Unsustainable Nonsense

LEE PITTS

Depending on your age, you may or may not remember reading a book written by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson that is called “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” It was about a very vain king who gets exposed as a fraud before his loyal subjects.

In the book two scam artists showed up in the emperor’s royal city. The emperor was well-known for spending lavishly on clothing so, posing as weavers, the crooks offered to supply him with magnificent clothes that would be invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent. The emperor gave the crooks looms and loans and afterwards a succession of officials checked on their progress. The bureaucrats all saw that the looms were devoid of any cloth but raved to the emperor about the imaginary cloth to avoid being thought of as a fool. On the unveiling day the emperor was dressed in the non-clothes and was paraded in front of his subjects in his birthday suit. Of course, the townsfolk went along with the ruse, not wanting to appear stupid. Finally, a child on the parade route blurted out that the emperor was naked. The people immediately caught on to the scam but the emperor continued to proudly wear the “garments” made of nothing.

Now you know everything there is to know about the subject of “sustainability.”

Greenwashing

If I had to pick the two biggest buzzwords of the early 21st century I’d pick “stakeholder” and “sustainability.” This report is about both.

As ranchers, oops, I mean stakeholders, we all know what “carrying capacity” is. Some- time in the 1970’s we exceeded ours. Life on earth had become “unsustainable” but rather than blame overpopulation on the stakeholders the scientists and the bureaucrats said the earth had fallen victim to “climate change” which they insisted was caused by cow farts and burning fossil fuels.

The U.N. says earth will have to sustain another 2.6 billion people by 2050 yet even at our current population of 6.5 billion we are using up our resources at an “unsustainable” rate. We should do what any good rancher would do and cut back on our numbers but barring mass suicide or nuclear sense is just a marketing gimmick. Marketeers call it “greenwashing.”

If you don’t think sustainability is nothing more than a passing trend or fad, just ask anyone to tell you what sustainability means. Instead of repeating the lesson pounded into our heads in nursery school, “Don’t take more than your fair share of the graham crackers,” chances are the only synonym they’ll come up with is “climate change” because the environmental movement has grabbed on to the word like a pit bull.

POOF!

The scientists got part of the equation right. The problem was created by humans, but like all other environmental problems, it was a population problem. We were guilty of overgrazing but the politicians didn’t dare blame the stakeholders because that would be committing political suicide. Besides, it would be impossible to fix the problem unless we did like the communists in China and restricted couples to only one child. It would be much easier to just call the problem one of “sustainability.” war there’s no other known cure for what ails us. But any honest politician (if there is such a creature) who said so would be considered a fool.

So, instead of a population problem we have a sustainability one and the word has multiplied like Russian thistle. Businesses and corporations are using deceptive tactics to falsely claim their product is “sustainably produced,” whatever that means. An honest person, like the boy in the story, would say that all this sustainability non-

Illegal Crossings at ‘Freezing’ Canadian Border Surge During Migrant Crisis

BY JESSE O’NEILL / NEW YORK POST

Border Patrol agents in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire apprehended more people illegally entering the US from Canada in the past three months than in the previous two years combined, authorities say.

Officials in the states, which make up the federal agency’s eastern “Swanton Sector,” saw a 743 percent increase in apprehensions and encounters between October 1 and December 31, 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, sector chief, Robert Garcia said last week in a press release.

In December, a record 441 people were detained by US Border Patrol and Customs at the Canadian border in the region after flying to Canada from at least 19 countries, according to The Center Square. Fourteen others abandoned their illicit journey to America, and at least 135 foreign nationals evaded authorities and are now in the US illegally, officials told the outlet.

Further west, the influx at the US’s frigid continued on page 4

So far the only person of any stature in the cattle business who is like the honest little boy at the parade, is the CEO of R CALF, Bill Bullard. In a recent commentary he said sustainability is nothing less than “an insidious movement well underway that would rob U.S. cattle producers of their liberty.”

