1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:05,560
Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:08,119
Speaker 2: And welcome back George Norrey along with Brian Reisinger. Brian,

3
00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:12,120
Speaker 2: at the rate our farms are disappearing ten years from now,

4
00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:16,320
Speaker 2: if we keep this pace going, what happens.

5
00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,520
Speaker 3: Ten years from now, we will be about twenty five

6
00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,400
Speaker 3: percent of the way there, George on wiping out the

7
00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:25,799
Speaker 3: rest of our farms in this country. It's kind of

8
00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:29,200
Speaker 3: shocking if you think about it, losing forty five thousand

9
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:31,479
Speaker 3: farms a year for the past century. If we keep

10
00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:34,120
Speaker 3: doing that, what it means is in forty years we'll

11
00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:36,320
Speaker 3: have lost the rest of our farms. I'm forty years old.

12
00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,400
Speaker 3: By the time my little girl is my age, will

13
00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:41,440
Speaker 3: have lost the rest of our farm. So in ten

14
00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:45,280
Speaker 3: years time, we'll have lost another twenty five percent of

15
00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:47,400
Speaker 3: our farms, and we can't afford to keep doing that.

16
00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:50,640
Speaker 2: Are the farmers selling the land because they're making a profit,

17
00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:52,720
Speaker 2: or are they going out of business and they're getting

18
00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:54,800
Speaker 2: foreclosed on? What's happening to them.

19
00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,360
Speaker 3: It's a little bit of all of those things. What

20
00:00:57,400 --> 00:00:59,640
Speaker 3: it means to be land rich cash poor in the

21
00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:02,920
Speaker 3: reason and we selected that title is because the farmland.

22
00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,560
Speaker 3: The value that farmland is going up, but the ability

23
00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:09,680
Speaker 3: to make a living on that land is going down.

24
00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:13,000
Speaker 3: That's the cash poor part. And so farm families they

25
00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,320
Speaker 3: face kind of a unimaginable choice. On the one hand,

26
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,759
Speaker 3: they if they keep going and it keeps getting harder

27
00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:22,520
Speaker 3: and harder to make it each year, you know, these

28
00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:24,440
Speaker 3: moms and dads face day they're gonna have to other kids,

29
00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:26,440
Speaker 3: we can't make it anymore. We're gonna lose everything. On

30
00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:28,520
Speaker 3: the other hand, if you turn around and sell that land,

31
00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:31,520
Speaker 3: that solves your financial problem, but you lose everything else.

32
00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:33,440
Speaker 3: Because when you grow up on a farm like I did,

33
00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:35,720
Speaker 3: and we talk about this in the book, the farm

34
00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:38,000
Speaker 3: is not just your dad's job or your mom's job.

35
00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,160
Speaker 3: It's your home, it's your community, it's your heritage. So

36
00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:44,160
Speaker 3: they don't want to sell it because they would lose everything.

37
00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,319
Speaker 3: But if they keep going, they're going to continue to

38
00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:49,560
Speaker 3: make it harder and harder every year to make it.

39
00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:51,880
Speaker 3: So it's a real diveloment. It gets harder every generation.

40
00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:55,280
Speaker 2: When they sell the farm land, what happens to it?

41
00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:57,640
Speaker 2: Do they turn it into a subdivision or do they

42
00:01:57,720 --> 00:01:58,480
Speaker 2: keep farming it.

43
00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:02,320
Speaker 3: What happens. Yeah, yep. Some of it goes to developers

44
00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:06,760
Speaker 3: for subdivisions or for other urban sprawl. Some of it

45
00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:10,200
Speaker 3: goes to other larger farms because we got some farms.

46
00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,440
Speaker 3: You know, that pressure to get bigger, get out means

47
00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:14,320
Speaker 3: that some farms can't make it and they're getting out,

48
00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:16,880
Speaker 3: and other farms are getting bigger to survive. And so

49
00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:18,640
Speaker 3: that's why you see more and more of our farms

50
00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:22,520
Speaker 3: being sold to larger farms and in some cases corporate farms.

