knowingly rely on illegal immigrant labor should be in prison,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Instead we’re going to back off of immigration enforcement for their sake?&#8221;
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on Trump&#8217;s post.

Donald Trump/Immigration

Trump Signals ‘Changes Are Coming’ To Immigration Enforcement As Farmers, Businesses Complain

Business

Matt Walsh

Unions

Inflation and gross domestic product are both down while investment in the United States surges. And we talk to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum about how the Trump administration is unleashing energy development one hundred days into the term.
It’s Thursday, May 1, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/investment-up-gdp-down-drill-baby-drill?elementPosition=0&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">now available on video</a>! You can watch today’s episode below:
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<iframe loading="lazy" title="Investment Up, GDP Down &amp; Drill, Baby, Drill" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3HU1YLcWA0k?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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If you’d rather <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=News+%26+Commentary&amp;rowType=Square+Show+Carousel">listen to the show</a>, it&#8217;s still available in audio wherever you get your podcasts. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/investment-up-gdp-down-drill-baby-drill-5-1-25/id1576594336?i=1000705667705" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
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<h2>Investments Surge, GDP Slips</h2>
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Topline: American investment is surging despite turmoil around Trump’s tariffs – and the GDP is slightly slipping.
The GDP shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 200 points in response to that news. But if we dig into the numbers the data is mixed – and there are actually some significant positives. During a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump and other administration officials challenged the media’s narrative about the economy, arguing that they are turning Biden’s economy around and that “core GDP” is on the rise.
“I was very against everything Biden was doing in terms of the economy,” Trump <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-1xpqn6z2o">said</a>. “ But we took over his mess in so many different ways… despite what we were handed we turned them around.”
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro broke down how the administration crunched the numbers. He said that a surge in imports and DOGE slashing government waste make the GDP look much lower on paper. “The markets need to look below the surface of that,” Navarro said. “We had a 22% increase in domestic investments. That is off the charts.”
In that same cabinet meeting, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick laid out details about how another semiconductor company, which is the main chip supplier for Apple, is building a major manufacturing plant in Arizona. Trump also said he has gotten $8 trillion in new investments in the United States since taking office.
Inflation slowed to its lowest rate since September, and consumer spending increased by $135 billion, or 0.7%. Much of that was Americans buying cars and other big-ticket items, partly to get ahead of Trump’s tariffs. Meanwhile, prices were static in March, and personal incomes rose by $116.8 billion, or 0.5%.
<h2>Drill Baby Drill</h2>
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Topline: The Trump Administration is looking to break America’s reliance on Chinese natural resources by expanding domestic mining and drilling.
The Department of the Interior oversees billions of acres of federal lands and waters and has the power to open up new land for mining and drilling operations. Under the Trump administration, it’s doing just that.
This month, when China announced a ban on the export of several rare earth minerals, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that he would reverse President Biden’s so-called “war on mining” to ensure the United States could begin producing those minerals on its own. 
“Obama, Biden, you know, their whole approach was we&#8217;re gonna shut down mining, we&#8217;re gonna shut down oil and gas development,” Burgum told The Daily Wire. “They really, I’m gonna say, crushed the mining industry, both the extraction of these resources, but also the processing of that…China was happy to have the rest of the Western world stop mining so that they could take control of the markets around these critical minerals, which we need for defense, for technology, for electronics, really for everything today in modern life depends on it. So now in the United States, we&#8217;ve gotta get back in the game.”
Because President Trump made an emergency energy declaration, Secretary Burgum, who’s also the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council, was able to bypass regulations that typically result in years-long delays on new mining projects. Now, they’ll be approved within two weeks. Burgum told the Daily Wire that overregulation of the mining industry has driven business out of the U.S. — forcing us to be more reliant on countries like China. Burgum says that bringing mining back to the United States will be better for the global environment. 
“We do it cleaner, better, safer, smarter and healthier here in the U.S. because when we attack these resource-based industries, we don&#8217;t reduce the demand. We just shift the supply overseas and they shift it to China, who might be extracting this from in the DRC in the middle of Africa. And they&#8217;re doing it without reclamation. They&#8217;re doing it with, sometimes, slave labor, prisoner labor. They&#8217;re doing it with no emissions control on what they&#8217;re doing. So it&#8217;s worse for the global environment. It helps our adversaries, it hurts our economy, and it&#8217;s horrible for national security.”
&nbsp;
<h2>Trade War Hits U.S. Farmers</h2>
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Topline: President Trump continues to tout his trade policies as China makes quiet concessions, but also cancels significant U.S. agricultural orders.
A report from Reuters published Wednesday says that China has created a list of U.S.-made products that will be exempt from its retaliatory 125% tariffs, in addition to other exemptions it has already made on pharmaceuticals, microchips, and aircraft engines. Behind the scenes, Beijing is apparently privately notifying companies about these latest exemptions – that’s obviously to preserve this posture that China will fight Trump on tariffs to the end. 
Trump has said he’s <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/28/trump-xi-tariffs-china-bessent.html">in trade talks</a> with China and that President Xi recently called him. China has denied it and is publicly putting on a bold face. 
“Bowing to a bully is like drinking poison to quench thirst. It only deepens the crisis.” A widely disseminated Chinese propaganda video said earlier this week. “ Make no mistake, the U.S. will keep flip-flopping and playing hardball. But China will stand firm, no matter how hard the wind blows, no matter how clouds rage.”
Last week, China made its largest cancellation of pork orders in five years, halting about 12,000 tons of U.S. pork. The nation has also significantly reduced its soybean order by 97% compared to two weeks ago. For some context, U.S. farmers export more than $176 billion in agricultural products a year. Nearly 10% of that is soybeans and pork for China.