Said Bullard, “We have the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) that is led by the world’s largest global beef packers, some of the largest world banks, some of the largest global retailers, and globalist pharmaceutical companies. Indeed, over half of the executive committee of the GRSB is continued on page 2

Is Rural America Growing Again? Recent Data Suggests Yes

BY SARAH MELOTTE / THE DAILY YONDER

Visitors travel from all over the country to hunt big game in Powder River County, Montana, where the prairie and badlands topography has only about one resident for every two of its 3,300 square miles.

The area boasts of some of the best recreational hunting in the United States. In 2017, 171,466 hunters purchased licenses to hunt antelope from Montana’s Fish, Wildlife, and Parks organization.

Settled among the rugged Bighorn Mountain Range in the southeastern part of the state, Powder River County’s economy is primarily dependent on recreation, according to reports from the Economic Research Service. In 2017, hunting contributed to over a quarter of a billion dollars to Montana’s economy.

Like many rural communities, the Powder River’s population fell from 2010 to 2020. But the trend reversed from 2020 to 2021, according to Census population estimates. After losing three percent of its population in the previous decade, the county’s population grew from 1,682 in 2020 to 1,702 in 2021.

continued on page 4

by LEE PITTS

How To Stay Married

The other day I saw one of those bikes that looks like the riders are laying down while they peddle. Only this bike was a little different. The husband was facing forward with his legs peddling out in front of him while his wife was behind him facing backwards and peddling in the opposite direction. Yet the bike was moving forward!

If that isn’t a fitting metaphor for marriage I don’t know what is!

Next year my wife and I will celebrate 50 years of wedded bliss. My marriage is the thing I am most proud of in my life and I knew after our first date that Diane was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Still, I was reluctant to ask, “Will you marry me?”

I was afraid she’d reply, “Will I what?” Or, “I’d rather drink a gallon of paint thinner!”

Statistics reveal that marriage, or what is now referred to as “the sociocultural interface” or “two or more people sharing a living space,” is now an alternative lifestyle and a dying institution. I have a friend who’s been married so many times the preacher gives him a volume discount and he could live for a month on the rice that’s collected in the pockets of his suit. Another monogamously challenged acquaintance jokingly refers to his “five mile wedding license” and “his current wife.”

Having a great marriage is not easy and there are sacrifices one has to make. For example, I was raised on Miracle Whip and was shocked to find out from my bride that, “Only poor people eat Miracle Whip.” She ate real Mayonnaise and wouldn’t have Miracle Whip in the house. I figured this was a battle not worth fighting.

Then there’s her choice in football teams. She’s been a fan of the Pittsburg Steelers ever since Terry Bradshaw played for them. (She’s got this thing for Bradshaw I don’t understand.) Whereas I’ve liked the 49’ers ever since I became friends with their offensive line coach who invited us once a year to sit in the owner’s box to watch a game. You can imagine how humiliated I was when she rooted for the Steelers while continued on page 3

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KRISTY HINDS Graphic Designer made up of officials from Tyson, Rabobank, McDonald’s Corporation, and Zoetis, with a Tyson employee being the committee’s president.” By the way, the NCBA is also a member.

“So, what is it that these globalist executives are trying to accomplish through the GRSB,” asks Bullard. “They want to implement a global plan to conform U.S. cattle producers to their notion of compliance with the environment, social, and governance framework known as ESG.” Now ESG is used by world banks to evaluate corporate behavior and to determine the financial performance of corporations. In other words, ESG is an environment, social and governance standard used by world banks to determine who among all the other global corporations will, or will not, get a loan.

“The GRSB, then, is the global organization charged with conforming U.S. cattle producers to environment, social, and governance standards regarding greenhouse gas emission, how you use your land, and what animal husbandry practices you employ for your cattle to ensure that the global processors that you sell your cattle to are able to obtain financing from world banks,” said Bullard.

“The GRSB consists of world capital borrowers who want to control America’s cattle producers. When you have only four multinational beef packers controlling 85% of the fed cattle market, it’s easy to understand how compliance with ESG standards can be forced upon cattle producers when it’s used as a condition of allowing market access.”

