Tag: farms

Trump’s USDA Exploring Federal Solution to Ban China from Buying US Farmland

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Secretary Brooke Rollins, is considering federal action to prevent Chinese entities from purchasing American farmland after the Texas House failed to pass a state-level ban last session.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Rollins confirmed that the Trump administration is actively looking at ways to address the issue at the federal level.

“One of the very, very top of the list perhaps is the Chinese purchase of our farmland. A lot of that land is around some of our military outposts,” Rollins told Breitbart News. “So we’re in a really, really important conversation right now on how to push that back. With my experience in the states, I am a huge, huge believer in the laboratories of democracy—the 10th Amendment says our states are the guardians at the gate—and for the last several years my organization America First Policy Institute, we actually worked among multiple states to get states to act on this to pass state legislation but we also are looking at a federal solution too.”

The issue of Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland has sparked growing concerns over national security, particularly in states like Texas, where large swaths of agricultural and rural land have been bought by Chinese companies and individuals. Senators in Texas passed a ban on such purchases in 2023, but the effort ultimately failed in the Texas House amid opposition from Democrat lawmakers and some Republicans.

A ban on hostile foreign land ownership has been named a priority by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for this session.

With Texas failing to act, federal intervention could reshape the debate entirely. Republican lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, have been pushing for national legislation to address what they call a “serious national security risk.”

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WHY the War on Farmers?

The recent Telegraph headline rang out of England recently with unsettling tones: Tenth of farmland to be axed for net zero

More than 10 per cent of farmland in England is set to be diverted towards helping to achieve net zero and protecting wildlife by 2050, the Environment Secretary will reveal on Friday.

Swathes of the countryside are on course to be switched to solar farms, tree planting and improving habitats for birds, insects and fish.

The move comes on the back of an aggressive and highly unpopular inheritance tax placed on generational farmers by British politician Rachel Reeves that has drawn sustained protest in the country. The commercial officer of Britain’s largest supermarket chain Tesco warned Reeves’ tax raid on farmers is placing “UK’s future food security is at stake.”

What if that’s the whole point? Tucker Carlson recently asked Piers Morgan this uncomfortable question.

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Guess Who Is Buying Up U.S. Farmland Now?

With all this talk about the Chinese government infiltrating the United States through TikTok, many have asked: Aren’t the Chinese already doing so through the purchase of U.S. farmland?

About a year and a half ago, Georgia Rep. Mike Collins delivered a speech to the U.S. House of Representatives, citing a 2021 report that China owned 384,000 acres of American agricultural land at that time —  a 30% jump between 2019 and 2020 — and some of that land surrounded an Air Force base in North Dakota, making it a clear threat to national security. Grand Forks, N.D., apparently ended up denying building permits to the Chinese-based food manufacturer that purchased that land and denied access to industrial infrastructure after the mayor called the federal response “slow and contradictory” and an Air Force official called it a “significant threat.” 

While on the campaign trail in 2024, Donald Trump called these types of Chinese investments a “threat to American farmers” and promised that if he were elected, he’d block Chinese nationals from purchasing any additional land. When he met with a group of farmers in Pennsylvania in September, they expressed other concerns beyond national security, such as driving up prices and eliminating a future generation of American farmers and ranchers.   

“My concern today is with foreign [sic] buying up farmland, young Americans can’t afford to buy a farm or even get started,” said beef farmer Todd Reamer, who has owned his farm for three decades. “I know there are young farmers out there who really aspire to own a farm or ranch but can’t because of the high costs. We hear the word ‘sustainable,’ but to stay sustainable we need to give Americans a chance to own farms and ranches so they can continue to produce the safest food supply in the world for generations to come.” 

But it turns out it’s not just China buying up our farmland. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent report, “46 million acres of crop, pasture and forest lands were held by investors from outside of the United States” at the end of 2023, and that number, which totals about 3.6% of all private land, seems to be rising. Canada is the largest foreign landholder in our country by far, followed by European countries like the Netherlands, Italy, and the United Kingdom. 

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USDA Orders Raw Milk Testing Under Guise Of Bird Flu Amid War On Small Farms

Nationwide demand for raw milk has never been higher, as out-of-control bureaucrats in their ivory towers in Washington, DC, exploit bird flu outbreaks in dairy herds to financially crush small farms while ensuring that large-scale farms owned by mega corporations, which produce questionable/unhealthy food (hence America’s obesity crisis), remain in control of the nation’s food supply chain.

