Protecting rural communities with better food systems

0:00Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Mahalo Down I'm Jeff Lauterbach and we're just off of Labor Day and midterms coming up in November and a lot in the news about all things related to beef and cattle herd size and we're going to get into topics like that with my guest here today Joe Maxwell, Farm Action Fund but Joe first we'll dive right into it last week an icon in literature and agriculture died after I think he was 92 I believe Wendell Berry and I've it's interesting because I've interviewed a lot of high profile figures in regenerative agriculture like like Joel Salaton, Will Harris people like that and but a lot of

1:05people that I don't mean to leave anyone out because there are plenty of them and one thing they all have in common is Wendell Berry they all attribute Wendell Berry to having a tremendous impact on him and I'll let you dive into that and before you get talking I should have done this from the beginning welcome back to the show. Yeah well thank you very much Jeff it's great to be back on the show and you raised just you know really kind of an emotional topic as many of us with the passing of Wendell Berry you know reflecting on the movement our work but mostly on what it is to take a stand right to sometimes maybe be the only one speaking out and how brilliantly he did that throughout his career with literature as well as action and it is really the foundation

2:08of a lot of the work that we do here and our rule independence initiative it's broader than just the farmer it also has the impact on our rural communities and and but personally it was always great my brother and I farmed and and sometimes you would feel like the lone person but then you had Wendell and kind of gave you that sense that you weren't alone and that that's what you know his work meant to meet personally. Well for those listeners who didn't hear you you were on the show I think six or eight weeks ago tell tell us a little bit about your background in farming and how you came to this point with farm action fun. Yeah well I'm a fourth generation family farmer independent farmer farm with my brother we have a farm in Missouri

3:18I grew up on that farm my earliest recollections was actually working the farm at a very young age maybe I wasn't working so much but I was out there with my dad and so it's kind of it is where my roots are farm that's over a hundred years in the family as I tell folks a lot of time you know when I'm sitting there leaning on a fence post after working the sheep or something you know I can visualize working with my dad I can hear my grandpa giving advice on animal husbandry and just how to how to farm so that I also have been blessed I've been an elected official I have a degree in ag economics and law which I have put both the lived experience on the farm which I still farm and and those tools that I academic tools to work in the movement for farm action fun I would like to add one thing you know when I was young and I don't tell this story very often but

4:23it was in the 80s and the farm crisis was going on Jeff and I knew something was wrong and wanted to do something about it and so I walked into a congressman's campaign office and he had been working hard for our kind of agriculture and was getting the heck beat out of him and I said what can I do to help well they had me stuff back in the days where you stuffed envelopes and send emails and I stuffed envelopes and after a while a couple of days they asked me to do something else and before I knew it I learned I had some skills and and an understanding of of campaigns and I began to also engage in the election process to try to get folks elected that stood up for rural communities the rural way alive family farmers independent farmers and but that's how I got my start in politics was one day I got had enough and thought I ought to do something and even if it was just stuffing envelopes and we're going to talk further about that later in the show but back to back to

5:28Wendell Berry what you said about your memories of your grandfather and your father and being a little kid grown up on the farm my background isn't in farming I grew up in a suburban neighborhood and I really just started getting into the whole what I would call the pro maha movement and understanding the importance of the difference between regenerative and conventional agriculture and the importance of of that and knowing where your food source from and knowing how it's raised and it's interesting that Wendell Berry he wrote his books along decades ago I mean he's written some books over the last decade but a lot of his books that are classics you know go back for years regarding agriculture because he also obviously wrote poems and essays and novels not related to agriculture but his agricultural books seem to be more relevant than ever what are your thoughts about

6:30that well yeah well absolutely I don't know I think they were extremely relevant then and unfortunately it's taking it's taking decades for us to get to this point where they become extremely relevant there's enough folks that are understanding that what our current food system is is not good for the farm for our soil for our water and it's not good for those who eat and so as I said sometimes when I was younger you know knowing that Wendell was out there kind of gave you hope that she wasn't alone I always felt that you know when I grew up you know I was trained by my by the generations before me my dad my mom my grandma my grandpa