51
00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:24,560
Speaker 3: And then some of that land is going into the

52
00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:30,280
Speaker 3: hands of foreign adversaries, a variety of wealthy folks. Bill

53
00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:34,160
Speaker 3: Gates is a great, big buyer of farmland. So what

54
00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:38,680
Speaker 3: is common across all those categories is that we're increasingly

55
00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,600
Speaker 3: having less and less farmland and it is concentrated in

56
00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:43,679
Speaker 3: fewer and fewer hands, and that causes a lot of

57
00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:44,440
Speaker 3: risks for us.

58
00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:47,800
Speaker 2: The farm land that let's say the Chinese owned, do

59
00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:51,000
Speaker 2: they manufacture food, Do they grow food and then send

60
00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:51,920
Speaker 2: it back to China?

61
00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, in many cases they're just holding on to it.

62
00:02:57,080 --> 00:02:59,040
Speaker 3: In some cases they might be utilizing it and have

63
00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:01,360
Speaker 3: some companies that are doing certain things with it. But

64
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:04,440
Speaker 3: what it's really about is two things. The Chinese are

65
00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:07,960
Speaker 3: very patient. The Chinese Communist Party is very patient, and

66
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,480
Speaker 3: they're acquiring this land because over the long term they

67
00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,800
Speaker 3: want to be able to destabilize our food supply. And

68
00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:17,680
Speaker 3: also it is not a coincidence that the land that

69
00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:21,480
Speaker 3: they are acquiring in many cases is near military installations.

70
00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:24,880
Speaker 3: So they're making a long term bet on destabilizing our

71
00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:27,360
Speaker 3: food supply, which is a huge part of it's the

72
00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:31,040
Speaker 3: most basic form of security. And in the meantime they're

73
00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,880
Speaker 3: able to get close to military installations as well. So

74
00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:35,760
Speaker 3: it's a long term and a short term game to

75
00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:37,080
Speaker 3: destabilize the country.

76
00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:40,040
Speaker 2: Which comes to the shop, can't we just nationalize it

77
00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:40,600
Speaker 2: and take it?

78
00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:42,240
Speaker 1: You know?

79
00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:46,320
Speaker 3: It's interesting. I hope it doesn't come to that. And

80
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:48,720
Speaker 3: the reason for that is because we have such a

81
00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:52,400
Speaker 3: proud history of small land ownership in this country. The

82
00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:55,080
Speaker 3: best guard against it is if we can solve the

83
00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:57,880
Speaker 3: underlying issues that are making harder for our farms to

84
00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:01,080
Speaker 3: make it. Because as our farms disappear and that farmland

85
00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,520
Speaker 3: gets concentrated in fewer hands, it becomes easier for a

86
00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:06,640
Speaker 3: foreign adversary to buy it, right because they can go

87
00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:09,520
Speaker 3: to one big land owner a corporation that owns a

88
00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:12,560
Speaker 3: bunch of farmland, and in one big financial deal with

89
00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,240
Speaker 3: a company that only has to answer to its shareholders,

90
00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:17,240
Speaker 3: they can acquire a whole bunch of land. If you

91
00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:20,920
Speaker 3: have American farmland owned by millions of small family farmers,

92
00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:24,120
Speaker 3: that is a guard against the Chinese. Try walking up

93
00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:25,800
Speaker 3: on the porch of a guy like my dad and

94
00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:28,560
Speaker 3: saying we're with the Chinese Communist party to buy your farm.

95
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,120
Speaker 3: It's not going to happen. So those small individual landowners,

96
00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:35,920
Speaker 3: they're a force field of bulwark against letting the Chinese

97
00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:38,200
Speaker 3: or other adversaries get their hands on our farmland.

98
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:41,200
Speaker 2: That is truly dramatic, isn't it.