“But the tentacles of the GRSB,” continued Bullard, “have spread beyond it being just a private transnational governance corporation that can control cattle producers’ behavior by restricting their access to the market. Now this liberty-robbing movement has spread to governments. First, it was the Dutch and now it is the United States government through, of all agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission that wants to empower global corporations operating in the U.S. to force cattle producers to provide measurable reporting of their compliance with environment, social, and governance standards.”

“This is a huge step for these evil doers,” continues Bullard. “Rather than to have to rely on market restrictions to coerce producers to meet their authoritarian standards, now they have the full force of government to force those standards upon cattle producers under the possible threat of sanctions.”

If you doubt Bullard just look at The Pork Checkoff who has been funding sustainability for years.

“Remember pork?” asks R CALF’s CEO. “It comes from the hogs that used to be raised about everywhere in the U.S. where your livestock auction yards rang with the weekly sound of squealing pigs, until they didn’t. And that’s because the global pork packers quit buying cash hogs, eliminated 90% of those pesky hog farmers, and dropped all the hogs into huge corporate factories.”

“The CEO of the National Pork Board, says the pork checkoff program has now developed a means of sustainabili- ty reporting for producers. And it describes how ‘Professionals’ will come to your farm and explain to you what your sustainability baseline is. Presumably, it is those same ‘professionals’ that will then direct you on your sheeples (rhymes with peoples) path toward the GRSB’s moniker – continuous improvement. You already know that where the hog industry went, the cattle industry is following.”

“You should be screaming mad right now,” says Bullard, “but don’t scream silently while the ‘professional’ evil doers step up their efforts to tell you how to run your cattle operations. Remaining silent means poof! There goes your liberty.”

Gather All Ye Stakeholders

If you doubt that the NCBA is up to their ears in all this sustainability nonsense just consider that they have a position titled “Senior Director of Sustainability” which was held by Ashley McDonald before she left to become the Assistant Vice President of Sustainability Development and Outreach for the National Pork Board. During her time with the NCBA McDonald was also an executive director of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef which she called, “A multi-stakeholder initiative developed to advance, support and communicate continuous improvement in sustainability of the U.S. beef value chain. The USRSB achieves this through leadership, innovation, multi-stakeholder engagement and collaboration.”

WARNING: Any time you hear the word “stakeholder” you should either find a place to hide or run as fast as you can in the opposite direction.

And who is doing all this collaborating at the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef? From the outside it looks like its drug companies, large feedlots, retail grocery chains, large restaurant and fast-food chains, state cattlemen’s associations and even Ducks Unlimited.

Evidently the USRSB has a big job to do, which is to “set goals and sector-level targets for all six high-priority indicators: Air and greenhouse gas emissions, land resources, water resources, employee safety and well-being, animal health and well-being and efficiency and yield.”

This sustainability nonsense sounds like the biggest job creation program ever created.

The New World Order

Not everyone is sold on sustainability. Writing for American Thinker, Janet Levy, says, “Globalist advocates of the New World Order are promoting so-called ‘sustainability’ programs that will raise beef prices so high that only the super-rich will be able to afford it. This is designed to be achieved by outlawing grazing on public land, allowing an oligopoly of meat-packers to squeeze ranchers out of business, and popularizing plant-based meat. It’s the big meat-packers who will make this fake meat, so their profits will continue to skyrocket, sustained under the cover of ‘climate virtue.’”

“Veganism,” Levy continues, “is being advanced as the most ethical way to sustain the planet, and to promote human health and animal welfare. But along with that, ranchers and smalland medium-scale beef-packers are being marginalized. The very consumption of meat is be- ing damned. Deploying outright lies, a misguided agenda threatens individual liberty and our freedom to farm, own livestock, control our land, and choose our diet.”

Joakim Book, a Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, holds degrees in economics and economic history from the University of Glasgow and Oxford. Needless to say, he’s one smart guy and he says, “Sustainability is one of the words that captures the essence of my generation. A sustainable project, event or business is met with ‘wows’ and ‘ooohs’, an indicator of its owner’s moral righteousness and altogether praiseworthy character.”

