Saying things that need to be said.
March 15, 2025 •
Volume 67 • No. 3
The Cracked Crystal Ball
For years we’ve all been reading or hearing predictions from self-appointed “scientists” that were so absurd to the point of being comical. I’ve always referred to such scientists as “Chicken Littles” because their predictions were no better than the crackpot chicken who claimed “the sky was falling.”
The Great Die Off I first became interested in the ridiculous remarks made by so-called scientists when I read a book called The Population Bomb written by a Stanford biologist named Paul Erlich.
substantial increase in the world death rate.”
■ Erlich told the New York Times in the 70’s, “We must realize that unless we are extremely lucky, everybody will disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years.”
■ Mademoiselle magazine carried this Erlich prediction: “Population will inevitably and completely
In the 1960s when Erlich was writing his book, famine was the big fad with the hippie crowd.
(Keep in mind as you read Erlich’s predictions that when The Population Bomb came out the world had a population of 3.5 billion people compared to today’s 8.2 billion.) Back then Erlich made the following comments:
■ “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a
years.”
■ “Since more than ninetenths of the original tropical rainforests will be removed in most areas within the next 30 years or so [by 2005], it is expected that half of the organisms in these areas will vanish with it.”
Live a good honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time
outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten
■ “Two-hundred thousand Americans will die in 1973 during smog-disasters in New York and Los Angeles,” Erlich stated emphatically. “In 1970 “air pollution is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”
■ Audubon Magazine went all-in on Erlich as one might expect. “DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons may have substantially reduced the life expectancy of people
Demand for Protein Outpaces Snack Category Innovation
Protein snacks reached $24 billion in sales and are growing at three times the rate of the overall snacking category.
BY INDUSTRY NEWS / PROVISIONERONLINE.COM
COURTESY OF CHOMPS
New research from Chomps reveals a major imbalance in the US snacking market: While consumers actively seek protein in 36 percent of snacking occasions, protein snacks currently make up only 19 percent of retail sales — leaving billions in untapped opportunity. Despite this gap, protein-forward snacks are outpacing the overall snacking category three times in growth within the $126 billion snacking industry, with protein snacks accounting for $24 billion — yet the retail landscape and product innovation pipeline have struggled to keep pace with shifting consumer habits.
Key findings from the study:
■ Protein demand versus fulfillment gap: The US snacking market includes seven core need states, with protein playing a major role in 36 percent of snacking occasions, particularly for “efficient nutrition,” “healthy fuel” and “grazing satisfaction.” However, protein is only being fulfilled in 19 percent of purchases, leaving a major opportunity for brands and retailers to
continued on page 3
Riding Herd
by LEE PITTS
The Color of Tractors
born since 1945,” wrote Erlich. “Americans born since 1946 now had a life expectancy of only 49 years.” He also predicted that if current patterns continued, this expectancy would reach 42 years by 1980 when it might level out.” (Life expectancy today in our country is 78.6 years).
Whoops!
■ In a 1969 essay titled Eco-Catastrophe! Erlich wrote, “Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born. By 1975 some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
continued on page 2
Conservation Groups Launch Suit Against Fish & Wildlife Service For Impairing Species Recovery, Ignoring Science
Two conservation groups are launching a suit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) over the “blanket rule” that disregards science and hinders habitat restoration efforts under the Endangered Species Act. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) and Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) want the agency to adopt the approach used by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which develops tailored regulations to recover threatened species guided by science and the specific needs of each species.
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) directs agencies to list species and take steps to recover them. To do so, the agency is supposed to design science-based regulations tailored to the needs of each species. Citing administrative convenience, the FWS established the “blanket 4(d) rule” to bypass this process, ignoring science and species-specific considerations.
As a result, the agency’s one-size-fits-all approach has yielded poor species recovery rates. By comparison, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s tailored strategy has recovered species at twice the rate of FWS’ blanket approach.
“While the blanket rule is certainly easier for
continued on page 3
Ilooked around the cafe, saw that the rancher’s table was filled and then noticed there was a seat at the farmer’s table, so I considered joining them. I mean how bad could it be? So I went over to the dark side and asked the clodhoppers if they’d mind if I joined them?
“Sure, pull up a seat,” said farmer #1. “We have no prejudices here. Your ball cap may advertise a bull while mine advertises a CAT. You go to Denver to see all the newest squeeze chutes, while we go to Tulare’s Farm Equipment Show to see what’s new in heavy metal.”
“Some cattlemen have Red Angus,” said farmer #2, “and we have red tractors.”
“Yeah,” chimed in farmer #3, “We have a lot in common with you cow pokes. You have trouble finding good cowboys while we have trouble finding good tractor jockeys. And we’re both in a bad mood when we pour out the rain gauge and four inches of dust falls out.”
“And we’ve been invaded with imports,” said farmer #4. “You have Charolais from France, Simmental from Switzerland and Kobe from Japan while we have Kubotas from Japan, Argo made in Europe and even some John Deere tractors made in China. America is dominated by John Deere Green while Registered Black Angus wear the pants in your family.”
I countered, “But many of our black Angus are bred to cattle of another breed.”