MorningWire_THUMB

Morning Brief: Investment Up, GDP Down, & Drill, Baby, Drill

Department of the Interior

Doug Burgum

Energy

Trade War

This is going to be my most controversial take of many months, but it&#8217;s urgent now, because there is a bipartisan group of senators with the backing of President Trump who want to end daylight saving time.
I don&#8217;t like this. I am a big supporter of daylight saving time and I&#8217;m not just saying that to be contrarian. I really like daylight saving time, and I think it is a mistake to end it.
When all the senators get together across both parties and they all agree on something, you know that thing is going to be terrible. In this case, what they want to do is lock the clock. Why? Because every person who&#8217;s never given a second thought to daylight saving time and has just scrolled through Twitter will say, “Actually, daylight saving time is really bad, because people die every year. Did you know that it actually increases deaths every year?”
To that I say, “Oh, really? How&#8217;s that?”
“Because I saw a tweet about it one time. It increases deaths because people have to wake up a little earlier. Plus, they have heart attacks,” they will say.
Well, there is a negligible uptick in deaths but that is a statistically dubious observation. What that argument ignores, however, are all of the benefits we get from daylight saving time. I guess the question you have to ask yourself, which really gets down to a difference between the Left and the Right, is “Why do we have daylight saving time in the first place?” Before we go and tear down Chesterton&#8217;s Fence, how about we ask, ”Why is that fence up in the first place?”
Most people will say, “Well, because of farming. It used to be when a lot of people were farmers, having that extra daylight was really helpful. But, you know, now most people don&#8217;t really farm, so it&#8217;s not a big deal.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mks-ep-1714-member-exclusive?elementPosition=4&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=The+Michael+Knowles+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
Okay then, what are the other benefits of daylight saving time? Daylight saving time extends daylight in the warmer months when you want to be outside playing around. You don&#8217;t need that extra daylight in the winter months when you really don&#8217;t want to be outside much anyway.
According to the Department of Energy, daylight saving time <a href="https://energyharbor.com/en/energy-resources/energy-savings-tips/daylight-saving-time-save-energy#:~:text=To%20be%20clear%2C%20the%20U.S.,to%20turn%20on%20the%20lights." target="_blank" rel="noopener">reduces energy usage</a> and energy costs, not by a ton, but by 0.5%. That’s pretty good when you consider all the energy of the United States. There is also evidence that daylight saving time actually reduces deaths, because it reduces car crashes. That&#8217;s from <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.85.1.92" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a study</a> back in 1995. It also saves property and might save people&#8217;s lives because daylight saving time reduces street crime, pretty significantly. Robberies, for instance, dropped 27% during the sunset hours during daylight saving time. That&#8217;s according to a more <a href="https://jenniferdoleac.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Doleac_Sanders_DST.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent study</a> from 2015.
Daylight saving time increases economic activity because you can go out, and you&#8217;re more inclined to go shopping. You&#8217;re more inclined to work a little bit. It increases economic activity both domestically and internationally, because other countries use daylight saving time too.
But here’s my most basic argument for daylight saving time: it&#8217;s a tradition. It&#8217;s a kind of fun tradition. It&#8217;s a tradition that recognizes, in a particularly pronounced way, the changing of the seasons, the movement of time, the variety of life. It&#8217;s kind of fun, and kooky. People will say, “Well, we shouldn&#8217;t have to change our clocks twice a year, what a hassle. It&#8217;s not efficient.” Life is about more than efficiency, my friends. Our modern, clinical, robotic culture just wants to maximize efficiency in everything.
I am a conservative. I don&#8217;t want to maximize efficiency in everything. I like to enjoy fun, quirky little things. I enjoy our culture, and that&#8217;s a fun little cultural habit. It actually does produce economic and health benefits as well, and it kind of makes sense. And we&#8217;ve forgotten why we had daylight saving time in the first place. And like so many levelers and radicals, when we forget why a tradition exists, we just want to get rid of it. We don&#8217;t ask ourselves, “Why did that tradition arise in the first place? Why, if we maintain that tradition, have we ever tried to get rid of the tradition? How has it worked out?”
It seems like there&#8217;s a mass psychosis that&#8217;s going on that convinces everyone that we&#8217;ve been wrong for so many decades now.
I&#8217;m pro daylight saving time and you should be too. Call your congressman.

Spain Moves The Clock Forward One Hour To Adapt To Daylight Saving Time

Should We End Daylight Saving Time?