99
00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:44,880
Speaker 3: It's incredible. It's really a shocking thing. I was amazed

100
00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:48,200
Speaker 3: as I was investigating the issues driving the disappearance of

101
00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,840
Speaker 3: our farms, that it reached that farm its impact. I

102
00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:53,760
Speaker 3: knew it was affecting our food, but not only the

103
00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:55,720
Speaker 3: price of our food, the health of our food, but

104
00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:59,320
Speaker 3: also the security of our country. All of it rests

105
00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:01,359
Speaker 3: on making sure that we keep this tradition of small

106
00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:04,159
Speaker 3: family farms owning land in this country alive.

107
00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:09,120
Speaker 2: Brian, are we still paying farmers not to grow crops.

108
00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:13,400
Speaker 3: That's such a good question. That was something that really

109
00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:16,279
Speaker 3: was born in the Great Depression, and we explored that era,

110
00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,039
Speaker 3: and it is true that there were massive programs that

111
00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:21,039
Speaker 3: were paying farmers not to grow crops, and that was

112
00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:23,640
Speaker 3: a goal because they were trying to bring the prices

113
00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:26,640
Speaker 3: up for farmers. Now, ironically, the government was doing that

114
00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,160
Speaker 3: at a time when people were also starving, and so

115
00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:32,040
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of these programs were contradictory are

116
00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:36,960
Speaker 3: deeply problematic today. There are some conservation programs. I wouldn't

117
00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:40,120
Speaker 3: say that they're quite as much paying farmers deliberately not

118
00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:43,279
Speaker 3: to grow to limit the food supply so much as

119
00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:47,119
Speaker 3: there might be programs that pay farmers to have certain

120
00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:51,000
Speaker 3: types of land and conservation for limited periods of time,

121
00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:53,039
Speaker 3: things like that. So there's some smaller programs that are

122
00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:56,480
Speaker 3: kind of relics of that era, But the whole sale

123
00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,760
Speaker 3: trying to stop farmers from growing food as kind of

124
00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:04,280
Speaker 3: apply and demand type of scheme is something that thankfully

125
00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:07,120
Speaker 3: we haven't done for a few decades in this country.

126
00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:09,680
Speaker 2: You believe we can turn this around, though, don't you.

127
00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:13,160
Speaker 3: I do, And the reason for it is the resilience

128
00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:16,080
Speaker 3: of our farm families. I think about people like my dad,

129
00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:19,320
Speaker 3: who you know, at the age of eight, he stepped

130
00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:21,400
Speaker 3: up to do the work of a grown man after

131
00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,800
Speaker 3: my grandpa slipped and fell off a corn crib and

132
00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,040
Speaker 3: broke us back. We tell the story in the book,

133
00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:27,880
Speaker 3: and my grandpa got back up on his feet and

134
00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:31,000
Speaker 3: he was okay, But not before my dad started the

135
00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:33,000
Speaker 3: workman and carried it out for the rest of his life.

136
00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:35,760
Speaker 3: And now my dad right now he's asleep. It in

137
00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:37,599
Speaker 3: just a few hours, he's going to be awake, and

138
00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:39,680
Speaker 3: I can bet you that the first place is going

139
00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:41,080
Speaker 3: to be is on the back of track or doing

140
00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:43,200
Speaker 3: his work. He loves the way of life. And so

141
00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:45,800
Speaker 3: that kind of resilience is not unique to our family.

142
00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:48,400
Speaker 3: We picked our heads up from the work and decided

143
00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:51,120
Speaker 3: to tell an honest story about the economic upheaval and

144
00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:55,000
Speaker 3: the struggles of farm families. But every farm family has

145
00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:58,000
Speaker 3: stories like that, and so that resilience is a real

146
00:06:58,040 --> 00:06:59,680
Speaker 3: reason for hope. And there are things we can do

147
00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:03,080
Speaker 3: to turn the issue around. And so if we can

148
00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:05,760
Speaker 3: harness that resilience of the American farm family, to me,

149
00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:08,440
Speaker 3: that's the reason for endless optimism. If we are willing

150
00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:09,880
Speaker 3: to change direction in this country.

151
00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:12,920
Speaker 2: One of my biggest investment regrets Brian as selling my

152
00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:15,520
Speaker 2: one hundred and fourteen acre a horse farm I owned

153
00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,760
Speaker 2: an Illinois beautiful anyway.