“Are you kidding, farmers invented crossbreeding,” said farmer #4. “Have you ever heard of a tangelo, a limequat or an orangelo?”
“Yeah,” chimed in farmer #1, “and it’s a common sight in farm country to see a green John Deere pulling a blue New Holland baler. If that’s not crossbreeding I don’t know what is.”
“I’ll tell you what it is,” said the grumpy Oliver guy. “It’s heresy. That’s what it is!”
“That’s just because you’re so red that you own 35 antique Oliver tractors,” said the county extension agent who’d joined us. “There’s another difference between farmers and ranchers. You don’t see ranchers preserving taxidermy bulls or entering them in the Fourth of July parade. Generally, ranchers don’t have huge shops with
LEE PITTS
■ Finally, in the 1970 Earth Day issue of The Progressive, Erlich assured readers, “Between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the ‘Great Die-Off.’” Settled Science?
Scientists in the 1970’s weren’t worried about global warming. For example, Kenneth Watt, UC Davis ecologist warned about an impending Ice Age.
■ Speaking at Swarthmore College he said, “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but 11 degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
■ “At the present rate of nitrogen buildup,” Watt said, “it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
Many other scientists were also predicting icy weather ahead.
* In 1970 in an article in the Boston Globe researcher James Lodge warned, “Air pollution may obliterate the sun and cause a new ice age in the first third of the next century if population continues to grow and earth’s resources are consumed at the present rate.”
■ Claude Rose in 1977 wrote in his book about our changing weather, “Northern hemisphere temperatures have been falling steadily since the 1940s. Glaciers are advancing once again. Sci-
entists no longer debate the coming of a new ice age: the question now is when?” Rose asked, “Will our fuel run out? Will our food be destroyed? Will we freeze?”
■ Guardian magazine said in 1974, “Spy Satellites Show New Ice Age is Coming Fast.”
■ An article in Time magazine said in 1974, “Telltale signs are everywhere, from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest. Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7 F.”
■ From Newsweek, “There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change is as profound as some of the pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic.”
■ “The news for the future is not all good,” said the New York Times. “The climate is going to get unreliable. It is going to get cold. Harvest failures and regional famines will be more frequent.”
■ A different New York
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Times article stated, “An international team of specialists has concluded from eight indexes of climate that there is no end in sight to the cooling trend of the last 30 years, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.”
■ Anthony J. Sadar, associate professor of science at Geneva College, wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Examiner on January 19, 2025, in which he summed up the situation brilliantly: “In the 1970s, the looming ice age was the climate crisis du jour—proof that today’s “settled science” may not be so settled after all.”
Game Over
In 2009 former Vice President Al Gore turned our thinking from worries about freezing to death to baking ourselves to dust in an oven on earth created by fossil fuels and gaseous cows.
■ Gore predicted in 1979 that, “The North Pole will be ice-free in the summer of 2013 because of manmade global warming.” Sorry Al, in 2013 the Arctic ice covered two million square miles and today the Antarctic sea ice is 17 percent HIGHER than it was in 1979.
■ Although Gore’s predictions that he made in his little movie, An Inconvenient Truth, did not materialize, Gore still won the Noble Peace Prize for his work on global warming. He should have given the million dollars that came with the Peace Prize back after saying things like “Unless drastic measures were implemented, the planet would hit an irreversible ‘point of no return’ by 2016. Game over.” (Gore really didn’t need the money considering the millions he made
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pushing this hoax on the public and on carbon trading.)
■ Gore also predicted in 1993 that, “Winters will be a thing of the past by the year 2000.”
■ If your financial advisor had a track record as bad as Gore’s you’d fire he or she faster than you can say “scam artist.”
■ Gore wasn’t the only one brainwashing the public about global warming. In March of 2023, the United Nations warned of humanity’s ticking “timebomb,” and released a report enumerating a multi-trillion-dollar plan to implement climate policies across the globe. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report a “survival guide for humanity” and called for the phase-out of fossil fuels: “Dear friends, “ he said, “humanity is on thin ice—and that ice is melting fast.”
■ In 1982, Mostafa Tolba, executive director of the UN’s Environment Program, foresaw “an environmental catastrophe which will witness devastation as complete, as irreversible as any nuclear holocaust.” In 1990, Mostafa said: “We shall win or lose the climate struggle in the first years of the 1990s. The issue is as urgent as that.”
■ The New York Times said, “There is a real possibility that some people now in their infancy will live to a time when the ice at the North Pole will have melted, a change that would cause swift and perhaps catastrophic changes in climate.”
■ Mark Perry wrote a widely quoted article called 18 Spectacularly Wrong Predictions Were Made Around the First Earth Day in 1970. Among these were the following:
■ “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” declared Denis Hayes, the chief organizer for Earth Day.
■ “Peter Gunter, a North Texas State University professor, wrote in 1970, “Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China, and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions. By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception
of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
■ In 1970, Life reported, “In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.” Perry wrote that Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years [by 1985 or 2000] unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
■ “We are in an environmental crisis that threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” wrote biologist Barry Commoner.