“But its meaning is far from clear from all but its most fervent supporters. Dealing with the extraction of resources, the use of ecological reserves or harvesting of crops, a process is allegedly ‘sustainable’ if the naturally occurring regeneration exceeds the current levels of extraction. Simply put, don’t use more than what is renewed. Moreover, a process branded as sustainable usually involves a mix of some other virtue signaling activities of our time: carbon emission neutrality or offsetting; a superficial concern for one’s environmental impact; energy produced in ‘renewable’ ways or the use of recycled materials.”

“It’s the belief that we aim to pursue our current endeavor in the same way for all eternity,” says Book. “Naively believing that they will mindlessly continue linearly into the future is quite silly; hailing processes as ‘sustainable’ is similarly silly. Human societies and their economic process are dynamic systems capable of change.”

“By saying that something is unsustainable, my generation wants to convey the idea that these activities are immoral and that they shouldn’t continue. It’s a naive and erroneously nonsensical conviction.”

The ‘S’ Word

“The major criticism of sustainability,” says Book, “is that it keeps people poor and is impossible to practice in reality. One of the major tenets of sustainability is that people should limit usage of resources and many people argue that this relegates certain people to unacceptably low standards of living.”

This is exactly opposite of what it was meant to do back in 1987 when the United Nations all but created the words ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainability.’ Back then, the study of ‘sustainability’ was supposed to be about finding ways to let poor nations catch up to richer ones in terms of standard of living. It was also supposed to make Americans feel guilty for its lack of progress in environmental sustainability. They created formulas and charts that showed that our country ranked poorly in greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and energy consumption. They said the U.S. has one of the lowest recycling rates in the world.

The original goal of the U.N. was to give disadvantaged countries better access to natural resources. That’s when the greenies first glommed on to the ‘S’ word and immediately saw its possibilities for the rich to maintain consumptive lifestyles as long as they bought carbon credits for their Lamborghinis and personal jets.

The biggest problem for promoters of ‘sustainability’ is that it is expensive. In fact, when questioned, people said it was number one reason why they are not living more ‘sustainably.’ As if they have any clue of what that means. Sustainability means lowering our standard of living, which is an idea that’s never gained much traction to begin with. But it sure sounds good!

Personally, I see a lot of similarity between the sustainability fraud and the book mentioned at the beginning of this report. Whether we’re talking about a vain emperor or the sustainability movement, in both instances the subject is as naked as a new born baby. ▫

HERD from page 1 eating cheese puffs in the owner’s box of the Niners. Rather than argue I just gave up watching football.

My wife says I only have two faults, I don’t listen and... I forget the other one. Oh yea, it’s my driving. Although you really couldn’t call it that as all I did was hold the steering wheel. She used to constantly tell me, “Slow down! Speed up! Don’t pass! Don’t let that jerk cut you off!” I finally made the ultimate sacrifice and gave up driving after having a debilitating stroke. (Seizures and driving don’t mix.) This meant she had to do all the driving and we haven’t had a fight ever since. My neighbors have the same problem and have to drive two vehicles even when going to the same place!

I did have a minor victory in the toilet paper and paper towel department though. You won’t believe this but my wife was taught that the paper was to come off the back of the roll while I was normal and knew the proper way was for it to cascade down the front.

I also realized right away that if our marriage was going to last I’d have to give up control of three things: the remote control and two books... cook and check.

The best advice I ever got on how to stay married came from my Grandpa who I never heard get in a fight with Grandma. When he gave me the family heirloom diamond ring that was to be Diane’s engagement ring he said, “If the husband or wife starts to get a little hot under the collar the wife should go to the kitchen and the man should go to the garage. The man will get a little quality time in the shop and maybe even some hot chocolate chip cookies. As for the wife, there’s always the possibility that the car will fall off the jack stands and she’ll get to collect on the life insurance policy.”

Oh, and I almost forgot this tip... generally speaking, the couple that laughs together stays together. ▫