7:35you know that we're just stewards of that which we've been given and that kind of falls in line with what Wendell wanted to express and that you know we were here to be the caretakers and then you know to make it a good place for the next generation and as industrial ag began to push in that that thought became folks would actually actively work to discredit that kind of thought if you wanted to talk about raising livestock you know the schools changed their animal husband reprograms to animal science the National Port producers counsel the national back then the beef folks in CBAs you know want us to quit being animal producers they didn't want

8:36me to be a hog farmer anymore they wanted me to be a port producer I mean just you were just inundated with this concept of industrialization of agriculture from your universities to the to the trade organizations that hosted the dinners you know in the wintertime and springtime to get you to rethink who what your role was as its relationship with the land with the animals and also with your consumer and so Wendell's thoughts you know gave a lot of us who felt differently and pushed back against that that the sense that there was another side to that what are your challenges now as an independent farmer that you didn't have back when where your grandpa was farming when your dad was farming and then when you started becoming more active in the farm and when you were in

9:38your 20s or so how's it changed versus today I mean how is it compared to today I always kind of benchmark my farm even though I was a little fella running around with dad and you know carry dad would break down the rations into a gallon bucket so I could carry it instead of the five gallon heat carried and then I grew up to the three gallon bucket and then finally the five gallon bucket so but I kind of benchmark it that when I did a short stint in the in the army and when I got out was kind of what I consider okay so I'm on the farm now as an adult if you will and there were four companies in the meat business that were the big four and they controlled 36% of the cattle market today the big four control 85% the biggest change that has occurred

10:38since the late 70s and early 80s is the heavy consolidation on both sides of the farmer on the input side and on the selling side on the output side and we just don't have markets and as the markets dried up and the power went into the hands of a few corporations whether that was your seed company or whether that was your cattle buyer or hog buyer or whatever it might be corn soybean the farmer slowly got squeezed today we're losing 63 farmers a day are going off the farm that's the biggest factor and then I know the average age of the farmer is what 60 or around 60 yeah yes I think that I think that one I think that is a stat I think behind that stat is is that

11:47issue of concentration I mean with that concentration and the loss of the loss of an opportunity to make a fair living on the farm the next generation says I just can't do it there's oftentimes dads that say you you need to go do something else this I'm going to make it but there's nothing here there's no livelihood and so and why is that that's because a handful of companies dictate the price of farmers going to get they're gouging the farmer I mean look at the study the corn growers did you know it's about 60% difference in cost of seeds in the United States that it is in Brazil I mean these companies are just grading the coffers of the farmers and gouging

12:47the consumer to grocery store and the age is there because of this heavy concentration and at the same time it's not just the concentration it's that you got to farm their industrial model right it's that these other models don't have a place they want to make sure that it is their model their industrial model heavily laden with chemicals because that's what they make money on they want to trap you into that as a farmer they want to trap you into their supply chain and so it's their model they control the market do it their way or get out and and and and it's just a challenge for the next generation to find a place that makes sense down on the farm how has the in the news right now especially over the last few weeks it's been all about cattle herd size and beef imports and

13:54how well first of all let's talk about the beef imports I know the president Trump he had an executive order bringing in the beef from I believe it was Argentina and Brazil what are your thoughts about that because I know that's a very controversial topic and there's very opinions on it and first of all on the executive order itself I know farm action and farm action fund I've read the articles that I believe Angela Ro Angela Huffman on the farm action site which are those articles are very insightful I encourage people to read but what are your thoughts about that first off the executive order and just the whole concept of beef imports well first I think it's important that all the listeners understand that