James Hansen, called the Godfather of Climate Change, testified before Congress in June 2008, on the dangers of greenhouse gases: “We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path. This is the last chance.” Suddenly The Big Mouth of the South, Ted Turner, became a leading “expert” on climate change: “We’ll be eight degrees hotter in ten years, in 30 or 40 years basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state like Somalia or Sudan, and living conditions will be intolerable. The droughts will be so bad there’ll be no more corn growing.”
In July 2009, another self-appointed “expert,” the Prince of Wales, (later King Charles) chimed in, asserting the planet had “96 months to avoid irretrievable climate and ecosystem collapse, and all that goes with it.”
■ In 1989, the Associated Press said, “Rising Seas Could Obliterate Nations.” They quoted Noel Brown, a senior UN environmental official who said, “Entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.”
■ In 2019 the New Mexico governor said we had only 12 years before, “The climate will be boiling. Melt the polar ice caps, fry the planet and flood coastal towns like LA, New York and Boston.”
■ Sen. Gaylord Nelson wrote in Look Magazine, “Dr. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
Ecologist Kenneth Watt declared, “By the year 2000, if
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present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say,`I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’” (Note: Global oil production last year at about 95M barrels per day was double the global oil output of 48M bpd around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970.)
■ UK prime minister Gordon Brown said, “There are now fewer than 50 days to set the course of the next 50 years and more. Let us be in no doubt: once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement, in some future period, can undo that choice. By then, it will be irretrievably too late.”
■ In 2019, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez foresaw 2031 as the potential end of days. “Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like: ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it? And, like, this is the war—this is our World War ll.”
TRACTORS cont from pg 1
bridge cranes, milling machines, expensive tool chests filled with Snap-On tools and piles of used tires everywhere. And you won’t find any horses on farms much anymore, except in Amish country.”
“Now that I think of it,” I said, “ranchers and farmers do have some equipment in common. We’re both starting to use drones, there’s usually a Bobcat or a mini-excavator on most big ranches and we both use ATV’s. And all of us are just like firefighters in that we’re always putting out fires. My bull might be shooting blanks while your tractor may not start. A rancher might have to get up in the middle of the night to check the
■ UN General Assembly President Maria Garces declared an 11-year window to escape catastrophe: “We are the last generation that can prevent irreparable damage to our planet.”
In June 2019, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden threw his support behind Ocasio-Cortez’s dozen-year projection.
So, we’ve gone from Erlich’s Population Bomb, to a new ice age, then morphing into overheated “global warming,” and finally “climate change,” which covers all the bases whether the temperature goes up or down. This way they can’t be wrong.
As Anthony Sadar has said, “Considering the history of confident climate claims, the general populace has a right to be skeptical of what has been asserted as ‘settled science’ with respect to climate change.”
As the previous quotes prove, single-minded scientists, politicians and bureaucrats pushing their liberal climate-change agenda have hardly ever been right when it comes to predicting our future, so why should we be attempting to alter the entire structure of our society based on anything the aforementioned Chicken Littles have to say?
Good question, don’t you think? ▫
bred heifers while a vegetable farmer checks on pumps and generators around the clock.”
“Yeah, I suppose we do have a lot in common,” said farmer #2. “We both read the farm papers to check on prices and read the classified ads, and all of us have to worry about being sued into insolvency for salmonella and E. coli. And the product of our toil is hauled to market by Peterbuilt’s and KW’s. We both drive pickups to check on water and many of us have equipment we use only once a year, farmers their harvesters and ranchers their scales. All of us pay attention to hay prices and many ranchers stoop so low as to grow their own. We both like auctions where farmers buy big tractors and ranchers buy
close the gap.
■ Retail and product innovation lag consumer demand: Protein-focused snacks are growing fast, but innovation has not kept pace. While the share of new protein-based products has nearly doubled since 2017 (now about 13 percent), it still lags behind protein’s share of total sales (about 19 percent), showing the need for greater investment.
■ Younger consumers are driving growth: Gen Z and Millennial consumers are driving protein snacking, representing about 34 percent of protein snack consumers today, versus 29 percent in 2019.
■ GLP-1 medications are changing snacking habits: GLP-1 users are shifting spending toward protein snacks, including meat snacks, yogurt, and nutrition bars, reinforcing a broader consumer movement toward protein-forward snacking.
■ Snacking is changing— and protein is leading the shift.
young bulls and old cows. Both farmers and ranchers take out big bank loans to pay for everything and we both have no idea how we’ll ever pay it back. And farmers and ranchers get paid just once a year. If we’re lucky.” By the end of breakfast with the crazy cultivators I had gained a new appreciation for them and we slowly formed an uneasy truce. And I found myself eating breakfast with them more and more often because my old rancher buddies had banned me from their table for associating with the sod busters. They said I’d need to get all the requisite vaccinations if I ever wanted to rejoin their table. ▫
■ Protein snacks are gaining value and volume share, reshaping the market and pushing more brands to prioritize protein innovation.