154
00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:23,080
Speaker 3: It is such a hard choice for families and landowners

155
00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,040
Speaker 3: because there's economic pressures to it and other reasons. And

156
00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:29,520
Speaker 3: at the same time, it's just an incredible thing to

157
00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,480
Speaker 3: own a piece of God's creation and know that you're

158
00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:34,480
Speaker 3: able to live close to the land.

159
00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:37,800
Speaker 2: And I had about fifty acres of plowable land that

160
00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,720
Speaker 2: I rented out to another farmer. You would pay me.

161
00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:43,400
Speaker 2: I didn't have to do anything. He just gave me

162
00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:43,880
Speaker 2: a check.

163
00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,240
Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad that you had that opportunity to do

164
00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:50,600
Speaker 3: that and to have that property and to work with

165
00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:53,800
Speaker 3: a local farmer. You know, that's an example of folks

166
00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:57,920
Speaker 3: working together to keep our farmland in the right hands.

167
00:07:57,920 --> 00:07:59,960
Speaker 3: And I'm glad you had that opportune that experience.

168
00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,760
Speaker 2: Does the government look at this as a crisis or not.

169
00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:08,960
Speaker 3: No, the government doesn't understand it. Traditionally, neither political party.

170
00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:12,040
Speaker 3: This is one of the other shocking things. Traditionally, both

171
00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:14,920
Speaker 3: the establishment of the Republican Party as well as the

172
00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:18,160
Speaker 3: Democrats have in one way or another over and over

173
00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:22,400
Speaker 3: made different mistakes or deliberate decisions that have wiped out

174
00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:25,280
Speaker 3: our farmers. And today I think we're talking about the

175
00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:28,560
Speaker 3: issue more than we ever have before. More people, more

176
00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:32,120
Speaker 3: members of the American public care about where their food

177
00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:34,600
Speaker 3: comes from, and we're trying to raise the alarm bells.

178
00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:38,719
Speaker 3: But in general, policymakers don't understand what's going on on

179
00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:41,440
Speaker 3: the farm on the ground in this country, and they

180
00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:43,640
Speaker 3: don't understand how it's tied to our food supply. So

181
00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:46,079
Speaker 3: I think we really need to continue to sell those

182
00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,200
Speaker 3: alarm bells, because again, we're still marching toward wiping out

183
00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:51,240
Speaker 3: the rest of our farms in the next forty years

184
00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:54,840
Speaker 3: if we don't make a change, and that means people

185
00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:56,920
Speaker 3: on the right the lesson. Everywhere in between are people

186
00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:00,320
Speaker 3: that don't fit any particular box looking at this issue

187
00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:04,439
Speaker 3: honestly and making sure they grab our pulsemakers by the

188
00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:07,560
Speaker 3: lapels and make sure that they're looking at this issue

189
00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:08,880
Speaker 3: in a way that they haven't.

190
00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:11,679
Speaker 2: Ryan in the United States, where the regions where the

191
00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:12,880
Speaker 2: best farms are.

192
00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:15,920
Speaker 3: Well, I'm biased on that Georgia, and I have to

193
00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:18,960
Speaker 3: be honest, I say the Upper Midwest, where I grew

194
00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,960
Speaker 3: up the driftless region of southern Wisconsin in particular, and

195
00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,600
Speaker 3: that's the rolling hills of southern Wisconsin. But who's driven

196
00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:28,840
Speaker 3: alongside the Mississippi and other parts of the state. But

197
00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:33,000
Speaker 3: in general, set my bias aside the Midwest and the

198
00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,360
Speaker 3: Great Plains of America. Although they're not the only places

199
00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,920
Speaker 3: that have a rich tradition of farmland, the Midwest and

200
00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:42,319
Speaker 3: the Great Plains are not only some of the best

201
00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:44,680
Speaker 3: farmland in the country, but some of the best farmland

202
00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:47,520
Speaker 3: in the world. California also has an amazing amount of

203
00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:51,720
Speaker 3: beautiful fertile land. Their government is making it more challenging

204
00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:55,920
Speaker 3: for farmers there even than it already is. But the

205
00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,400
Speaker 3: land that we have in those parts of the country

206
00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:01,600
Speaker 3: are not only strong America, but it's some of the

207
00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:03,679
Speaker 3: best land that you'll find on the globe.

