Farmers clog Germany’s highways with tractors during weeklong protests
Thousands of farmers in Germany began a nationwide weeklong protest on Jan. 8, expressing their discontent with government cuts to agricultural subsidies. The demonstrations escalated as farmers, opposing the elimination of diesel tax breaks, blocked highways and city roads, leading to widespread traffic disruptions throughout the country.
Reinhard Jung, a spokesperson for the Free Farmers, criticized the government’s move, highlighting the perceived injustice of imposing a tax increase on the agriculture industry, which is predominantly climate-neutral and relies on solar energy.
Reuters
“The fact that the German government is unilaterally selling a tax increase against the only industry that is largely climate-neutral, namely agriculture, which mainly uses solar energy, as a reduction in climate-damaging subsidies – that’s abysmally dishonest,” Jung said. “And, of course, it is also a very real economic blow against us, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz addressed the financial constraints, reaffirming the government’s commitment to driving forward the climate-neutral transformation of the country, strengthening social cohesion, and standing in solidarity with Ukraine against Russia.
“My most important message at the beginning,” Scholz said. “The government is sticking to its goals. We are vigorously driving forward the climate-neutral transformation of our country, we are strengthening social cohesion, and we are standing closely with Ukraine in its defensive fight against Russia. However, it is clear that we must manage with significantly less money in order to achieve these goals. Prioritizing therefore means clarifying together what we can and cannot afford. It is also about cuts and savings.”
Reuters
In a partial reversal Thursday, Jan. 4, officials announced the preservation of the car tax exemption and a staggered reduction in diesel tax breaks over three years. However, farmers argue that these changes are insufficient, urging the government to consider further revisions.
Why is Argentina’s economy so bad? Does Javier Milei have the answers?
People in Argentina are ready to take a chainsaw to their economy. On Dec. 10, President-elect Javier Milei will take office after his resounding electoral victory against the status quo candidate. Milei, a shaggy-haired, rockstar-esque, eccentric economist, fashions himself an anarcho-capitalist.
People call him Argentina’s Trump, but former President Donald Trump never destroyed the U.S. Central Bank. Milei has said he wants to blow up the country’s central bank, but that’s not all. He’s vowed to shutter entire government agencies and trash the Argentine peso, with hopes of making the U.S. dollar the national currency.
The chainsaw became emblematic of President-elect Javier Milei’s economic goals during his campaign. Source: Tomas Cuesta/Getty Images
“This is not a task for the lukewarm, not a task for the cowardly, and much less for the corrupt,” Milei said in his victory speech.
After years of calling those in Congress corrupt, Milei doesn’t have a ton of friends there, which will make it hard to pass his more extreme policies.
As the character portraying President Harry Truman said in the 1975 play, “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry,” “you want a friend in this life, get a dog.”
It’s advice Milei takes to heart. He cloned his beloved former dog, Conan, producing five genetic matches. He says the English mastiffs are his children and his political advisers.
“With me, the decline ends and we regain power. Long live freedom, damn it,” Milei said, using his catchphrase.
So why did Argentina’s voters overwhelmingly elect a man who is promising to blow up the economy? Argentina’s economy has been a disaster for decades.
“Did Argentina ever have a single crisis that put it down, you know, produce a great depression or lead everybody to leave the country? No, it’s been a series of many crises through the years,” economist Laurence Kotlikoff said.
Decades of disaster
A century ago, Argentina was one of the wealthiest countries in the world. It was rich in natural resources with fertile land. Economically, it was on parity with the United States.
“Argentina, in 1920, had 85% of our per capita GDP, they were almost as rich as we are,” Kotlikoff said. “Today, they have 14%. It’s all due to running these policies over a century. So this is a slow train wreck.”
It’s a train wreck many economists say started under Juan Domingo Perón, a three-time populist president first elected in 1946 who ruled on socialism with a side of fascism.
Perón drastically expanded social welfare programs, nationalized industries, monopolized foreign trade and pushed wages higher. As a result, growth in Argentina paled in comparison with countries it once competed with. The peso lost value and inflation took hold.
Though Perón was eventually overthrown in a military coup, “Peronism” persisted. Perón was even brought back from exile for a third term. And Peronist candidates have largely dominated the political landscape.