Clocks

Crime

Daylight Saving Time

Light

Michael Knowles

Opinion

Schools

U.S. Senate

The US presidential <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/2024-election" target="_blank" rel="noopener">election</a> is shaping up to be one of the most “heartland” themed campaigns in recent history. Donald Trump’s VP selection of Ohio Senator JD Vance checked the Rust Belt box for Republicans, and Democrat Kamala Harris countered with her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. 
With camo hat always on hand, Walz’s political brand is tied to his <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91168539/tim-walzs-first-job-was-working-on-a-farm">first job</a> working on the family farm in Nebraska. Farmers across Minnesota are <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/08/06/minnesota-farmers-union-president-stalled-farm-bill-weather-extremes-walz-veepstakes">abuzz</a> about Walz&#8217;s agriculture record both as a congressman and as governor, and it’s mixed. Walz speaks the language of Minnesota farmers but shares the sentiments of California and European progressives when it comes to food and environmental policy.
Environmentalist groups like Greenpeace and Pesticide Action Network have never had potential allies in the White House quite as aligned as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Walz’s record indicates he would entertain the kind of utopian visions that have guided the European Union on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dutch-farmers-spread-manure-on-streets-as-new-emissions-rules-threaten-to-close-down-livestock-farms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policies</a> such as gas taxes on farm equipment and sweeping pesticide bans. The same policies which sparked massive <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/here-s-why-farmers-are-protesting-in-europe/7494997.html">farmer protests across Europe and Canada</a>.
As recently as July, Walz announced $200 million from the EPA to flow into Minnesota for the advancement of “Climate-Smart Food Systems”, meaning the replacement of gas-powered farm vehicles, new standards around refrigerators, and soil practices. Several years back, Governor Walz <a href="https://www.farmforum.net/story/news/agriculture/2016/08/18/minnesota-rep-tim-walz-visits-organic-farm-listens-to-concerns-of-organic-farmers/49239667/">visited organic farms</a> in Minnesota to give voice to their concerns about pesticides, saying “There’s still more we can do to make things easier for organic farmers.”
What did those organic farmers want? Nothing related specifically to their operations, but instead a total ban on aerial pesticides used by conventional farms statewide, which they claim travels by air and impacts all farms. Walz’s position was, “We need to build coalitions with the public and fellow politicians and get them on board with this stuff.”
Americans have been fortunate, as these progressive experiments in rolling back high-yield farming have not hit the political mainstream. That could soon change. 
The European Union <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/02/06/von-der-leyen-announces-withdrawal-of-contentious-pesticide-law-the-first-defeat-of-the-gr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abandoned</a> its own attempts to boost organic farming after the farmer protests, learning over many years that its rules and regulations led to a less productive and more expensive food system for consumers.
But you’ll find that no EU member state has endured a famine, and that’s the result of Europe’s trademark caution and incrementalism. Nations that have been inspired by Europe’s failed policies but lack their bureaucratic restraint have seen actual starvation when modern farming systems were upended.
The case of Sri Lanka, a small island off the coast of India, is only the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sri-lankas-president-flees-the-country-amid-mass-uprising" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most recent example</a>. Until 2019, Sri Lanka had been the planet’s top tourism spot for a decade, but regulatory change in agriculture <a href="https://www.wfp.org/news/food-crisis-sri-lanka-likely-worsen-amid-poor-agricultural-production-price-spikes-and-ongoing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threw it back</a> into the ‘dark ages’.