208
00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:07,120
Speaker 2: And you mentioned fertile. Just how fertile is the land.

209
00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's incredible what you can do and the way

210
00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,600
Speaker 3: that different reeds of our country have found different niches.

211
00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:19,360
Speaker 3: In California, it's especially fertile for fruits and vegetables, fresh

212
00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:23,319
Speaker 3: produce as well as nuts, cashewes. All throughout the Great Plains.

213
00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:26,320
Speaker 3: It's very fertile for different types of wheat and grain

214
00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:29,719
Speaker 3: corn as well. And when you get up into the

215
00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:33,040
Speaker 3: Upper Midwest I'm from, it's fertile for all those things

216
00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:36,400
Speaker 3: wheat and corn, et cetera. But the interesting thing about

217
00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:38,840
Speaker 3: where I'm from is that because we got those beautiful

218
00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:42,080
Speaker 3: rolling hills and plunging valleys, we don't have as much

219
00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:45,600
Speaker 3: wide open farmland. And so that's why Wisconsin became in

220
00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:48,079
Speaker 3: America's dairy land, because we didn't have the big, wide

221
00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:50,120
Speaker 3: open land that you needed to grow as much wheat

222
00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:52,559
Speaker 3: as possible. You can grow beautiful wheat there, but you

223
00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:54,400
Speaker 3: don't have those wide open fields to grow as much

224
00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:56,480
Speaker 3: as possible. So we couldn't compete quite as well on

225
00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:58,720
Speaker 3: wheat or other things like that. But what we could

226
00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:01,839
Speaker 3: do is grow n uugh as to feed cows and

227
00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:04,040
Speaker 3: make those cows healthy and able to produce a whole

228
00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:06,920
Speaker 3: lot of milk. So those big rolling hills when you're

229
00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:10,439
Speaker 3: driving through southern Wisconsin is the reason that Wisconsin became

230
00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:14,000
Speaker 3: America's dairy land, because we had fertile land to feed

231
00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:16,240
Speaker 3: our animals and that was a more efficient way to

232
00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:16,520
Speaker 3: do it.

233
00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:20,160
Speaker 2: Do cows and beef take up a lot of land.

234
00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:23,760
Speaker 3: You know, they take up some. But I think that

235
00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,319
Speaker 3: there's something that a lot of the American public knows

236
00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:29,199
Speaker 3: that maybe doesn't pass the smell tests, so to speak.

237
00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:31,360
Speaker 3: A lot of people who care about our environment, which

238
00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:34,280
Speaker 3: by the way, people who farm care about our environment

239
00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:36,240
Speaker 3: as well, and people who care about our environment and

240
00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:38,840
Speaker 3: farmers can work together solve so many problems. But there's

241
00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,880
Speaker 3: a lot of talk about old farmers and farmland are

242
00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:44,600
Speaker 3: pluting our environment. You know, that doesn't pass the smell test.

243
00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,240
Speaker 3: When you think about your average American city, the amount

244
00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:51,040
Speaker 3: of exhaust and small and things coming out of those cities,

245
00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:54,440
Speaker 3: I think that that is choking out our environment a

246
00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:58,120
Speaker 3: lot more than cows standing on a beautiful green pasture.

247
00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:00,120
Speaker 3: If you ask me, I think most people in America public. No,

248
00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:01,040
Speaker 3: that's true as well.

249
00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:04,640
Speaker 2: Companies like Tyson with their chicken farms, where are they

250
00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:05,400
Speaker 2: raising them?