Milei’s opponent, Sergio Massa, was the Peronist candidate in the presidential race and minister of the economy. This time, voters resoundingly rejected those ideals.
The real inflation nation
Try shopping within a budget in Argentina where prices literally change by the day.
Inflation in the U.S. has dominated money conversations since the uptick began in 2021. While the U.S. peaked at around 9% this cycle, people in Argentina are looking at 143% in annual inflation in October, with the central bank predicting 185% by the end of the year. It’s among the highest inflation rates in the world.
Despite generous government subsidies, 40% of the population lives in poverty. Meanwhile, the value of Argentina’s currency continues to plunge.
Five years ago, 37 Argentine pesos could buy one U.S. dollar. Today, it takes more than 360 pesos to make the same exchange.
With no faith in their own currency, people in Argentina literally stash U.S. dollars under the mattress for safekeeping, knowing any pesos they hold will rapidly lose value. Many turn to the black market to buy elusive dollars, which in October went for nearly three times the listed exchange rate.
This is a country that boasts the second-largest economy in South America, behind Brazil. The World Bank sees it as a nation with significant opportunities. But the country has been out of balance for decades.
Argentina has defaulted on its debt nine times. The last three have happened since the year 2000. Who would lend money to a nation that can’t pay its debts? Argentina is by far the biggest debtor to the International Monetary Fund, with about $44 billion in outstanding debt.
“Countries like Argentina and Venezuela and a whole host of other countries, for in many cases very understandable reasons, take on debt that is denominated in currencies that are not their own,” economist Stephanie Kelton explained. “So they get loaded up with debt, they get IMF loans and the rest of it.
“Some countries just don’t have much of a choice. They don’t have domestic energy resources, they don’t have access to food and medicine and technologies, they’ve got to import these things.
“And to get those real resources they often have to acquire so-called hard currencies, they need the U.S. dollar or the euro or the pound. So they get indebted in currencies that they can’t issue.
“Then it’s no surprise when a country like Argentina that can do very well for a period of time because it’s a big exporter of things like soybeans, if soybean prices are very high and rising, well all of a sudden Argentina is doing very well.
“And then when commodity markets take a tumble and prices come crashing down, all of a sudden, you’re not earning the foreign exchange that you need to service debt that you’ve taken out in other people’s currencies. So you can get a debt crisis in a country like that.”
This year, with the drought, Argentina’s economy is expected to contract by 2.5%.
Argentina serves as a cautionary tale for other economies; a scary story told to say, “Don’t follow this path or you too might end up here.” As total U.S. debt flirts with $34 trillion, American economists are quick to compare the fundamentals.
“We’ve increased it so much that for example, our debt relative to our national income, to our GDP, is about 40% higher than it is in Argentina, a country that everybody knows is potentially in trouble,” said economist Kevin Hassett, a former senior adviser to Trump.
Will U.S. spending spiral the country to Argentina’s depths? Kelton said there’s one clear difference between Argentina and the U.S. or even Japan, which holds twice as much debt as the U.S. when compared to the size of their economies.
“Japan, the U.S., the UK, Australia, Canada, these governments are currency issuers,” Kelton said. “They’re not going to run out of their own currency. They never have to borrow it from anyone in order to be able to spend.”
One of Milei’s chief pledges, dollarizing Argentina’s economy, would mean letting another country drive its currency destiny. But doing so would eliminate a lifeline that has for decades fueled Argentina’s inflation: Printing pesos to cover the country’s overspending.
The U.S. has no control over whether a country adopts the dollar, and experts doubt Argentina could come up with enough dollars to transition. But the U.S. Treasury has warned countries in the past that dollarizing is not a substitute for sound fiscal policy.
State legislators propose bans on Chinese land ownership in the US
In response to a number of recent national security concerns, including spy balloons and espionage within the military, state legislators are moving to put restrictions on Chinese land ownership in the United States. A Washington Post analysis of data compiled by the advocacy group Asian Pacific American Justice found that lawmakers in 33 states have introduced 81 bills this year to do just that.
“As a former CIA case officer, I recognize the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s aggressive influence campaigns, as well as its attempts to target U.S. national security interests through seemingly innocuous transactions,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said.
These pieces of legislation would prohibit the Chinese government, some China-based businesses and many Chinese citizens from buying agricultural land or property near military bases. At least another 11 bills with similar aims have been introduced in Congress over the last three years.