The latest overreach in the war on raw milk comes as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) ordered dairy farmers to work with the federal agency to test for bird flu (H5N1).

On Friday, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote in a statement, “This new milk testing strategy will build on those steps to date and will provide a roadmap for states to protect the health of their dairy herds.”

“Among many outcomes, this will give farmers and farmworkers better confidence in the safety of their animals and ability to protect themselves, and it will put us on a path to quickly controlling and stopping the virus’ spread nationwide,” Vilsack said.

The new testing mandate gives the federal government yet another foothold in controlling the nation’s milk supply and moves one step closer to banning raw milk, all under the guise of combating “bird flu.”

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British farmers to protest again over increasing burden of government’s anti-farming policy on agriculture

Last month a convoy of tractors rolled through Dover and thousands of farmers gathered in London to protest against changes to inheritance tax rules as announced in the Labour government’s recent Budget.

The protests were sparked by the proposed 20% inheritance tax on farm assets worth £1 million or more, set to take effect from April 2026.

British farmers argue that the policy, combined with the fast-track withdrawal of the Basic Payment Scheme, increasing farm employer costs and a carbon tax on fertiliser, among other policies, could force families to sell land to cover tax bills, breaking up livelihoods and generations of UK farming businesses, Farmers Weekly reported.

There are also worries within the industry over the impact of future trade deals, substandard food imports and the recent removal of farming grants.

The potential introduction of chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef from the US undermines the UK’s high food standards and is a major concern for farmers.  The government’s decision to remove or stop farming grants and funding for promoting British food abroad has added to the industry’s woes.

“There’s a decision about an American trade deal, which is a massive problem for British farming. It is unsurvivable. We’re back looking at the horror of chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef. 

“Obviously, the inheritance tax is another assault on farming.

“What is more, the government has removed or stopped a lot of the farming grants and pulled the funding for promoting British food abroad.  What we’re seeing is a real aggressive move from this government to end British farming,” founder of Save British Farming, Liz Webster, said.

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The FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program Has a New Target: Animal Rights Activists

On a chilly, early morning in January 2019, a group of animal rights activists descended upon a poultry farm in central Texas. Donning plastic gloves, medical masks, hazmat suits, and T-shirts emblazoned with “Meat the Victims,” they slipped through the unlocked door of a massive, windowless barn. 

Inside, they found 27,000 chicks densely packed across the floor, like “just a sea of yellow,” recalled Sarah Weldon, one of the activists. “There were a lot of chicks that were already deceased, in various stages of decomposition,” she said. “Some were so deformed you couldn’t even tell they used to be baby chicks, just fluffs of feathers.”

Activists with Meat the Victims, a decentralized, global movement to abolish animal exploitation, later uploaded gruesome photos of injured and dead chicks to social media platforms. This is how, Weldon suspects, the police identified her and issued a warrant for her arrest, along with 14 other activists. She was charged with criminal trespassing, a Class B misdemeanor, and quickly turned herself into jail.

The local police weren’t the only ones paying attention. An FBI agent in Texas had been secretly monitoring the demonstration. His focus? Weapons of mass destruction. 

The FBI has been collaborating with the meat industry to gather information on animal rights activism, including Meat the Victims, under its directive to counter weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, according to agency records recently obtained by the nonprofit Animal Partisan through Freedom of Information Act litigation. The records also show that the bureau has explored charging activists who break into factory farms under federal criminal statutes that carry a possible sentence of up to life in prison — including for the “attempted use” of WMD — while urging meat producers to report encounters with activists to its WMD program.

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Major Dairy Supplier to Trial Potentially Toxic “Low Emission” Cow Feed

Major dairy suppliers and supermarkets are partnering with chemical company DSM-Firmenich to trial new “low-emission” dairy products nationwide.

Arla, a cooperative of over 2500 British dairy farms, is working with supermarkets Tesco, Aldi and Morrisons to market new “low emission” milk, butter and cheese.

A joint statement from supermarkets published on Arla’s website says:

Through collaboration as part of Arla’s FarmAhead™ Customer Partnership, we have the ability to address some of the climate challenges facing our food system. It is this collective approach that is really going to make a difference. Being involved in using a feed additive is a great way of testing out where we can drive change at scale to bring down emissions.”

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Global First: Denmark Starts Taxing Farm Animals’ Burps, Farts And Poop

Denmark, known for its inventive restaurants and elegant design studios, is about to become known for something more basic: the world’s first belch and manure tax.