251
00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, they have their own facilities and they

252
00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:13,240
Speaker 3: also contract with farmers, and they're an example of something

253
00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:17,439
Speaker 3: that's happening all across our economy. Sometimes people want to

254
00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:19,480
Speaker 3: talk about one company or another, but what I say is,

255
00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:23,640
Speaker 3: you know, industries all across all sectors of the American

256
00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:29,520
Speaker 3: economy have become more and more defined by large players,

257
00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:32,040
Speaker 3: and so the food companies are working to keep up

258
00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:34,880
Speaker 3: with the rest of our economy. The agrobusiness companies are

259
00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:36,800
Speaker 3: working to keep up with the food companies, and the

260
00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:39,800
Speaker 3: farmers have to work to keep up with the aga

261
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:42,320
Speaker 3: business and food companies. So that's another of the reasons

262
00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:44,880
Speaker 3: that you see. You know that pressure to get bigger,

263
00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,520
Speaker 3: get out family farmers are facing, and it's actually something

264
00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:50,160
Speaker 3: that companies of all kinds face in our economy.

265
00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:54,000
Speaker 2: What about produce from places like Mexico? Is that safe?

266
00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:58,840
Speaker 3: It's such a good question. There. There is good food

267
00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:00,920
Speaker 3: that can come from other countries, but we have too

268
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:05,360
Speaker 3: much of it coming in and it is sometimes very

269
00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:08,600
Speaker 3: much at risk. Now, the ideal would be that we

270
00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:12,640
Speaker 3: are producing our domestic food supply because it's safer. It's

271
00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:14,920
Speaker 3: more secure for us. We know that our country can't

272
00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:17,480
Speaker 3: be held hostage by anyone who wants to withhold food

273
00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:21,440
Speaker 3: from us. But the reality is that we're importing far

274
00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:25,800
Speaker 3: more food than that. The agricultural trade deficit. I'm going

275
00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:28,240
Speaker 3: to pick a number that's between the Biden and Trump

276
00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:30,800
Speaker 3: administration so that people know I'm being nonpartisan about it.

277
00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:33,280
Speaker 3: The agriculture trade deficit was about forty two and a

278
00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:36,480
Speaker 3: half billion dollars near the end of the bidenministration beginning

279
00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:39,520
Speaker 3: of the Trump administration. That means that we're importing forty

280
00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:42,320
Speaker 3: two and a half billion more dollars in food than

281
00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:45,040
Speaker 3: we are exporting. And it's kind of crazy if you

282
00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:47,560
Speaker 3: think about it, because we're wiping out our farms at

283
00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:50,040
Speaker 3: forty five thousand years, so we're wiping out our domestic

284
00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,960
Speaker 3: food supply, and we're depending more than ever on imports

285
00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,760
Speaker 3: from foreign countries. Now it makes sense to buy kiwis

286
00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:00,199
Speaker 3: and bananas from other countries, food that we can't grow here.

287
00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:03,120
Speaker 3: But if it's beef, tomatoes, other things, we have the

288
00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:05,440
Speaker 3: ability to supply that food here, and what we should

289
00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:07,920
Speaker 3: be doing is making sure we're doing that. Instead, it's

290
00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,679
Speaker 3: almost reading like a doomsday movie script. You know, you're

291
00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:13,559
Speaker 3: wiping out your domestic food supply and depending more than

292
00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:16,760
Speaker 3: ever on foreign countries. That's not a way to have

293
00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:17,640
Speaker 3: a secure country.

294
00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:21,840
Speaker 2: How much land does some families need to grow enough

295
00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,160
Speaker 2: food to sustain themselves.

296
00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,600
Speaker 3: You can do that on just a few acres. A

297
00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,600
Speaker 3: family that has five to ten acres can not only

298
00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:34,360
Speaker 3: grow I mean, one big garden can supply a lot

299
00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:36,880
Speaker 3: of what a family needs. But if you have five, ten,

300
00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:40,240
Speaker 3: twenty fifty acres, you have the ability to grow the

301
00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:42,440
Speaker 3: food that you need and sell some of it. And

302
00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,040
Speaker 3: actually this is one of the areas of hope for

303
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:49,000
Speaker 3: our farms. Some of the small farms, really small farms

304
00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:52,920
Speaker 3: are finding ways to be economical. So it's the biggest

