Two cattle ranchers called declining beef production a “crisis” for Americans and warned on Fox News that major meat packing companies were starting to capitalize on the bug.
National Black Farmers Association founder John Boyd Jr. and rancher Shad Sullivan appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” to discuss the decline of the U.S. livestock industry. Fox host Laura Ingraham began by asking Boyd Jr. about how “bad” this issue would be for the average American who consumes beef. Boyd criticized not only the significantly “shrinking” herd for ranchers, but also the money the U.S. gave to Ukraine instead of farmers. (Related: U.S. food spending as a percentage of income reaches highest level in more than 30 years)
“Well, farmers are going out of business every day,” Boyd said. “What's happening is that American beef producers have drastically reduced their herds, so they can't produce more calves to breed. So this is a crisis that affects every American at their local grocery store.”
“But for me, here's the problem,” Boyd continued. “We have other foreign countries that are giving $100 billion to Ukraine and helping Ukrainian farmers, but they're not going to help American farmers here at home. Americans facing farm foreclosure. But the USDA is doing nothing to stop farm foreclosures against direct loans, guaranteed loans, and other agricultural lenders in this country…We're down to 40,000 black farmers in this country. Do you think? We are facing extinction. These policies are not going to help cattle farmers like me stay on the farm. Our input costs are the highest they have been in decades. Diesel fuel prices are rising. This is why farmers can't stay on their farms. We need good policies to help keep our farms afloat.”
recent data released Total U.S. beef cattle inventories have decreased by 2% since January 1 compared to 2023 numbers, according to a late January release from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the USDA Agricultural Statistics Board (USDA). did.
Additionally, this year's decline in herd stocks will be a 4% decline from 2022 to 2023, the smallest of any beef herd the United States has had since 1951. according to Bernt Nelson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation.
“What John is talking about is a symptom of a problem that has gone too far,” Sullivan opined. “The problem that has gone too far is globalism. It is the world's elites who are claiming that climate change is ruining the world, and we are demanding that sustainability around the world is simply the control of production and consumption. We are saying that we need to implement it. We see it happening all over the place. Because of this, we are becoming vertically integrated into the system. The beef industry is the last freedom fad. Therefore, I We have to tighten our horns so to speak and stop these global elites from implementing all these regulations.”
“Sustainability regulations that say cows are ruining the planet. We have to stop that and make people understand that sustainability is nothing but communism,” Sullivan said. continued. “As we know, two of the four largest meat packers have invested heavily in bugs. One of them, Tyson Foods, is building a $500 million cricket factory. We announced two weeks ago that we're going to build a. So this issue is real, but it's a freedom and freedom issue. That's what we have to focus on, and we have to stop this.”
Food processing company Tyson Foods released In an October 2023 press statement, the company announced a partnership with Protix, the world's leading insect ingredients company, to support the growth of “more sustainable protein production.” The food company said the two companies' partnership seeks to meet “current market demands and scale production of insect ingredients,” as well as plans to create a “closed system” in the United States. Ta.