14:58that the president has taken action aggressive action to increase the imports with two executive orders so it's not that we haven't been having import a beef into the United States but what the president has done he said oh beef prices at the grocery store are too high I'm going to resolve that by opening up the floodgates and allowing more beef to flow into the United States so it's an addition he first granted Argentina quadrupled the amount of imports that can come in from Argentina telling a reporter on Air Force One that that reporter didn't understand because they were taking up for American cattle producers didn't understand that the people in Argentina were struggling to survive and that he liked the president of Argentina

16:02he seemed to fail to understand that America's farmers and ranchers are struggling to survive as well and his actions would only cripple them further so that was a quadrupling there we've seen 80 thousand metric tons coming in again this is an addition then here recently the president made an announcement and followed up with an executive it followed up with a proclamation that that an additional 300 thousand metric tons would be allowed to be brought into the United States from unknown sources he claims that those have already started but he's not going to tell us what country it's coming from so there's about 2,204 pounds I think in a metric ton so you can do the math on 380,000 more metric tons to see how much beef that is Jeff the final point I want to make is that

17:07this is not spread out over a year the president plans on bringing that beef in over a 90 day or three month period from a couple of weeks ago to the midterms trying to break the beef prices so it's a lot of beef flowing in it's about a 50% increase on a monthly average of beef that we have been importing to dump it that's why I use that word dump it into our markets in an effort to bring back beef prices but it's not working out what what happens is is that it pushes down cattle prices the farmer and rancher but because four companies control 85% of all the beef in the United States two of them are Brazilian and we suspect that a lot of this beef will be coming in from Brazil JBS who met with the president Josley Batista that these companies are

18:07pocket the difference they'll they took the tariffs off it'll come in they'll make the money the consumers won't see a lower price and farmers are at risk being paid less and we're going to continue this conversation when we come back from our first break talking to Joe Maxwell farm action fund you're listening to the maha lowdown on America out loud network and we'll be back in a few moments you wouldn't go a day without brushing your teeth or washing your hands what about washing your nose I mean your nose does filter the air you breathe air loaded with bacteria viruses and irritants make nasal hygiene part of your routine with clear no messy bottles to fill no drowning sensation clear as a natural drug free saline with the added benefit of xylitol which blocks bacterial and viral adhesion available in stores and online at clear.com that is x l e a r dot com doing drain your mentally foggy recharge with wellness company combines methylene blue

19:08in your lip and eight to support mitochondrial health boost energy and enhance cognitive function visit twc dot health forward slash out loud and use code out loud for 20% after your first order well I challenge you to find a broader array of great voices a deeper bench of experience or a more dedicated collection of passionate patriots than here on america out loud dot news now is our time my fellow americans america out loud dot news liberty and justice for all welcome back to the maha lowdown i'm Jeff louder back and continuing the conversation with joe Maxwell of farm action fund and joe before we went to break we were talking about the uh the whole topic on the the beef imports and how your thoughts on how it's impacting and will impact

20:13uh ranchers and consumers uh you were talking about how it doesn't necessarily have the intended the intent isn't producing the consequences that uh that are desired i guess is a simple way of putting it you know the uh one thing i i think another important part especially for this audience uh you know is just where is this beef coming from president says he's going to get it at a 20 the 300 000 metric tons and a 25% discount well the global supply today is down in other words there's less beef in the in the world than there was a year ago and i've been saying in what country in the right it's a seller's market what country in their right mind would discount a short supply commodity

21:16to sell it to the united states unless they couldn't sell it anywhere else so it's not just a story i think about putting pressure on the farmer and not helping the consumer because a handful of companies control the markets and set the prices to the consumer supply demand doesn't work for the farmer or the consumer in beef because of the 85% control afford by four companies but the other question is just where's this stuff coming from and what is it and uh we need to really be asking questions of the president he he he didn't disclose where the first round came from he did for Argentina but deffy have to understand china has rejected just recently rejected argentina beef because it is uh carrying an antibiotic residue in it that an antibiotic that's not even supposed to be used in livestock production it's it's banned in even argentina and china and united states can it in and many other countries and and suddenly we have 80 000