All it took was seriously implementing the ideas of progressive environmentalists and food production critics.
In Sri Lanka&#8217;s 2019 election, now former-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised a 10-year transition away from conventional farming practices to “organic agriculture”. It was on the advice of an Indian environmentalist, Vandana Shiva, that Rajapaska believed chemical fertilizers and pesticides needed to be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/apr/28/fighting-giants-eco-activist-vandana-shiva-on-her-battle-against-gm-multinationals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outlawed</a>. Shiva cared little for the steady gains in agricultural productivity in Sri Lanka in the 21st century.
During COVID, President Rajapaska banned all imports of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, effectively forcing two million farmers to go organic. The plans have since been abandoned but still created a devastating ripple that has yet to be undone.
Sri Lanka&#8217;s domestic rice production <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farming-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has dropped</a> by 20% due to the lower agricultural output of organic farming compared to conventional methods, despite political promises. Food prices rose by a third. Tea production, a crucial domestic and export commodity, decreased by 50%, as foreign consumers were unwilling to pay premiums. Nine out of every 10 Sri Lankan families were reported to have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-china-india-asia-c9a49428e9bad5c0bb087534c0d310f8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">skipped meals</a> and waited for days at a time in lines for fuel.
Rubber and coconut producers faced similar challenges, as obtaining imports on short notice proved nearly impossible despite the lifting of the ban on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
Half a million individuals fell back into poverty after decades of real progress. Sri Lanka has been left to rely on foreign food assistance from neighboring India. On top of all that, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62104268" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protestors in 2022 stormed</a> the Prime Minister&#8217;s office and the President&#8217;s residence, forcing the government to resign in disgrace.
Sri Lanka still grapples with grinding inflation due to the devaluation of its currency. As of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/3/22/economic-conditions-in-debt-stricken-sri-lanka-improving-imf-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March,</a> inflation sat at 5.9%, down from a peak of 70% in 2022. The island country has seen an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/6/20/fed-up-doctor-exodus-bleeds-sri-lankas-healthcare-after-economic-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exodus</a> of doctors as well as parents being forced to pick <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64158513" target="_blank" rel="noopener">which of their children can attend school</a>. All ripple effects of a deep economic crisis that has hobbled the country, stemming from the all-in pursuit of progressive’s food production agenda.
None of this is to say that Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are going to bring famine and pestilence to the United States, but should emphasize that the food systems Americans take for granted are indeed fragile. Ideological reformers have persuaded many of America’s trade partners to pursue the kinds of policies that have broken nations, starved families, and produced massive political blowback from hardworking farmers.
Food systems are fragile, and both Kamala Harris and Governor Walz should be asked tough questions about these global farming trends, as well as their records while in office. Walz has more farming knowledge than any presidential or vice presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter, but Americans need to know where he really stands on these debates. It can be a matter of life and death.
* * *
Bill Wirtz is senior policy analyst at the Consumer Choice Center, where he focuses on agriculture and trade. He has published “No Copy-paste: What Not to Emulate From Europe’s Agriculture Regulation.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Tim Walz