305
00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:54,960
Speaker 3: of the big farms that had to get bigger get out,

306
00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:57,360
Speaker 3: and then it's many of the smallest farms that are

307
00:14:57,360 --> 00:14:59,720
Speaker 3: finding ways to be economical. The farms that are really

308
00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,120
Speaker 3: having challenges and getting wiped out the most are the

309
00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:04,560
Speaker 3: ones that are in the middle, those farms that are

310
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,080
Speaker 3: big enough to have a lot of expenses, but not

311
00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:10,840
Speaker 3: big enough to have the great, big economics of scale

312
00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:13,520
Speaker 3: of the bigger operations. So those small farms that are

313
00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:16,080
Speaker 3: actually an area of hope that I hope we can

314
00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:17,280
Speaker 3: find some lessons from.

315
00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:19,920
Speaker 2: How much of the land Brian needs to be fertilized.

316
00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:25,040
Speaker 3: That's a really good question. Most of our farmland in

317
00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:27,960
Speaker 3: America needs to be fertilized from the standpoint of growing

318
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:33,080
Speaker 3: the crops that our government incentivizes, the most oddity crops, soybeans,

319
00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:34,800
Speaker 3: corn things like that. And there's a lot of traditional

320
00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:36,600
Speaker 3: farms like the one I grew up on that grow

321
00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:38,760
Speaker 3: those crops and products because it's what's available to them

322
00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:43,560
Speaker 3: and are working to transition over to new alternative crops pasturis, chickens,

323
00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:45,640
Speaker 3: and other types of things where we can grow fresh

324
00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:47,320
Speaker 3: local food. So you have a lot of farms that

325
00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:50,600
Speaker 3: want to transition off of the types of crops that

326
00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:53,880
Speaker 3: require those hard chemicals they call them. We've got to

327
00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:59,280
Speaker 3: shift toward more biological, more natural substances for u center fields,

328
00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:02,240
Speaker 3: and we also have a shift away from traditional crops

329
00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:06,320
Speaker 3: toward more fresh local food. A lot of farms want

330
00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:09,240
Speaker 3: to make that transition, but they don't necessarily have a

331
00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,080
Speaker 3: market yet to sell these other crops products. They're kind

332
00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:16,160
Speaker 3: of stuck in these broken markets growing these traditional crops

333
00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:18,080
Speaker 3: that if you want to be able to compete on,

334
00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:20,320
Speaker 3: it requires that you use those chemicals so that you

335
00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:23,080
Speaker 3: can keep up. So I am hopeful that our country

336
00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,840
Speaker 3: is able to transition away from that toward fresh local food,

337
00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:29,600
Speaker 3: but it requires changes in government policy, and as it

338
00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:32,320
Speaker 3: stands right now, you have to use a lot of

339
00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,280
Speaker 3: chemicals in some cases for farms to be able to

340
00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:36,920
Speaker 3: make it. I'm not saying that's right or the way

341
00:16:36,920 --> 00:16:39,200
Speaker 3: we want it. It's a reality that a lot of

342
00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:40,160
Speaker 3: farms face.

343
00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:42,200
Speaker 2: Grade the Food and Drug Administration.

344
00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:48,600
Speaker 3: Nah, you know, I would give them probably a B

345
00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:52,280
Speaker 3: minus give us. I give them a little bit better

346
00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:56,240
Speaker 3: grade than our country has overall on protecting our farms.

347
00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,320
Speaker 3: The safety level is all right in this country. But

348
00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,960
Speaker 3: the real problem goes back to something you asked me

349
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:06,600
Speaker 3: about earlier, which is we have all this government and

350
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:10,800
Speaker 3: we still have unsafe food. We can have fewer food recalls,

351
00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:12,680
Speaker 3: we can have safer food in this country and more

352
00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:15,480
Speaker 3: nimble government, and we've kind of got that backwards right now.

353
00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:19,080
Speaker 1: Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at

354
00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:22,720
Speaker 1: one am Eastern, and go to Coast tocoastam dot com

355
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:23,200
Speaker 1: for more