“Consumers are actively seeking high-quality, protein-forward, and real ingredient snack options, yet the snacking industry has been slow to respond with meaningful innovation,” said Matt Landen, SVP of business development at Chomps. “At Chomps, we’re seeing firsthand how new consumer groups—especially millennials, Gen Z, and women—are embracing protein snacks in new ways. This is not just a trend; this
is a permanent shift in how people snack.”
With protein-forward brands like Chomps, Quest and Chobani generating outsized growth, the question isn’t if protein will take a larger share of the market — it’s how fast brands and retailers will catch up to shifting consumer preferences.
This study was conducted in August 2024, collecting 2,550 unique consumer survey responses, providing recent snacking occasion details, such as time of day, location, products and brands consumed for each to inform this work. Respondents are not affiliated with Chomps.
This article was originally posted on www. snackandbakery.com ▫
CONSERVATIVE GROUPS SUIT cont from page 1
bureaucrats to administer, it doesn’t work for species like the gray wolf, greater sage grouse, and arctic grayling,” said Jonathan Wood, PERC’s Vice President of Law and Policy.
“Given the challenges of recovering America’s imperiled wildlife, the Endangered Species Act needs to be as effective as possible by applying science, harnessing incentives, and adapting to real world outcomes.”
The blanket rule: limiting habitat restoration on private lands
Two-thirds of endangered species depend on private lands for habitat, making it critical to engage landowners in effective habitat protection and restoration efforts. Yet the blanket rule does the opposite. It maintains the tightest restrictions on landowners and states even after a species’ conservation status improves from endangered to threatened.
Rather than motivating stakeholders to invest in a species’ recovery by lifting the most stringent restrictions when its status improves, the blanket rule makes states and landowners indifferent to whether a species is endangered or threatened, improving, or declining. This penalizes and discourages states and landowners from maintaining or restoring wildlife habitat, including in partnership with conservation groups like RMEF and PERC.
“As conservationists who want to see more habitat restoration and greater species recovery, there is no doubt a targeted, science-based approach produces better outcomes for wildlife,” said Blake Henning, RMEF’s Chief Conservation Officer.
“We’ve worked with states and landowners to conserve or enhance more than 8.9 million acres of habitat for elk and other wildlife, and we’ve seen how flexible regulations that address specific challenges are more effective than a blanket approach.”
Species recovery under the ESA has proven elusive. While 99 percent of species listed have avoided extinction since the Act became law, less than three percent have achieved the Act’s ultimate goal of species recovery. ▫
USA TODAY’S 2025 Women of the Year
Honoree
BY KELLY LYELL / FORT COLLINS COLORADOAN
Temple Grandin Legislation to Aid Texas Wildfire Victims
Grandin proved people wrong about what she could do. She’s helping others do the same.
Algebra was a struggle for a young Temple Grandin.
The mathematical concepts required to solve its equations just didn’t make sense, she said. Her brain didn’t work that way.
It still doesn’t.
One of her 16 published books on autism is titled, “Thinking in Pictures.”
That’s how Grandin and others like her see the world.
And it allows them to see things in ways others can’t, providing a unique perspective Grandin has used to become one of the world’s foremost experts on animal welfare and the design of feedlots and slaughterhouses.
“One of the big motivators is because I wanted to prove I wasn’t stupid,” said Grandin, now 77 and a distinguished professor of animal science at Colorado State University. “A lot of people thought that because I couldn’t do higher math, that I was just stupid, and I wanted to prove them wrong.”
Grandin did — and still is.
The dip vats she designed when she was in her 20s that prevented cattle from drowning when they had to be submerged in chemicals to kill external parasites were quickly adopted by the livestock industry. Her auditing of slaughterhouses for McDonald’s in 1999 led to a scoring system that was quickly adopted by fast-food rivals
3 Ranch Ltd.
Burger King and Wendy’s and is now widely used by producers and purchasers of all meat products. And her curved chutes to keep cattle moving through feedlots and center track conveyer restrainer for slaughterhouses have become industry standards. She gets down in the chutes to see what the cattle are seeing and uses those visual pictures to design more efficient equipment.
Grandin has since written more than a half-dozen textbooks on animal welfare and the livestock industry and is a frequent presenter not only on autism, but also on those topics at conferences and speaking engagements in the U.S., Canada and beyond. Her autism isn’t a disability, she said she learned. It just provides her with a different view of the world in which we live.
“Being a visual thinker, I can remember things others might not,” she said. “My memory’s like little phone
pictures. I see something interesting, take a picture of it, and put that in my memory. And I can think of things very clear in my memory.”
An HBO-produced 2010 biopic on her life, starring Clare Danes, won numerous awards, including seven Primetime Emmys. A documentary celebrating her work, “An Open Door: Temple Grandin,” released in 2024, won awards at film festivals throughout the U.S. and two international competitions. Her primary focus now is providing opportunities for people like her.
“You have to keep your eyes on the goal, and right now that’s motivating students and talking to parents of autistic kids about encouraging their kids to be everything they can be,” Grandin said. “I’ve had an interesting career, and I’ve done some things that have been helpful. We need the skills of some of these autistic kids.”
Who paved the way for you?