Proponents say action is necessary to prevent the Chinese government from setting up spy operations on land purchased near American military bases. They also hold concerns that the nation’s food supply could come under threat if hostile foreign powers are buying up too much agricultural land.
“Chinese investments in American farmland put our food security at risk and provide opportunities for Chinese espionage against our military bases and critical infrastructure,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said. “Instead of allowing these purchases, the U.S. government must bar the Communist Party from purchasing our land.”
Though lawmakers have largely been focused on China in their rhetoric regarding this legislation, 17 other countries actually own more American farmland than Beijing currently holds. Most of the proposed bills also restrict land ownership tied to other foreign adversaries, such as Russia, Iran and North Korea. Yet, the emphasis has remained on China, largely due to recent espionage efforts by Beijing, as well as concerns held by U.S. government officials over the uptick in Chinese land purchases as of late.
“It’s very serious concern of ours and an emerging issue. China has been very aggressive over the last 10 years or so,” Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., said.
In 2020, U.S. companies with Chinese shareholders more than doubled their acreage of American land owned, and the following year saw an increase of 98% when compared to purchases made from 2015 to 2019.
However, Asian American advocacy groups believe measures aimed at limiting these purchases go beyond national security concerns and could encourage discrimination against Chinese Americans. Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy has also denounced this legislative push, echoing concerns raised by advocacy groups that restrictions may quote “fuel Asian hatred,” particularly following a spike in hate crimes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“National security is important, but it should not dominate or scapegoat groups of people in our society,” said Jeremy Wu, co-organizer of Asian Pacific American Justice. “We consider racial profiling to be a form of anti-Asian hate. Therefore, [these] activities in many ways parallel and maybe predates the current term of anti-Asian hate in that regard.”
Labor shortages reported in Florida as strict immigration law takes effect
Florida’s agricultural and construction industries are experiencing a labor shortage following the recent implementation of a strict immigration law in the state. SB 1718 took effect in Florida on July 1 and is reportedly leading migrant workers to leave.
Signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, the legislation imposes significant penalties on businesses employing undocumented workers. It reinforces the use of E-Verify and makes using false identification for employment a third-degree felony.
Business owners and workers alike say the ranks of laborers in Florida have grown noticeably thinner, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the Journal’s report, workers at several construction sites in south Florida said that a quarter to half of their teams are gone, exacerbating an already challenging labor shortage across the industry.
Business owners also indicate a scarcity of available farm workers.
Fearing the impact of the new bill back in June, a group of Florida Republican lawmakers, who were notable supporters of the immigration overhaul, had urged immigrants to stay in the state.
“This bill is 100% supposed to scare you,” Rep. Rick Roth, R-Fla., said. “I’m a farmer and the farmers are mad as hell. We are losing employees that are already starting to move to Georgia and other states. It’s urgent that you talk to all your other people and convince them that you have resources, state representatives, other people that can explain the bill to you.”
Roth also at one point said that SB 1718 was more of a “political bill.”
In another video, Rep. Alina Garcia added that SB 1718 is meant to scare people away from coming to Florida, adding that the new rules have “no teeth.”
In 2019, Florida was home to an estimated 772,000 undocumented migrants, many of whom worked in industries such as tourism, construction, retail and agriculture.
While experts warn that targeting the undocumented demographic could worsen the existing labor shortage, Gov. DeSantis has defended his legislation and the concept of legal immigration.
“You can’t build a strong economy based on illegality,” DeSantis said during a press conference.
As DeSantis competes for the presidency, he has made the construction of a border wall a focal point, pledging to fulfill an idea which garnered significant support from Republicans during Donald Trump’s presidency.
“We’re gonna stop the invasion… Yes, we are actually going to build the wall and we are going to restore the sovereignty of this country, and you can have my word on that,” DeSantis declared during a rally in New Hampshire.
Swarms of ground-dwelling Mormon crickets have descended upon various parts of Nevada and Idaho, posing challenges for local residents. Buildings, sidewalks, and roadways have been covered by these insects, prompting officials to mobilize cleanup crews to address the accumulation of cricket carcasses.