Governor Walz Needs To Answer For Failed Progressive Food Policies

2024 Election

Ben Shapiro

Kamala Harris

Progressivism

Readers Pass

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/country-music">Country singer</a> Lainey Wilson said her farmer ancestors passed down their work ethic.
The 31-year-old Grammy winner <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/yellowstone-star-lainey-wilson-credits-long-line-farmers-work-ethic">discussed</a> the value of hard work while speaking with Fox News Digital ahead of the 2024 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">ACM Awards</a>. 
&#8220;Yes, my parents are, they&#8217;re the ones to blame. They&#8217;re the ones to blame for all of this,&#8221; Wilson joked. &#8220;They have truly supported me from the beginning.&#8221; 
“I truly do think it is from being from a long line of farmers. I mean, on my mom&#8217;s side and my daddy&#8217;s side. They rolled their sleeves up. They got to work every single day and had good years and bad years, but at the end of the day, they loved it,&#8221; the “Yellowstone” actress continued. 
Wilson told the outlet, &#8220;So that meant that they got up and they did it again, and they&#8217;d fall down and they&#8217;d do it again. They just had no other option and my daddy has always tried to remind me that he worked really hard, but he&#8217;s not just working hard for himself. He&#8217;s working hard for me and my sister and my mama and my sister&#8217;s kids and one day my kids,&#8221; Wilson continued. 
The singer-songwriter also said she believes it’s &#8220;really important to keep…in mind&#8221; that hard work is &#8220;just life.&#8221; 
&#8220;It kind of takes a little bit of pressure off of you when you take yourself out of it, I guess it makes working hard a lot easier,&#8221; Wilson said.
She also explained how her song “Hang Tight Honey” was inspired by her upbringing and her beloved small town of Baskin, Louisiana. 
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&#8220;When I think about who I am today, it truly is because of the place and the people that raised me. It&#8217;s always important to tip your hat to those people, and it&#8217;s very important for me to remember where I come from,&#8221; Wilson told Fox News. 
&#8220;During this crazy time, my life has changed, and I feel like I&#8217;m not like I&#8217;m not changing, but my life is, if that makes any sense at all. I feel like it&#8217;s important for me to remember where I come from and remind myself.&#8221; 
She went on, &#8220;It&#8217;s cool that I get to write this music and I get to remind myself of that every single night. At the end of the day, in order for me to be able to tell the kind of stories that I&#8217;m supposed to tell and relate to my fans, I got to keep living as normal of a life as I possibly can. That&#8217;s why I keep my people close and that&#8217;s why I keep the people of Baskin, my town of 200 people, close.&#8221;