When I was a teenager, I had a great science teacher (William Carlock). He gave me interesting projects to do that got me motivated to study. And getting into the cattle industry, there was a contractor, a former Marine Corps captain named Jim Uhl who was starting a small
Congressman Ronny Jackson (TX-13) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) have reintroduced the Wildfire Victim Tax Relief and Recovery Act. This legislation would exempt any income individuals received for fire relief from their overall tax burden, ensuring individuals and agricultural producers can focus on recovering from the wildfires that ravaged the Texas Panhandle last year. Senator Ted Cruz (RTX) championed a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.
steel and concrete business, and he sought me out to design facilities for him. He showed me how to get a business started, and that was really important.
What is your proudest moment?
I was really proud when I got the dip vat to work right. Nobody thought I could do it, and it solved the problem of cattle drowning.
What is your definition of courage?
You just have to keep persevering. Another thing I did is I always had more than one project going, so if one project failed, I would still have something else to do.
Is there a guiding principle or mantra you tell yourself?
I was a Star Trek fan, and they had the Prime Directive. When I was working on projects, my job was to design a system, get it installed, get it to work. My Prime Directive right now is I want to see that kids that think differently get put into great jobs and get out and become really successful.
Who do or did you look up to?
William Carlock. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of good teachers. Teachers make such a difference.
How do you overcome adversity?
I have good people to talk to, good friends to talk to. That’s helpful. When I was young, I seemed to have this big drive to prove I could do it.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Exposure and then mentoring. You’ve got to take the thing the autistic kid’s interested in and broaden it, develop it. ▫
“The historic wildfires that tore through the Texas Panhandle last year have left a lasting mark on all the ranchers, families, and communities involved,” said Rep. Ronny Jackson. “I’m honored to reintroduce this critical legislation and am committed to making sure those hit hardest by this catastrophic disaster can use the assistance they’ve received to rebuild their farms, ranches, and livelihoods, not pay the federal government.”
“Last year, historic wildfires destroyed the Panhandle, taking the homes and livelihoods of thousands of Texans,” said Sen. Ted Cruz. “This bill will deliver much needed tax relief to support these communities in their ongoing recovery efforts. I urge my colleagues to pass this bill without delay.”
Carl Ray Polk, Jr., Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, President said: “As we continue to refine our approach to wildfire prevention, mitigation, and response, we need legislation that is impactful. Rep. Jackson and Sen. Cruz have done just that by offering practical solutions to a very real problem for ranchers and landowners.”
Ben Weinheimer, President & CEO, Texas Cattle Feeders Association said: “Texas Cattle Feeders Association supports this bill and thanks Congressman Jackson and Sen. Cruz for their continuous efforts to assist those impacted by the Texas Panhandle wildfires. This bill is a commonsense approach to preventing what could become the tax disaster resulting from the wildfire disaster. Settlement payments and disaster assistance, like most insurance, should not be considered income. Neither should a literal ‘fire sale’ of cattle, because the producer’s pasture was destroyed, be subject to capital gains.”
Russell Boening, President, Texas Farm Bureau said: “Texas Farm Bureau thanks Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Ronny Jackson for continuing their work in Congress to help panhandle wildfire victims in their recovery efforts. Providing flexibility in the U.S. tax code to maximize federal disaster assistance will tremendously help the many farm and ranch families impacted by the catastrophic wildfires. TFB appreciates Senator Cruz and Congressman Jackson for their steadfast support and looks forward to working in Congress to enact this commonsense
islation.”
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all of Southern, Arizona
Supreme Court Deals Blow to EPA in Dispute Over Federal Water Rules
BY ABBIE VANSICKLE AND ADAM LIPTAK
The Supreme Court sided with San Francisco on Tuesday in a challenge to water quality regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a ruling that could have sweeping implications for the agency’s ability to limit offshore pollution.
The 5-to-4 decision dealt another blow to the agency, which has recently sustained several losses before the court over its efforts to regulate the environment.
The case was notable because it created unusual alliances. Liberal San Francisco found itself on the same side as mining and petroleum trade groups like the National Mining Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, and American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers in opposing the E.P.A.
The dispute fundamentally focused on human waste and how San Francisco disposes of it. The question before the court was whether the Clean Water Act of 1972 allowed the E.P.A. to impose prohibitions on wastewater released into the Pacific Ocean and to penalize the city for violating them.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the EPA was entitled to impose specific requirements to prevent pollution but not to make polluters responsible whenever water quality generally falls below the agency’s standards.
“When a permit contains such requirements,” he wrote, “a permittee that punctiliously follows every specific requirement in its permit may nevertheless face crushing penalties if the quality of the water in its receiving waters falls below the applicable standards.”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett M. Kavanaugh joined the majority opinion, and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joined most of it.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett dissented, joined by the court’s three-member liberal wing — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Justice Barrett said the agency was entitled to supplement specific requirements for water discharge with more general standards based on changes to water quality. The need for the second kind of regulation, she wrote, quoting from the government’s lawsuit, “is on display in this case — discharges from components of San Francisco’s sewer system have allegedly led to serious breaches of the water quality standards, such as ‘discoloration, scum and floating material, including toilet paper, in Mission Creek.’”