Additionally, authorities from Nevada’s Transportation Department have issued warnings to motorists, urging them to exercise caution and drive slowly in areas where vehicles have crushed the crickets. It has been observed that these crushed insects can create hazardous conditions on the road, leading to a series of accidents. As a response, the department has taken proactive measures such as plowing and sanding highways to mitigate the problem.
“They get run over, two or three come out and eat their buddy, and they get run over, and the roads can get covered with crickets and they can get slick,” Jeff Knight, an entomologist for the Nevada Agriculture Department, said. “The bigger issue is these afternoon thunderstorms and put a little water on that and it gets slick, we’ve had a number of accidents caused by crickets.”
Local residents have also taken matters into their own hands by utilizing various tools and equipment to combat the invading crickets. Leaf blowers, tractors, and even snowplows have been employed to alleviate the presence of these insects in the affected areas.
Experts have attributed the current influx of Mormon crickets to an unusually rainy winter, which has disrupted the insects’ hatching cycle. The delayed hatching has resulted in a higher number of bugs compared to previous years, and this surge in population is expected to persist at its peak for the next four to six years.
“The band of crickets in [Nevada] is probably a thousand acres, and we’ve had bands even bigger than that,” Knight said. “Once they [start hatching] they have the upper hand, so their populations increase for several years then drop off.”
While the insects do not bite people, they can and have devastated crops, emerging in great numbers to seriously hamper agricultural produce, according to the University of Nevada. Mormon crickets feed on more than 400 species of plants, creating problems for local farmers.
Ireland proposes killing 200,000 dairy cows for climate agenda
Ireland is proposing a slaughter of 200,000 dairy cows in order to have cleaner air. Methane from cows is considered a leading contributor to greenhouse gasses.
But Irish dairy farmers aren’t having it. They are revolting against the country’s proposal to kill 65,000 cows a year, for three years, to meet climate goals.
Cull of dairy cows would slash herd by 10%
The proposal would shrink the national dairy herd by 10% at a cost to taxpayers of $213 million annually. The Irish government says the cull would be voluntary and the government would pay ranchers per head of cattle culled as a “retirement exit scheme.”
Critics call proposal a disaster for Ireland
Elon musk was quick to condemn Ireland’s proposal. He took to Twitter saying that killing cows doesn’t matter for climate change. Farmers say if the cull is voluntary, it won’t meet climate targets, calling the plan a waste.
The president of the Irish Farmers’ Association, Tim Cullinan, said that beef and dairy production would simply shift to other countries, causing more emissions elsewhere and therefore defeating the purpose of the overall climate goal.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, Pat McCormack, said that herds aren’t any larger than they were 30 years ago, noting the same can’t be said for the transportation and aviation industries.
Ireland’s Agriculture Department: No final plans for proposal
Another critic, geologist Ian Pilmer, says culling 200,000 head of cattle can only end in “disaster.”
He compared the move to the Irish potato famine, where a third of the Irish population died and a third emigrated out. He fears the move would backfire on the country.
The Irish Department of Agriculture said there are no final plans, and that this is simply a proposal.
This is a story unlike many others, but it’s not getting a lot of attention from the media. Only a handful of outlets are reporting on Ireland’s proposed culling to meet its climate agenda.
Right-leaning outlets have offered coverage while left-leaning outlets have largely ignored the story. By using the Straight Arrow News Media Miss tool, see when the mainstream media is ignoring a topic that might not fit an agenda.
18,000 cows die in a Texas dairy farm explosion fire
An explosion at a Texas dairy farm has resulted in the largest single-incident loss of dairy cows on record. 18,000 cows died after an uncontrollable fire tore through the shelter.
The explosion at Southfork Dairy Farm in west Texas is being seen as a tragedy. Thousands of cows, waiting to be milked, were trapped inside holding pens as the fire spread.
The loss for the dairy farm is a significant one. It’s the largest loss of cows ever, according to animal advocacy group Animal Welfare Institute. The organization tracks barn and farm fires. The group says no other fire comes close to this size of a loss.
One dairy worker, who was trapped inside the facility, was rescued by firefighters and taken to the hospital. The Castro County judge offered praise for the local sheriff and fire rescue. Thankfully there was no loss of life in the explosion.
The United States Department of Agriculture has the price of a dairy cow estimating around $1,300 to $1,500 a piece. This would put the financial loss for the farm at around $30 million.