That’s because there are five times as many pigs and cows in Denmark as there are people. Nearly two-thirds of its land is taken up by farming. And agriculture is becoming its largest share of climate pollution, putting lawmakers under intense public pressure to reduce it.

So now, Denmark’s unlikely coalition government, made up of three parties from across the political spectrum, has agreed to tax the planet-heating methane emissions that all those animals expel through their poop, farts and burps. The measure, under negotiation for years, was passed by the Danish Parliament this month, making it the only such climate levy on livestock in the world.

“I think it’s good,” said Rasmus Angelsnes, 31, who was shopping for dinner in Copenhagen one recent afternoon. “It’s kind of a nudge to make different choices, maybe more climate-friendly choices.”

Never mind that his shopping cart contained thick slices of pork belly, which he planned to cook that rainy evening with potatoes and parsley. “Comfort food,” he said sheepishly.

The tax is part of a larger package designed to clean up the country’s agricultural pollution and eventually restore some farmland to its natural form, like peat lands, which are exceptionally good at locking away planet-heating gases underground but were drained decades ago to grow crops.

Denmark’s quest is also part of a reckoning for many agricultural powerhouses, including the United States, as they face calls to clean up pollution from farms, while balancing the needs of politically powerful agricultural lobbies.

Globally, the food system accounts for a fourth of greenhouses gases, and reducing those emissions requires making tough choices on diets, jobs and industries. At the same time, farmers are vulnerable to the hazards of climate change, with punishing heat, droughts and floods exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels. That makes food a particularly vexing climate problem to take on.

No wonder that efforts to reduce agriculture’s climate emissions have faced stiff resistance, from Brussels to Delhi to Wellington, where the New Zealand government proposed a burp tax in 2022 only to have a later government scrap it.

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UK government’s tax plans will destroy family farming; farmers to gather in London to protest

A rally is being held in London to protest against the UK government’s agricultural policies.  Organised by the National Farmers’ Union (“NFU”), which represents more than 46,000 farming and growing businesses, the rally is taking place on 19 November.

In a vlog published on Friday, NFU President Tom Bradshaw outlined the plans and urged NFU members to send in their videos to demonstrate the impact that the Budget announcement will have on their business.

Bradshaw began, “Members, farmers, I know that today many of you are feeling angry and betrayed. And we absolutely share that frustration. We understand what the impact of the removal of APR [agricultural property relief], or this family farm tax, which has been implemented could have on you, your farm and your family. We want you, our members, to be involved in the next steps.”

Farmers have also been posting videos on social media, see HERE and HERE.

Agricultural Property Relief (“APR”) is a relief from inheritance tax on the transfer of agricultural property.  In her budget,  Rachel Reeves announced significant changes to the UK Inheritance Tax regime. Business Property Relief (“BPR”) and APR claims will be capped at £1m per taxpayer with inheritance tax of 20% applying on the full value of farms and rural estates above £1m.  The tax is effective from April 2026.

The cuts to APR potentially jeopardise thousands of family farms by increasing the Inheritance Tax burden. APR provides critical relief on the transfer of agricultural property, allowing farming families to pass their established food-producing business down to future generations.

This change could force family farms to sell off land to pay inheritance tax, potentially breaking up family businesses and destabilising food security. Why should non-farmers care? “Preventing farms from being sold or broken up is a public interest issue, too. Food security in the UK is declining in several sectors, making the country more dependent on imports,” The Guardian reported.

The Country Land and Business Association will be making urgent representations to the Treasury on how this will affect 70,000 farms.

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The Globalized, Industrialized Food System Is Destroying the World—We Urgently Need to Support Local Food Economies

We can thank small farmers, environmentalists, academic researchers, and food and farming activists for advancing ecologically sound food production methods. Agroecology, holistic resource management, permaculture, and other methods can address many of the global food system’s worst impacts, including biodiversity loss, energy depletion, toxic pollution, food insecurity, and massive carbon emissions.

These inspiring testaments to human ingenuity and goodwill have two things in common: They involve smaller-scale farms adapted to local conditions and depend more on human attention and care than energy and technology. In other words, they are the opposite of industrial monocultures—huge farms that grow just one crop.

However, to significantly reduce the many negative impacts of the food system, these small-scale initiatives need to spread worldwide. Unfortunately, this has not happened because the transformation of farming requires shifting not just how food is produced but also how it is marketed and distributed. The food system is inextricably linked to an economic system that, for decades, has been fundamentally biased against the kinds of changes we need.

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