Justice Barrett added that polluters can file targeted challenges to rules if they believe them to be unfair. But “a statutory rewrite” was not warranted, she wrote.
In the lead-up to the October oral argument, San Francisco officials had pushed back on the notion that they were challenging the federal government’s ability to regulate the environment. They said they just wanted clarity on the rule for the city’s wastewater permit so that the city could ensure it complied with the Clean Water Act,
The lawyer for San Francisco had argued that city officials did not have clear guidance on how to comply with the Clean Water Act and had been “exposed to crushing criminal and civil penalties even when it otherwise complies with its 300-page permit.” ▫
Farm Credit Bank of Texas Reports 2024 Year-end Financial Results
Farm Credit Bank of Texas (FCBT) reported solid earnings and loan growth, while sustaining strong credit quality in 2024.
Total loan volume increased 7.0% in 2024 to $31.8 billion at Dec. 31, primarily reflecting growth in direct notes to the bank’s affiliated lending institutions. Total assets increased 5.9% to $39.5 billion. Overall credit quality remained high, with 99.6% of loans classified as acceptable or special mention, compared with 99.5% at year-end 2023.
“The bank navigated a volatile interest rate environment in 2024, managing economic headwinds while remaining committed to financial stability and growth,” said Amie Pala, FCBT chief executive officer. “We are well-positioned for continued growth, remaining committed to supporting rural America and strengthening the communities we serve through strategic investments in talent, innovation, and operational excellence.”
Net interest income for the year ending Dec. 31, 2024, totaled $364.3 million, an increase of $14.2 million or 4.1% year over year. The growth in net interest income for 2024 was mainly driven by a $1.26 billion increase in average interest-earning assets, along with the income generated from assets funded by non-interest-bearing sources. This was partially offset by a four-basis point decline in the interest rate spread.
The bank recognized a $23.6 million provision for credit losses on loans for 2024, compared with $37.9 million for 2023. The provision for 2024 reflects specific reserves associated with credit deterioration for a limited number of borrowers in the agribusiness and production and intermediate-term sectors that were impacted by the challenging economic environment. Nonperforming assets, which consist of nonaccrual loans, accruing loans 90 days or more past due and other property owned, remained low at 0.15% of total loans and other property owned, compared with 0.14% at year-end 2023.
Net income for 2024 was $221.9 million, an 11.0% increase year over year due to the conditions described above. As a cooperative, the bank distributes earnings to its member-owners and lending partners through patronage programs. It declared $155.0 million in patronage based on 2024 earnings.
“The board acts annually to approve its patronage programs to its affiliated lending partners,” said Jimmy Dodson, FCBT board chair. “This process helps reduce funding costs, allowing our partners to pass those savings on to their members to better support agriculture and rural communities.”
At the end of 2024, the bank had $1.8 billion in shareholders’ equity and a total capital ratio of 13.3%. Cash and high-quality liquid investments totaled $7.1 billion, significantly exceeding regulatory requirements.
The bank is part of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of customer-owned financial institutions established in 1916. The System reported combined net income of $7.8 billion for the year ending Dec. 31, 2024, compared with $7.4 billion the prior year.
These financial results are preliminary and unaudited. The bank will post its 2024 annual report at www.farmcreditbank.com/financials/bank-financial-reports. ▫
Applications now being accepted for 2025 TSCRA high school student leadership camps
exas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) is now accepting applications for the 2025 TSCRA Leadership Launch and Cattle Raisers Roundup—two premier student programs designed to inspire and educate the next generation of agricultural leaders.
The Leadership Launch, held May 29 and 30 in Austin, is tailored for students entering their junior or senior year of high school in fall 2025. This intensive program provides participants with a firsthand look at the agricultural industry and public policy. Attendees will engage with industry professionals and elected officials, explore the legislative process, and gain insight into key issues shaping
The Cattle Raisers Roundup, set for July 14 through 18 in the Texas Panhandle, offers hands-on experience, covering all aspects of beef production—from pasture to plate. Participants will tour cattle operations and beef packing plants, meet industry leaders, and take part in professional development activities. This camp is an invaluable opportunity to deepen industry knowledge and build lasting connections.
This year, both programs are included on a single application, streamlining the process for interested students. Application deadlines are as follows ...
■ Leadership Launch: April 4, 2025
■ Cattle Raisers Roundup: May 2, 2025
To apply, students are required to email an online application, resume, a short video discussing their interest in the program and two letters of recommendation to education@tscra.org by the respective deadlines. Full submission details are available at tscra.org/ what-we-do/students
Mike Rowe’s Foundation Giving Away $2.5 Million in Trade School Scholarships
BY JEFF MINICK / THE EPOCH TIMES
The United States needs skilled workers in the trades more than ever, yet each passing year finds the United States short of welders, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and others engaged in building and manufacturing.
Despite good wages, job openings across the country, and steady work, the number of young people entering the trades isn’t even close to matching the number of available positions. In manufacturing, for instance, more than 600,000 jobs remain open every month. A number of factors account for this disparity. An aging workforce is taking retirement faster than they can be replaced. A cultural bias against vocational schools remains in play, with one survey of those ages 18 to 20 finding that 79 percent said their parents wanted them to attend college, while only 5 percent were encouraged to pursue the trades.