22:18i'm not saying it's the same beef but we need to be asking questions and it need to be inspected uh the EU just rejected Brazilian beef closed its ports to Brazilian beef because it has antibiotic traces in it uh and yet we're getting discounted beef into the united states we just need to be asking questions so that there there's not only the price that the president probably won't see the results he's hoping for because of concentration but there's also uh at what risk is the consumer for the president's actions um you know gonna have and as a whole what what do you think it's important to know where your beef and all your it's just like in any crop or any any livestock uh it's important to know where it comes from how it's raised and i know that uh uh absolutely the the whole education is important for what is organic what is regenerative

23:25what is conventional it's those are good topics to talk about and i mean we have that topic or that conversation when we go to the grocery store here in the united states from american beef and then we're obviously uh now confronted uh with uh this beef we're talking about from argentina brazil or in whatever other countries what what do your thoughts about that as far as the the importance i guess it reinforces the importance of knowing where your meat comes comes from and how it's raised yes and the president has taken a couple of actions uh that that you know i'm hopeful that is at least a start the one he's the start investigation on the uh meat packers the beef meat packers as well as retail grocery to see if they're gouging the consumer um i'm hopeful they'll carry through with that uh in his first turn as the trump one

24:25administration um they started a investigation and went nowhere so hopefully they'll do something the second thing that relates to your question is the president did make an announcement of certain actions to help build back the herd where at a 75 year low on the number of of cattle in the united states and uh he he made an announcement one of which is he he says he supports mandatory country of origin labeling now we we would hope that he would have announced he supports senator thunes by partisan bill the american beef labeling act and uh congresswoman haggam and has a similar one in the house but the farm bill still in the senate so you know but he didn't but know that in america in the united states you can't find you you you can't be assured that the beef you're buying is raised uh born raised slaughtered processing united states because the united

25:29states while the shirt you have on the shirt i have on or any clothes anybody has on tells you where it's made the the meat the beef and pork in your meat case there's no law that says it has to be labeled and most of it is not so it's a huge concern and we need to pass mandatory country of origin labeling senator thune the leader republican leader of the u.s senate has a bill he got every democrat on the ag committee to vote for it uh we need to pass that so the consumer especially with this kind of meat coming in uh foreign beat lower standards not sure where it's coming from presence not telling us where it's coming from i got we ought to least know if we can pick up a pack a hamburger and that that it came from a u.s cattle producer and was processed right here and one of the one of the plants uh many of which uh ufcw uh skilled train uh labor workers work in uh and and safe uh health standards um but but that's the place to start is to get that bill passed

26:32get it passed now it's more important than ever and what's interesting uh or even more interesting in my opinion is it's not only knowing where your what country it comes from but like you go to the grocery store and you pick up a pound of hamburger i never really knew this and and till i started uh writing about it about more about farming is there's what bits of uh literally hundreds or thousands of uh cattle or cows inside that beef yeah so you don't know how how those cows were what they were fed whether they had uh injections uh you don't know the conditions they were raised and that that's alarming to me and that really has awakened me on of wanting to get meat locally from people or farmers I know absolutely well a couple of thoughts

27:34on it you know the u.s. has rigid standards sometimes us farmers will push back because we think it's over regulation but the fact is when it comes to the health and safety we need those rigorous standards one not only because we want our consumers need healthy foods those that we're feeding as farmers but two to have trust in the system right we don't want consumers to quit by and be uh because they're scared of it uh so you know we really need to have mandatory country of origin labeling so they can be assured that it comes from the higher quality higher standard production that america's cattleman uh cattle producers have the uh i think that one one key issue for us i'd like to say you mentioned buying from the local farmer uh many of us work together for about a decade through the Biden administration uh Obama administration uh Trump won

