Free Republic

Our own mindlessness leads us like sheep to the slaughter. Have you ever heard the expression, “lipstick on a pig”? America’s entrenched bureaucracy, often referred to as the Fourth Branch, is that pig. No amount of superficial or cosmetic measures can obscure the fact that federal agencies of unelected policymakers are no different than dirty sties full of gorged swine (there’s a reason wanton and greedy spending is called “pork”). ‘Lipstick’ comes in many forms: “news” reports from a once-sacred institution like American journalism is really just propaganda, the use of words like “progress” and “sustainability” cover over agendas of...

The title is a bit misleading, but like everything else I believe this is step #1 leading to a more nefarious database. In a move that has many folks scratching their heads, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has renewed its push for the People’s Garden Initiative which now includes registering vegetable gardens nationwide. According to the USDA, the move is to foster a “more diverse and resilient local food system to empower communities to address issues like nutrition access and climate change.” But those who have been following the USDA closely for years know that they couldn’t care less...

WASHINGTON, September 9, 2022 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expanding its People’s Garden Initiative to include eligible gardens nationwide. School gardens, community gardens, urban farms, and small-scale agriculture projects in rural, suburban and urban areas can be recognized as a “People’s Garden” if they register on the USDA website and meet criteria including benefitting the community, working collaboratively, incorporating conservation practices and educating the public. Affiliate People’s Garden locations will be indicated on a map on the USDA website, featured in USDA communications, and provided with a People’s Garden sign. “We welcome gardens nationwide to join us...

Fifty-two percent of U.S. Catholic schools participate in the federal lunch program, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reversed a policy that would have required Catholic schools that participate in a federal free lunch program to comply with the Biden administration’s LGBTQ mandates. Nevertheless, some Catholic schools, such as those of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, are choosing to drop out of the program. Earlier this year the Biden administration re-interpreted Title IX's federal ban on sex discrimination to include “sexual orientation or gender identity.” Religious freedom and free speech advocates warn that the...

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Some Black farmers say they are disappointed by a new U.S. agriculture debt relief program that stands to save thousands of farmers from foreclosure, after the plan failed to specifically target minorities as they had hoped. The program, included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed by U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday, follows an earlier debt relief program that provided aid based on race but ended in a web of litigation after white farmers sued to stop payments. The new program, which makes farmers eligible for relief based on economic precariousness rather than race,...

Manny Diaz, Florida’s commissioner of education, told Breitbart News on Sunday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as per the Biden administration’s political direction, is threatening to withhold funding from the Sunshine State and other states refusing to impose “transgender” ideology upon children in schools. Diaz described the Parental Rights in Education Act, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) into law in April, as a measure against Democrats’ and the broader left’s “radical left agenda” to “sexualize” children with “instruction at the earliest levels” of education. “We’ve seen the latest attempt by the federal government — the Biden administration...

More than 20 Republican attorneys general have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the Department of Agriculture’s threat to withdraw funding from school meal assistance programs unless the schools submit to the regime’s “expansive and unlawful interpretation of federal antidiscrimination laws.” The lawsuit, led by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, was filed on Tuesday. The coalition of 22 State AGs claim that the federal government has adopted “a new and unlawful application of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County as it applies to antidiscrimination requirements.” In a statement Tuesday, Slatery said, “these transformative changes were...

@RepThomasMassie Democrats want to take guns away from law-abiding citizens, and arm the USDA and Dept. of Education with what they call “weapons of war.” Who are they preparing to go to war with? Clip ...

Poke and Sniff: A Lesson from 1906In 1906, Upton Sinclair came out with his book The Jungle, and it shocked the nation by documenting the horror of the meat-packing industry. People were being boiled in vats and sent to larders. Rat waste was mixed with meat. And so on.As a result, the Federal Meat Inspection Act passed Congress, and consumers were saved from ghastly diseases. The lesson is that government is essential to stop enterprise from poisoning us with its food.To some extent, this mythology accounts for the wide support for government’s involvement in stopping disease spread today, including Covid...

USDA raised its estimated range of 6.5%-7.5% y/y increase from a range of 5%-6%, according to the May Food Price Outlook report, the highest forecast for all food prices and restaurant prices since 1981, and the highest grocery store price boosts since 1980. USDA raised its estimated range of 6.5%-7.5% y/y increase from a range of 5%-6%, according to the May Food Price Outlook report, the highest forecast for all food prices and restaurant prices since 1981, and the highest grocery store price boosts since 1980. The biggest increase is eggs for the second month in a row, hiked to...