Meanwhile, the boom in construction and manufacturing, along with the increasing need for repairs to our country’s infrastructure, has driven demand for skilled workers through the roof.
Longtime trades advocate Mike Rowe has worked for years promoting the value of a skilled workforce. Best known for his Discovery Channel series “Dirty Jobs,” he also created the mikeroweWorks Foundation in 2008 to promote skilled trades and the nobility of work. A few years later, Rowe and his foundation launched the Work Ethic Scholarship Program, dispersing competitive scholarships to vocational school students.
Here are two winners of Rowe’s Work Ethic Scholarships. See how that worked out for them.
The Electrician
Twenty-year-old Emma Frick was born and raised on a farm in Minnesota.
“I got my work ethic from that,” she told The Epoch Times. “Farming is a tough thing to do. So, that’s where my roots started.”
In Blanco, Minnesota, the homeschooled Frick met her future husband, Justin, also the child of a farming family.
“We talked, and discussed different career paths, and eventually found the electrical trade,“ she said. ”I got an apprenticeship the summer before I started technical school, and from there it was history. I graduated, and here I am.”
The couple then scouted out places they wanted to live and settled on Charlotte, North Carolina, in part because “Charlotte’s growing exponentially, and there’s a ton of work.” Justin found employment with the city’s water department, while Frick worked for an electrical company until she earned her electrician’s license.
Though short of both equip-
ment and customers, she was determined to open her own business.
“I had nothing lined up when I quit,” she confided. “So, this was very, very scary. All I had were a few basic hand tools. But I was able to get a few jobs and build up my capital, and invest in a lot more tools.”
Today, Frick is the proud owner of Champion Electric.
Of the financial aid given her by Rowe’s Work Ethic Scholarship Program, Frick said: “That helped phenomenally when I was going through school, because I didn’t have to take out any student loans or get into debt. So, very, very helpful.”
The Welder
Homeschooled like Frick, 29-year-old Jake Kern, a husband and father, grew up in a Colorado household where his veteran dad spent hours every week working on the property, chopping trees for firewood and tinkering with the family’s vehicles.
Kern spent many of his weekends helping out, even though at the time he “hated it.” He has changed his tune as an adult.
“I really look at my childhood with fondness, because I gained a lot of experience that I know isn’t typical, like working on cars, working on the house, and getting some work ethic,” he said.
After trying college for a year, Kern ran through a variety of jobs.
“I’ve been a heavy machine operator, I’ve done medical coding and billing for health and wellness centers, I’ve worked in some menial labor stuff, I’ve done concrete foundation work for homes, and I’ve worked. ...
pulling hot tubs out of big castiron molds. That was a rough job,” he said.
Kern was going through some hard times, working as a customer service rep in an auto repair shop.
“A gentleman who was a retired welder came in to have his truck serviced, and we got to talking,“ he said. ”He was telling me all about the welding trade, and that it was an actual career, and you could make a good living. So, this was at the end of 2017, and from our conversation he said there were 300,000 open welding jobs in the United States.”
Inspired by the man’s insights, and living in Pennsylvania at the time, Kern began looking around for welding programs and found Triangle Tech. While in school and for several months afterward, he also worked in manufacturing as a welder.
Having decided to leave Pennsylvania for Washington state, Kern arranged six job interviews, flew west, and was hired for all six positions.
“I was there for about two and a half years, working in structural steel, big girders, and columns for transit centers, high schools, middle schools, stuff like that,“ he said. ”I did that for about seven months, then COVID hit and I got laid off.”
An older man, a fellow welder Kern had befriended at church, then offered him employment making railings.
“He taught me so much,” Kern said, “and enabled me to run my own business.”
Kern eventually returned to Colorado. With his wife, Alex, serving as adviser and bookkeeper, he operates his own
company, Madsen Made Welding & Fabrication, building railings, gates, and fences.
Kern said he remains deeply grateful for his scholarship, which he desperately needed to continue his education.
Overalls and Opportunity
This year, Rowe and his foundation are looking to give away at least $2.5 million in scholarships for students attending trade schools. The foundation’s website states, “We’re looking for hardworking men and women who will keep the lights on, water running, and air flowing—people who will show up early, stay late, and bust their asses to get the job done.”
One key part of a student’s scholarship application process is to read and sign the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge. The 12 tenets of this pledge contain the heart of Rowe’s work ethic.
Here are blunt affirmations, such as: “I believe that I am a product of my choices—not my circumstances. I will never blame anyone for my shortcomings or the challenges I face. And I will never accept the credit for something I didn’t do.”
Here, too, gratitude ranks No. 1 on this list: “I believe that I have won the greatest lottery of all time. I am alive. I walk the earth. I live in America. Above all things, I am grateful.”
“Opportunity,” Rowe once said, “usually shows up in overalls and looks like work.”
Emma Frick and Jake Kern took the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, put on those overalls, got their hands dirty, and opened the door of opportunity.