28:39trying to get it so that when a company voluntarily used product of the USA those words on a package that it was product it was beef a born raised slaughtered and processed in the United States that's a voluntary deal company can use it before um what was happening was it could come in from Brazil or Argentina be re-wrapped and marked product of the USA uh and was very deceiving we did get uh finally got that through under the Biden administration and the Trump administration endorsed it and it's out marketing it so i know a lot of people can't know their farmer uh we're strongly encouraging you to do that um we'd mentioned uh will Harris coming on when he's coming on this line you know white oak pastures there's there's online purchasing but one thing we can do is uh look for the product of USA not ever company uses it

29:44demand that it be used it's at least a good start or fair start to make sure you have healthy safe food uh produced here in the United States higher quality higher standards uh skilled workforce bringing it to your table and you uh i know the you have the rural independence initiative that we'll talk about it's interesting because i was down and um it was last year in uh Ben Simmons of nature's gourmet and uh he has a USA DA processing facility there and i think it's can't remember the city or town he's in a rural Mississippi but they were talking about uh and another farmer down there i was talking to about the food deserts down there because you know Mississippi's such a rural state yeah so many tiny communities and a lot of the people all they do is get their meat and produce from dollar general and uh you know you don't know really that

30:49that meat comes from and you don't know the quality of the produce and the meat and uh and so i know they have a effort down there to try to get um get get meat and let people know where the meat comes from and uh to expand their customer base down there but how do you think uh the food deserts how how impactful do you think that is on on beef that might not be so good like when people have to rely on uh i don't mean to pick on dollar general but that's yeah that's a dollar general everywhere and uh how does that relate to what you're trying to do too with the rural independence well i think that first uh there's uh i think there's been a lot of i know there's been a lot of discussions on urban areas that are food deserts you raise a very important issue uh rural areas have just

31:55that you would think this is insane right i mean here you are with agriculture all the way around you and you have a food desert um that is telling of the current industrial model um we don't produce food uh for our neighbors anymore so matter of fact the majority of farm subsidies all the bailout money that you hear about goes to a handful of industrial farmers about 90% of all that money goes to handful which is a handful uh uh uh uh uh uh uh that 90% goes to 10% to to raise feed and fuel crops mostly soybeans and corn are the biggest receivers of that money and it doesn't feed the neighbors in the neighborhood and then we have cotton peanuts rice wheat and sugar uh we don't

33:02have programs that encourage local processing of meat raised in the area or we don't have programs that help reestablish the production of cattle or independent family farmers raising hogs in the neighborhoods anymore and processing them locally uh we don't raise our food we don't raise our fruits and our vegetables for goodness sakes 35% of our vegetables are being imported into this country um and over 60% of our fruit and i'm not talking about bananas i'm talking about stuff we can raise here in the United States in the in the wintertime our off season as they call it for tomatoes the second largest country that we bring in tomatoes from is Canada now that's a surprise or it looks at the surprise to me at least yeah you know because we don't our programs our government programs are an industrial support and industrial model

34:04the majority of that money goes to feed and fuel crops not to feed us and then you raise the issue of the desert food desert there in Mississippi absolutely uh and it's a shame it's not only where did the meat come from in that case because we don't have mandatory country of origin labeling and we encourage the president to support senator thunes uh american beef labeling act as i indicated so we can know then then the dollar general would have to tell us where the heck it came from at least you would know but it's also uh ultra-process type foods right uh that we're not going to get uh the fresh whole foods uh into those stores it's it's not in their supply chain it's not in their makeup and so these folks are just denied access uh all across rural america to healthy foods dollar general happens to be a company that figured out a model that worked well in a town of 300 or 700 people and they're kind of uh you know they're they're kind of that model and and they

35:10have a supply chain that stretches across the country and it doesn't anticipate having fresh local foods in that supply chain i know bence Simmons told me that uh and he's born and raised in Mississippi in the on on that farm and uh and he was telling me when he was a little he's i think he's if i remember correctly he's in a sixties and when he was a little kid grown up and as a young adult even farms used to line both sides of the road for miles yeah that's that's a very rural area very uh i mean that's you know you have towns when you come into a town it's 200 to 300 people right and now he said for for a while now those fields are sitting empty and uh and like he's one of the few farms in that area and you know the i know obesity is Mississippi i think as one of the top