The Calf Canyon Fire was caused by a “pile burn holdover from January” that was started by the Santa Fe National Forest Service, officials said on Friday. The blaze later merged with the Hermits Peak Fire – also started by a federal prescribed burn – to become the largest fire in New Mexico history. The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire has burned more than 312,000 acres as of Friday morning and is 47% contained. More than 3,000 personnel are battling the blaze that has destroyed 761 structures, including hundreds of homes. “The Santa Fe National Forest is 100 percent focused on...

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairwoman Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) stated that the FDA moved too slowly to address the formula shortage and didn’t notify the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) until two weeks before the Abbott plant was shut down and that it seems as though “FDA thought it was going to be a short shutdown, and then the plant itself, Abbott, has been resistant, really, in my judgment, to really quickly doing what they need to do.” Stabenow said, “USDA was given about two weeks’ heads-up before the plant...

Food prices are continuing to rise at an alarming rate. The 8.8% year-over-year increase (March 2022 compared with March 2021) is the largest in more than 40 years. Over the past seven months, each month’s year-over-year food price increase has been above 4% and each successive month has been higher than the previous month (starting at 4.6% in September and reaching 8.8% in March). This upswing in food prices is being reflected across multiple food categories, from fresh fruit (10.1%) to fish and seafood (10.9%). Skyrocketing food prices are regressive and particularly damaging to low-income Americans, as they spend a...

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) should immediately recall any beef that tested positive for the presence of antibiotics. Farm Action and the American Grassfed Association made the request after a study by Georgetown University reported finding antibiotics in cattle destined to be sold through a USDA-approved no-antibiotics labeling program. In a statement, the groups say the current system that processes "raised without antibiotics” (RWA) beef lacks credibility. They said a previous investigation from the organization Farm Forward discovered antibiotic-positive meat on Whole Foods Market shelves. In their statement, the two groups suggest Whole Foods is the retail destination...

WASHINGTON, February 19, 2022 – The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a non-commercial backyard flock (non-poultry) in Suffolk County, New York. Samples from the flock were tested at the Cornell University Animal Health Diagnostic Center, part of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, and confirmed at the APHIS National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa. APHIS is working closely with state animal health officials in New York on a joint incident response. State officials quarantined the affected premises, and birds...

Authorities with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said bird influenza has now been detected in flocks of birds in Kentucky and Virginia, just days after the officials said that thousands of birds were sickened with the flu in Indiana. According to the agency, bird flu was found in Fauquier County, Virginia; and in Fulton County, Kentucky, on Feb. 12, in non-poultry birds and commercial broiler chickens, respectively. On Feb. 8, bird influenza was detected in commercial turkeys in Dubois County, Indiana. In a statement, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service did not say whether the outbreak involved...

President Joe Biden and his administration are moving to fight inflation in the meat sector. But the government solutions he's proposing to what is largely a government-created calamity will likely only serve to deepen existing problems. Many of the meat-industry problems the Biden administration identifies as in need of fixing are very real. For example, the administration says meat prices are through the roof. That's true. The administration says the meatpacking industry is highly consolidated, with just four giant companies responsible for slaughtering and processing nearly 7 out of every 8 pounds of beef (and slightly lower amounts of pork...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Trump administration overpaid corn farmers by about $3 billion in federal aid in 2019 and farmers in the South were paid more for the same crops than those elsewhere in the country, a federal watchdog agency has found. The Government Accountability Office said in a report released Monday that international disputes resulting from tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump hurt farmers but that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s county-by-county methodology for computing the extent of damage was flawed, leading to overpayment....

We are all familiar with the pending supply chain shortages and price increases. Not to pile on, but recently I was in contact with an insider whose family is in key positions in several poultry plants. We’ll call him “Elliott” to protect his identity. He would not let me name the plants his family worked for but did share that there were several, mostly in the midwest/upper south. Elliott laid out some of his evidence in a lengthy Twitter thread where he said the “current situation is more dire than most people think.” He even went so far as to...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requesting more than a half-century to review and release information to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to the public. The agency is being sued by Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, a group made up of more than 30 professors and scientists, hoping to access information they believe can help cure vaccine skepticism in some people. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed by the group in September and they were hoping the courts could expedite the process of getting them the requested information. The FDA is asking the court to...