Tennessee to use eminent domain to take farmers’ land for Ford EV campus
Tennessee’s plans to use eminent domain to seize privately-owned farmland for Ford’s $5.6 billion “mega campus” project, BlueOval City, have sparked concern among local farmers. The state government has committed $884 million in incentives to Ford, including the formation of an 11-person board with the power to seize land.
The planned BlueOval City campus in western Tennessee will be the site for building both electric trucks and batteries. The state is seeking 35 separate tracts to connect the campus to I-40, and so far, it has taken possession of 15 tracts.
The use of eminent domain has raised concerns among farmers who own the targeted tracts of land. They worry that they won’t be adequately compensated for their land. One farmer who spoke with the Tennessee Lookout stated that the state was offering him less than $4,000 per acre, far below the average value of Tennessee farmland, which was $4,700 per acre in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Eminent domain is a controversial power that allows the government to take private property for public use, but it is supposed to be used only after adequate compensation is offered to the affected parties.
Cattle in Gila National Forest to be shot, left to rot
The U.S. Forest Service said there are too many cattle in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest. So, for the ninth time in 25 years, it is paying contractors to shoot the animals from a helicopter and leave the bodies to rot.
According to the Forest Service, the estimated 150 head of cattle roaming on 559,688 acres of wilderness pose a “significant risk to public safety and natural resources.” The Forest Service said the feral cattle are aggressive toward visitors, graze year-round and cause erosion around waterways.
The New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association (NMCGA) said not only are the cattle not feral, but this problem is the Forest Service’s own doing. The NMCGA said when the Forest Service stopped issuing grazing permits in the 1970s, the infrastructure used to manage livestock on the rangeland fell into disrepair, making it extremely difficult to round up animals that got loose.
The NMCGA said what’s in Gila National Forest are “estray cattle,” meaning they used to be domesticated, and by law belong to the NMCGA. The association said it’s not opposed to removing animals, but the way the Forest Service is going about it is reckless and wasteful.
“This is not a New Mexico problem. This is not an Arizona problem. This is a Western states problem. And we don’t want the Forest Service to decide this is a tool that they want to have in their tool bag for any occasion that they feel that they can use it,” Bronson Corn, president-elect of NMCGA, said.
According to reporting from The Fence Post, since the dead cattle are being left to decompose onsite, it is next to impossible to verify if the animal was branded and belonged to an area rancher. Members of the Cattle Growers’ Association told The Fence Post “that means the federal government is taking private property without just compensation and with no direct federal statutory authority.”
The area where the cull will take place is now closed. The Forest Service said the cull is scheduled to start on Feb. 23. There is evidence some animals were killed in or near waterways in the past. The Forest Service said in a release on its website that staff will “ensure no carcasses are adjacent to or in any waterbody or spring.”
China building big pig towers
As the world’s most populous country, China has a lot of mouths to feed. Pork is the primary protein in the Chinese diet, and even though China produces more pork than any other country, it’s still not enough to meet domestic demand.
It’s one of the many elements China will need to factor into the equation as it weighs a possible military invasion of Taiwan. Invasion would mean war. War would likely mean the end of food imports, and China could face famine. Between 1959 and 1961, an estimated 30 million Chinese people starved to death in one of the world’s most severe famines on record.
With 10% of the world’s arable land and 20% of the world’s population, China is in an agricultural deficit. According to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, “a country must strengthen its agriculture before making itself a great power.”
In 2019, the Chinese cabinet ordered all government offices to support the pork industry, including financial support for more large-scale pig farms.
The New York Times profiled a factory farm in Ezhou, one of dozens of multi-story farms to pop up in China since 2019. Twenty four of the building’s 26 floors are dedicated to raising pigs from insemination to maturity, with each floor essentially operating as its own farm.
Conveyor belts deliver more than a million pounds of feed to the pigs every day. Manure is also collected and repurposed as methane to produce electricity. A second 26-story facility is being constructed next to the existing farm. Once both buildings are fully operational, they are expected to raise 1.2 million pigs annually.
High-rise hog farms became more popular after 2018, when around half of China’s pig population was wiped out by swine flu. Ironically, by stacking so many animals in such tight quarters, American agricultural producers said the Chinese may be opening themselves up to another disaster, because disease spreads easily in confined spaces.