36:14states for obesity and uh chronic disease and i know that's being addressed by rfk jrn hhs and but the food desert that just uh and it goes back to what we were talking about before like when window berry kind of cautioned everyone about this and now uh now we're facing that more stringent than ever and uh but i'm i noticed uh it's almost time for our next break so uh we'll get back to talking further about this when we get back for our final segment you're listening to the maha lowdown on america out loud network are you tired of struggling with low energy we get it that's why we created organic energy juice in just one minute you'll have clean natural energy all day and never struggle with low energy again and it tastes amazing and there's no toxic chemicals or stimulants that make you crash you shouldn't have to struggle with low energy and with

37:17organic energy juice you won't if you're struggling with low energy then buying organic energy juice is the right decision with our double your money back guarantee there is zero risk to try it go to chemical free body dot com forward slash out loud for an exclusive discount that's chemical free body dot com forward slash out loud welcome back to the maha lowdown on america out loud network Jeff louder back here with joe maxwell farm action fondly and joe i think that we were one of our conversations i was telling you you know i wasn't raised on a farm i was raised in sub-erbs and it wasn't until the last few years that i've really uh gotten interested not only with my riding but with uh knowing where my food comes from and how it's raised and and then um understanding what's going on with the applied to the independent farmer and and i think there's more it seems like there's a lot of work to do but i i think one encouraging point is that this is being talked

38:23about all the problems with uh chemicals and agriculture and the inputs the cost of inputs the farmers have and and then discussing where food comes from and how it's raised and the list goes on and on and uh at least it's being talked about now i didn't know what you uh what you thought about that as far as like have you seen that change yeah it's kind of like what i said uh about the timeliness of uh windals literature and thought process there has been an awakening in the united states around these issues it's come from and uh my assessment it's come from various points that's uh um there's been work uh like hours and many other organizations lifting it up raising awareness

39:25it's uh a lot of it's been because uh the other system is falling apart right i uh we we were following all of the recalls just recently uh people are being inundated on a weekly basis with food being recalled and warnings uh health risks and possible death around their food supply and that begins to get people concerned and asking questions it's been because of the maha movement um clearly uh we've never had a movement that that started raising these issues at the at the level political level uh that has been raised and has really now brought it into the political circle which uh is extremely important so things have changed unfortunately it's because things have gotten worse uh that there's more awareness in my belief uh and and we need to uh take action and we can there's things we can do about it we've been talking about the problem but know that i have never been more hopeful uh in my years as a farmer or an advocate uh that we can have

40:30meaningful change and uh with our current production agriculture production system uh and with uh with our food processing uh and and being able to lift up healthy safe food to American, Steve, to affordable food and you talk about meaningful change what what can listeners do to uh make improvements in their own lives but also get involved because you know a lot of people feel helpless a lot of people feel politically homeless now and and they don't feel like they could make a change like they don't care that anyone wash or they don't feel that anyone in Washington cares about them and they but i guess locally and we've had that topic on here locals where it's at you know you can make an impact locally and also through advocacy groups and i know i i strongly encourage people to look at the farm action and farm action fund

41:34sites uh to get to get involved how how can people make change like at at the local level and and to do something that not feel so helpless i think one do the best to buy healthy foods local now when i say do your best i i i i'm not one of those folks in our organizations aren't about oh we're we're gonna move the ball by you know voting with our dollars because one as we mentioned in the food deserts there's not really a place to go but where you can we need to eat healthy and feed our kids as healthy a food as we can find uh our opinion and our assessment is that uh locally uh need to engage and support your local