The 2025 deadline for applying for a mikeroweWORKS Foundation Work Ethic Scholarship is April 17, 2025. ▫
LMA Applauds Re-Intro of A-PLUS Act
Livestock Marketing Association, or LMA, applauds the reintroduction of the Amplifying
Processing of Livestock in the United States, or A-PLUS, Act in the 119th Congress.
Brody Peak, chairman of
DOGE Should Look at Beef Checkoff’: R-CALF
BY MELISSA SUE SORRELLS / MEATINGPLACE.COM
Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) CEO Bill Bullard on Thursday encouraged ranchers and cattlemen to reach out to President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to request the agency audit the USDA’s Beef Checkoff Program.
“We’ve long argued that the beef checkoff program, which is a USDA program that requires cattle producers to pay $1 for every head of cattle they sell; and it collects about $70 million each year, much of that from producers who do not support the mandatory government program,” Bullard wrote in his weekly address to members. “While the beef checkoff program is supposed to fund education, promotion and research for beef, and not fund lobbying, evidence of abuse has surfaced. An independent audit report found that $216,000 of mandatory producer contributions had been misspent.”
The Beef Checkoff has strong cattle producer support, according to The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), and undergoes annual audits and posts that information on their website.
“The Beef Checkoff is an example of individual farmers and ranchers coming together to create a program that conducts research, educates consumers and builds demand for beef with a return on investment to producers of $13.41 for every $1 invested—all while operating with annual financial audits, strict oversight and at no cost to American taxpayers,” NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane told Meatingplace.
R-CALF is a non-profit organization serving as a voice for independent cow-calf and sheep producers and feeders across America. NCBA is a non-profit trade association representing U.S. cattle producers.
DOGE is a temporary contracted organization under the United States Digital Service, which has asked the public to contact the organization with ideas for “reducing waste, fraud and abuse.” ▫
Cheyenne Lawyer, Rancher Karen Budd-Falen Accepts Top Interior Dept. Post
BY SEAN BARRY / COWBOY STATE DAILY
Karen Budd-Falen, a Cheyenne lawyer and rancher, is headed back to the nation’s capital, taking a high-level Interior Department job in President Donald Trump’s administration, she told Cowboy State Daily in a phone interview Monday.
Budd-Falen, a lawyer and rancher, worked in Trump’s first administration as deputy solicitor for wildlife and parks at Interior.
Now she has accepted a new job in the department — a stressful decision, she said, because she much prefers her country lifestyle to the urban sprawl of the Washington, D.C., area.
“I’ve been asked to go back in this Trump administration as associate deputy secretary,” she said. “After significant stress, I agreed to do it.”
The difficulty of the decision is one many Wyomingites would appreciate.
“When you live in Wyoming, moving to a city is very hard,” Budd-Falen said. “My husband and I have a ranch here.”
She said she was tapped for the job by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, as well as by Kate McGregor, Trump’s choice to be deputy secretary of the department. Budd-Falen said her appointment does not require Senate confirmation. She said she has secured housing in the D.C. area and expects to start her new job this month.
‘Important To People In The West’
Although it was difficult choosing to “put everyone on hold and move back to D.C.,” she said she decided to do go so she could help make a difference for Wyoming-ites.
“I think this is so important to people in the West,” she said, explaining that Washington bureaucrats are too often ignorant of rural Americans’ land-use needs and concerns.
According to her biography on her law firm’s website, BuddFalen mainly represents private property owners, ranching and farming organizations, and local governments.
“For example, Karen assists local governments in asserting their rights of consistency review, cooperation and coordination in federal agency decisions; private property owners in protecting their Constitutionally guaranteed property rights, other multiple users in supporting grazing and multiple use on federal/public lands; and those who are exposing radical environmental groups’ abuse of the legal system through the attorney fee shifting statutes,” the website bio says.
Budd-Falen’s experience in Washington goes well beyond the first Trump administration.
Karen worked at Interior during the Ronald Reagan years in the 1980s as well. She has also worked for a conservative legal group and written many scholarly articles. She has won numerous awards and is an active volunteer with Future Farmers of America. She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wyoming. She and her husband, Frank Falen, own Budd-Falen Law Offices, LLC. ▫
the association’s government and industry affairs committee, said the bill (SB 782, HR 1648) would remove an outdated restriction prohibiting livestock auction market owners from owning or investing in a small or regional packer or meat marketing business.
“Livestock auction market owners deserve the freedom to operate,” he said. “If they choose to supplement their marketing business by owning a local meat locker or investing in a regional packer, this should be encouraged, not banned.”
Lee Mora, an auction market owner from Fortuna, California, echoed Peak’s sentiment.
“Rural communities are losing agricultural infrastructure that is critical to the ability of ranchers to diversify with value added products,” he said. “Having local processing is vital to keeping these family operations thriving. In many cases, there is little to no outside investment that can be made to keep these plants open.”
“Allowing registered livestock market owners to invest in these smaller plants is essential to keeping local processing plants operating in these rural communities. It allows for competition at the livestock market which helps both entities thrive and ultimately benefits the local ranching community.” ▫