Lainey Wilson

Country Star Lainey Wilson Says ‘Long Line Of Farmers’ Taught Her Work Ethic

Country Star Lainey Wilson Says 'Long Line Of Farmers' Taught Her Work Ethic

Country Music

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Yellowstone

If you&#8217;ve ever worked in some capacity on procuring a federal government contract, then you&#8217;re familiar with maybe the single most obvious and grotesque <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-contracting-is-the-next-dei-target-race-affirmative-action-supreme-court-ca60eaf4?st=567k88x0e9wat4y&amp;reflink=article_gmail_share">form</a> of affirmative action that exists in this country.
It&#8217;s been around for a long time. As far back as Nixon&#8217;s administration, gender and racial affirmative action became mandatory for federal construction projects in the city of Philadelphia. Any federal contractor that hired fewer than 80% of the local share of “any race, sex, or ethnic group” risked losing their contract — and being barred from working with the federal government entirely. Within a year, those requirements applied to contracts with all federal agencies, nationwide.
As an attorney named Michael Toth <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-contracting-is-the-next-dei-target-race-affirmative-action-supreme-court-ca60eaf4?st=567k88x0e9wat4y&amp;reflink=article_gmail_share" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed out</a> recently in the Wall Street Journal, those rules are still in place today, half a century later. In fact, they&#8217;ve only expanded in scope. Now the federal government can <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/welcome-to-the-world-of-minority-contracting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">award</a> no-bid contracts to so-called &#8220;minority-owned&#8221; businesses in many cases.
The end result of this policy has been exactly what you&#8217;d expect. For one thing, contractors know that they need to employ a token number of women and minorities in order to get any kind of government grants. Additionally, so-called &#8220;minority-owned&#8221; contractors often get government contracts, and then subcontract them out to contractors who didn&#8217;t meet the diversity quota.
This is all highly inefficient — it&#8217;s fraud, basically — and it&#8217;s resulted in taxpayers being forced to waste a lot of money. As City Journal reported recently, some government projects <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/welcome-to-the-world-of-minority-contracting">cost</a> nearly 20% more than they would have without these affirmative action programs. Multiply that by hundreds of billions of dollars&#8217; worth of federal government contracts every year, and you begin to see the problem.
Instead of ending this social engineering, and simply allowing markets to work without crude demographic manipulation, the Biden administration&#8217;s allies in state and local governments are doubling down. They&#8217;ve decided that they know exactly what the demographic makeup of each industry should be — and it just so happens that white men aren&#8217;t wanted in any industry.
I&#8217;ll start with Maine, where this week, Democrats have determined that the field of construction — where blacks and hispanics make up nearly 40% of the workforce — simply isn&#8217;t diverse enough. Specifically, the governor, Janet Mills, has determined that more women need to be construction workers. And therefore, Mills has signed an executive order that, among other things, will use state and federal funding to prioritize construction projects that involve women. Watch:
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&#8220;We need construction workers, especially women, now.&#8221; Why? Why especially women? This is odd coming from Janet Mills, who spent her college years traveling through Europe and learning French, before going to law school and spending the rest of her life in government. What does Janet Mills know about construction, exactly? How is she qualified to say anything about what the construction industry needs, or who’s most qualified to fill those needs?
As always, this DEI initiative is a solution in search of a problem. There is absolutely no reason to believe and not a single shred of evidence to suggest that the construction industry was in any way suffering due to a lack of female representation. There isn’t one problem in the construction industry that you can point to and say: “You know what will solve that? More women!” That’s because no problems can be solved by involving more females in construction. And on top of that, there is no evidence at all that any qualified female has ever been denied a job in construction due to her sex. By all accounts, fewer women are in construction for two simple reasons: First because most women don&#8217;t want to do construction. And second because men are generally much better at it.
Of course, it&#8217;s completely rational for women to dislike the idea of working in construction. It&#8217;s one of the most <a href="https://x.com/eyeslasho/status/1787885252847013976" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dangerous</a> jobs you can have.