42:38farmers markets uh city councils uh your rural communities to start investing uh in public type markets farmers are looking for a market right we talked about the concentration there's not an infrastructure right now or them to bring anything into the local community everything is global all the supply chains all the transportation where you sell it what you do with it is a global supply chain i mean look at tailor farms that uh you know it's been suggested and been under investigation for bringing us a parasite in uh controls you know about 60% of all the uh uh cut salad mixes in the United States but at least if you go in the grocery store stop buying you know uh buy as local as you can and don't buy from the globalist as best you can it doesn't always have to be a farmer's market they work with your city council start talking about what can be done on a local basis for local markets so the farmers can begin to

43:41move their produce and their goods directly to their community second at the state level there's a lot the states can do we have to stop a bill called save our bacon which would strip states of the and local communities of the ability to to have us say and how food is produced and uh how animals are treated and and would cut away a market for all of us uh farmers that are independent farmers 27% of us are in compliance and uh for prop 12 in california uh but this bill would take that market away uh so uh work with your local state they have power uh to help move the talk to your local state rep uh state senators uh about investing and looking at a state working with the local community to build out uh public access public markets uh and then gives a market opportunity for the farmer is clean healthy food uh to the consumer uh also i think you know i

44:45know folks and you said this Jeff and uh folks they well it's just so broken watch dc i can't make a difference absolutely you can it's an election year it's an election year we have to change Washington dc there are a handful of champions it's not everyone in watch dc uh there are a handful of champions that are working with us a congresswoman luna took on uh bear and stripped out uh the majority parties the republican parties language that would have gave an immunity shield to bear she down in florida uh we've got uh mentioned congresswoman haggamon pushing for mandatory country of origin labeling uh as on the ballot for us senate we've got uh candidates in iowa pushing back uh against uh uh congresswoman hints and trying to take away all states rights and production there there are champions uh senator uh booker uh in the senate there's champions uh that are

45:50working but the fact is they can't do it alone and the overwhelming majority of democrats and republicans are for an industrial model globalization of our agriculture and food systems and we need to strip the party identity uh it's not about democrats or republicans both of them have brought us to this horrible state of affairs that we see in our food system and and farming systems and we need to start voting for people that will support uh the rebuilding the reshaping of local and regional food systems that can provide healthy food uh for consumers and markets for the farmers and ranchers and is that part of what you do as an organization um educate uh people about who these people are who these candidates are who these elected officials are that have a positive impact in those areas yes that that is farm action funds uh we do two things

46:51um we we strongly uh uh or tied uh with and believe strongly and you mentioned farm action angel huffman the brilliance of their research team and policy development uh but but our job is to put legs under those policies and to get into washing and fair who the who the who the folks are that will stand against the power of the corporations against the joselle betistas who can drop five million dollars into the president's inaugural uh committee fund uh stand up against the bear monsanto a multi billion dollar global company who are those people uh get get the policies at least in the hopper and then support them at the ballot box uh and find new candidates other candidates out there to take on those who have been the champion uh on the other side for the bears for uh big port big beef uh and and take them on um i i i don't i've never been more hopeful

47:55and i've been living the down uh slide of the american independent farmer and animal husbandry and stewardship mentality and agriculture and watching the rise of the industrialization of agriculture where you're no longer hog farmer you're a pork producer all my life and so i've lived this and i'm telling you it's never been a better time hats off to maha hats off to all the the the the regressives out there that have been working for safe food and healthy food we've got to come together if we could come together we're a powerhouse at the ballot box and we can make a difference and we've got to start electing champions on our side yeah it's frustrating to um um when there's a purpose obviously uh addressing chronic disease and knowing where your food comes from and how it's raised and and helping uh educate people helping farmers transition from

48:56conventional to regenerative and all those topics and it's frustrating when part of some politics get in the way because we have such uh us versus them mindset and i mean personally i'm i can share myself what i call conservative independent um i respect people like uh like Thomas massi i have great respect for someone like that who who sticks to uh what he believes in and is not beholden you know to a man or to to industry and i like uh i mean you mentioned Cory Booker he's a prime example uh probably if i sat down with Cory Booker as a not a journalist but uh everyday american and had a conversation with him i probably wouldn't agree with a lot of what he stands for but he uh Shelley Pingerees another one i interviewed um yeah been named

49:57he's an organic farmer yeah yeah she is and i spent time on the island there in Maine and uh talking about her uh her pro maha what she's doing and i just i agree with you wholeheartedly it we need to strip uh partisan labels to and i rfk junior i think is doing a good job of of um he's doing what he can to uh talk about that to to unify to for a purpose of addressing these issues because because there there are democrats and republicans as you mentioned you know they're responsible for the condition we're in but also they're at least a handful of democrats and republicans alike who are who are really vocal and taking action you mentioned uh congresswoman lunas she she's been a real champion uh she's really stood stood out and and it's good to see uh that's why i like having these conversations with you and uh

51:02letting people know about what farm action and farm action fund is all about because you're right up there with uh with maha action which is a great organization uh as far as like uh educating people and getting people involved because people do and i think we're gonna find it in november people are disillusioned and they a lot of people aren't gonna vote because they just don't feel like they're represented by either party they're politically homeless and um and i just think uh i i think you can make more of an impact or you can make a lot of an impact as an everyday american getting involved in in uh advocacy i don't know your uh your thoughts are about that as far as like uh it is important who your elected officials are but it's also important to get involved in advocacy well i think one absolutely uh don't be afraid to

52:05politely um push back against the normal narratives in your community be educated uh join some of these organizations there out there and then be willing to just speak softly but firmly about the truth get people to start thinking getting your neighbors to start thinking the first thing you know this industrial model and this heavy concentration is stripping all of us of our ability to make a living it's it's not just about whether we can have this kind of food or that kind of food it's also about whether we're even gonna be able to thrive as individuals i mean the tax basin we've we've launched the rural independence initiative i mean as the farmers leave so do the schools we've losing our rural hospitals i travel

53:10over 50 miles to get to an emergency room i mean you know it's it's about uh these issues are about our very existence and that's true in the urban suburban areas it's not just a rural issue but but we have to if we have to focus on that to me is the most important thing can we have a a wage that respects the work and respects our contribution to the prosperity of America can can the economic system of the United States do that for everybody if we could we can resolve a lot of these issues on affordability right now people are hustling two jobs just to try to put food on the table up school teachers working waiting i know this personally waiting tables so they have enough money to buy school supplies for their kids

54:12because we're seeing the tax base of road we give away our communities give away abatements to the the big box stores or to the to AI or to what the data centers or whatever comes to town and their people can't even afford food we have to not identify we can't let our party loyalty strip us of the ability to work together to at least resolve these issues there's plenty of things we can argue about there always will be that we differ on but surely we can come together to say that the economy America belongs to the people the economy should too our folks ought to be paid a wage that respects them where they can afford a home and buy affordable food at the grocery store and it ought to provide us an agricultural production system that delivers to the consumers a healthy safe food and not and and and erode these food deserts

55:17where that's in urban America or in rural America and if we don't do that they're the the people in control the billionaires and and the monopolistic companies that control our food system the betista family out of Brazil controls up but they're going to continue to they'll make sure we stay divided that's what they'll do they'll they'll throw things out there that make us want to run our party identity so they can keep doing this to us so let's over the next you know I say over the next few elections can we just let those differences set on the sidelines and can we focus on this together we've talked about bipartisanship we we've endorsed cross-party at at the rule independence initiative we don't even put up when we do the press releases whether they're democratic public because it's irrelevant we need to elect people that will stand

56:22up against this power in Washington DC there are those that are they need help we need to help them get more colleagues that support what they're doing and we're running out of time the oh that's okay I'll be having you back because these are great conversations before we wrap up working people find more information about farm action fund yes go to farmactionfund.us click on the little tab above it says initiative right there on the homepage it'll say our founding purpose learn who we are what we're doing and and if you like it join us well I appreciate you Joe Maxwell farm action fund for being on the show and we're out of time thanks for listening to the maha lowdown on america out loud network and i'm Jeff our back that's the maha lowdown