<div id="attachment_734755" style="width: 721px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-734755" class="wp-image-734755 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/vvvv-rt-711x576.jpg" alt="Source: bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. AEI." width="711" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/vvvv-rt-711x576.jpg 711w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/vvvv-rt-300x243.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/vvvv-rt-768x622.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/vvvv-rt.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 711px) 100vw, 711px" />Source: bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. AEI.</div>
As you can see from this chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it&#8217;s among the top 20 most dangerous jobs, along with roofers, police officers, truck drivers, miners, farmers and ranchers. And you&#8217;ll never guess what all of these top-20 most dangerous jobs in America have in common. They&#8217;re all overwhelmingly done by men. Construction is more than 97% male-dominated, and it has a fatal injury rate of 15 per 100,000 workers. That&#8217;s on par with cement and concrete manufacturing, which is also more than 97% male-dominated.
These jobs can be very dangerous — and in fact would be even more dangerous for women.
That’s not just because women are weaker and more injury prone — though they are. It’s also because a large percentage of the deaths on construction sites are caused at least in part by heat exhaustion. It just so happens that women are more sensitive to temperatures — both hot and cold. Any married man is very familiar with this phenomenon. One minute your wife is complaining that she’s freezing to death, you adjust the thermostat by one degree, and now she insists that the house is a sweltering desert.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1364-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
So that is just one of the reasons why men tend to do most of the physically demanding jobs outside. Men tend to do most of the physically demanding and dangerous jobs everywhere. This is not a privilege that men have but rather a responsibility they carry. The takeaway from this shouldn’t be that we need more women doing these jobs. It&#8217;s that men (and white men in particular, historically) have had a unique and essential role in building and maintaining our civilization. We would not have this civilization without them.
Rather than this constant drumbeat of scolding and lecturing and guilt and resentment — and treating the presence of this group as a problem that must be solved or a cancer that must be treated — the appropriate attitude is one of appreciation and gratitude. Men built every building you’ve ever been in, every bridge you’ve ever crossed, every road you’ve ever driven on. Sure, if you’re a bitter, resentful little brat, maybe that fact will make you feel somehow diminished. But if you’re a smart, mature, decent person, instead of demanding that we kick men out of these industries, you will instead have some gratitude. You will say, “Thank you men. Thank you for everything you’d done for civilization, and for me personally.” That should be our answer to the Janet Mills of the world. Rather than going on the defensive and justifying ourselves, men as a group should say to her: “Hey you ungrateful child. The correct response is thank you. Didn’t your parents teach you manners?”
This same logic applies to race as well. These days, of course, as noted, it’s not just white men in the construction industry. But historically speaking white men have been uniquely indispensable contributors to western civilization. Most modern technology was invented by white men. Most of the great discoveries were made by white men. Most of our wars were fought and won predominately by white men. Most of the advances in medicine and science have been achieved by white men. Most of the great leaders, artists, thinkers, and philosophers in western history have been white men. And yet this is the one group most demonized — most hated for the sin of providing us with so much of what we value. A sane society would be finding ways to get this group more involved in things, given its incredible track record. Instead we go the other way.
Outside of communist countries, modern western societies are the only ones in the history of the world that go out of their way to identify the people most responsible for building and maintaining their societies — only to villainize and alienate those same people.
And we&#8217;re doing it more and more. This isn&#8217;t just happening in the federal government or in Maine. It&#8217;s also happening in the most populated city in the United States. Officials in New York have just proudly announced that they&#8217;ve <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-jfk-airport-construction-sets-record-mwbe-participation-23-billion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">awarded</a> more than $2 billion in contracts for the purposes of renovating JFK Airport. And all of that money has gone to so-called &#8220;MWBE&#8217;s,&#8221; which is short for &#8220;Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises.&#8221; 
As the governor&#8217;s <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-jfk-airport-construction-sets-record-mwbe-participation-23-billion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release reads</a>: &#8220;This is the largest participation of MWBE firms on any public-private partnership project in New York State history. &#8230; With today’s announcement JFK surpasses the LaGuardia Airport redevelopment, which set the previous New York State record for MWBE participation.&#8221;
In other words, no one wanted reparations. Even in New York, it wasn&#8217;t a popular idea. So the state government just decided to do it anyway by handing out money on the basis of race and gender. They&#8217;ve chosen airports as their preferred vehicle to launder this money, evidently.
If you watch the New York Port Authority&#8217;s press conference announcing this funding for the JFK renovation, you&#8217;ll see exactly what&#8217;s motivating these officials. It&#8217;s basically an hour of various New York officials, including a sitting member of Congress, celebrating the fact that they excluded white-owned businesses from receiving taxpayer funding. Here&#8217;s how it began:
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This is the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announcing — to applause — that JFK&#8217;s renovation involved as few white men as possible. He&#8217;s not proud of the quality of the renovation. He doesn&#8217;t talk about how the airport is going to be better as a result of this work. Instead, he&#8217;s just happy white people didn&#8217;t have a role in it. Never mind the fact that white people — white men, specifically — have pretty much single handedly built the entire aviation industry, beginning with inventing the airplane. Now we need to get them all out, for some reason.
And then he goes on to explain that the government did everything it could to ensure that non-white people secured the government contracts for JFK, by preparing specialized, segregated &#8220;boot camps&#8221; to help them along in the application process. So he&#8217;s acknowledging that this was not a remotely fair or merit-driven process at any point. It was the purest form of affirmative action. He&#8217;s not celebrating that these minority businesses earned the job; he&#8217;s celebrating that the government rigged the process.
This is illegal, obviously, and it gets worse. Here&#8217;s Congressman Gregory Meeks explaining why it was so important to discriminate against white male contractors:
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The congressman says it&#8217;s important for racial and gender discrimination (in the form of DEI) to be a part of everything New York does, but he doesn&#8217;t really say why. He gets some applause when he says it&#8217;s good for &#8220;business,&#8221; but he doesn&#8217;t elaborate on that point.
That&#8217;s probably because, as I&#8217;ve <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imLMG7C6oF4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outlined</a> before, it&#8217;s demonstrably false that DEI is good for business. The only time DEI is good for business is if you&#8217;re a non-white business and you&#8217;re looking to get a government payout. In that case, DEI is good for business. For everyone else, it&#8217;s a massive economic drain at a minimum. It&#8217;s probably also a safety risk.
Even if racial discrimination were somehow profitable, that still wouldn&#8217;t justify it. And it&#8217;s pretty remarkable that a sitting member of Congress would imply otherwise. Only a deep-seated hatred of white men would explain what we&#8217;re seeing here. As if there was any doubt about that, the next speaker at this press conference — a New York assemblymember named Alicia Hyndman — came right out and admitted that, yes, that&#8217;s what&#8217;s going on. Watch:
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So, the woman can&#8217;t figure out how Zoom works, apparently, but she&#8217;s in charge of renovating the airport because, with apologies to white people, the airport isn&#8217;t for them anymore. It&#8217;s for people who look like Alicia Hyndman now: &#8220;We knew it was for us. For us, by us, to make sure this community that we represent looks like us.&#8221;
To be clear, she&#8217;s talking about an airport. This is a public facility that isn&#8217;t &#8220;for&#8221; or &#8220;by&#8221; any racial group. And Alicia Hyndman is a public official. She supposedly represents a &#8220;community&#8221; that includes white people. But here she is, proudly declaring that the airport is &#8220;for&#8221; black people. And her &#8220;community&#8221; doesn&#8217;t include people who don&#8217;t &#8220;look like&#8221; her.
So white men don&#8217;t get to build airports anymore. The airports aren&#8217;t for them. Neither are construction jobs. You have to wonder what, if anything, these politicians want white men to do. Should they ever receive any funding from the government? Should they be allowed to compete for government contracts on a fair and equal playing field? Should would white men build, maintain, and run their own airport? I’d be quite happy to use that airport, personally. I think most people would be.
Really, though, everyone knows what’s happening here. Her goal, and the goal of her party, isn&#8217;t simply to erase white men from history. Their goal is to erase white men from the workforce, as punishment for doing everything so well, for so long. This isn&#8217;t a secret at this point. As conservatives spend all their time talking about college campuses, their enemies are being very methodical and explicit about what they&#8217;re doing — one airport renovation and construction job at a time.

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